Master this essential documentation concept
Individuals with specialized knowledge, skills, or expertise in a particular area who can provide authoritative information for documentation purposes.
Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are the cornerstone of effective documentation, bringing specialized knowledge and real-world experience to content creation processes. These individuals possess deep expertise in their respective fields and serve as trusted sources for accurate, comprehensive information.
When documenting complex systems or processes, your Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are invaluable resources. Their specialized knowledge often gets captured in meetings, training sessions, and walkthrough recordings—but this video content can become trapped in lengthy, difficult-to-reference formats.
The challenge emerges when your team needs to quickly access specific insights from Subject Matter Experts. Searching through hour-long videos to find that critical explanation about a system component or workflow becomes time-consuming and inefficient. Meanwhile, your SMEs face repeated requests to explain the same concepts, pulling them away from other priorities.
Converting these video sessions into structured documentation transforms how you leverage Subject Matter Expert knowledge. Imagine automatically transcribing a technical walkthrough video and having it organized into a searchable, step-by-step guide—complete with timestamps linking back to the original footage. Your documentation team can easily edit and enhance this content, while preserving the SME's precise explanations and demonstrations. This approach maximizes the value of each expert interaction while creating lasting, accessible documentation.
Development team lacks time and documentation skills to create comprehensive API documentation that meets user needs
Engage software architects and senior developers as SMEs to provide technical specifications, use cases, and best practices for API implementation
1. Identify lead developers familiar with API architecture 2. Schedule structured interviews to gather technical requirements 3. Have SMEs review draft documentation for accuracy 4. Establish regular check-ins for updates when API changes 5. Create feedback loop with SMEs for user-reported issues
Accurate, comprehensive API documentation that reduces support tickets and improves developer adoption rates
Complex regulatory requirements need to be translated into actionable procedures for employees across different departments
Collaborate with compliance officers, legal experts, and department heads to ensure accurate interpretation and practical implementation guidance
1. Engage compliance team to identify key regulatory requirements 2. Interview department heads about current processes 3. Work with legal team to validate interpretation accuracy 4. Have SMEs review procedures for feasibility 5. Establish review cycle aligned with regulatory updates
Compliant, practical procedures that reduce regulatory risk and improve audit readiness
Existing user documentation doesn't address real user pain points and common questions, leading to high support volume
Involve customer support representatives, product managers, and actual end users as SMEs to identify gaps and improve content relevance
1. Analyze support tickets to identify common issues 2. Interview support team about frequent user questions 3. Conduct user research sessions with actual customers 4. Have product managers validate feature explanations 5. Test documentation with real users before publishing
User-centered documentation that reduces support requests and improves user satisfaction and product adoption
Inconsistent process documentation across teams creates confusion and inefficiencies in cross-functional workflows
Engage process owners, team leads, and quality assurance specialists to standardize and validate process documentation
1. Map existing processes with current process owners 2. Identify inconsistencies and gaps in documentation 3. Work with team leads to standardize procedures 4. Have QA specialists validate process accuracy 5. Establish governance model for ongoing process updates
Standardized, accurate process documentation that improves workflow efficiency and reduces errors
Define specific responsibilities, time commitments, and deliverables for SMEs at the project outset to ensure productive collaboration and avoid scope creep.
Use organized interviews, questionnaires, and workshops to efficiently extract knowledge from SMEs while respecting their time constraints.
Cultivate ongoing partnerships with SMEs rather than treating them as one-time resources, fostering trust and improving content quality over time.
Cross-reference information from multiple SMEs and sources to ensure accuracy and completeness, especially for critical or complex topics.
Implement streamlined review workflows that make it easy for SMEs to provide targeted feedback without overwhelming them with lengthy documents.
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