4 Tips to Prepare for Your Next Subject Matter Expert Interview

No matter where you are in your content career, you will likely have to—or have had to—interview subject matter experts (SMEs).??

Seems easy enough, right? Write your questions and ask them. Done.?

Sure, as long as your SME has no questions about the process, they don’t want any prep time or to review the questions first, and you don’t need to do any additional research before the interview. Any one of these things can not only make the interview awkward, but also cause a lot of unnecessary follow-up post-interview, which will only slow you down.

Luckily, you can do a few things before the interview to ensure both you and your SME are prepared:?

1. Develop an outline or content brief: This doesn’t have to be highly detailed, but a content brief or outline should at least contain basic information or a summary of the topic, the target audience, the call to action, any major ideas you need to touch on, and keywords if it’s an SEO post.?
2. Fill in the information you already have: If your SME or your company has already covered the topic before, fill in the outline or brief with their previous answers so you can ensure the interview doesn’t take up valuable time that an SME could spend elsewhere.
3. Write your questions: Write out the questions you need answered by the SME. Make sure they’re open-ended. If they must be “Yes” or “No” questions, follow up with “Why or why not?”
4. Prep your SME: Beyond scheduling the interview, you should also make sure your SME knows who you are, why you’re contacting them, how the process will work, your planned questions, and anything else you might need from them.?

Read the full article for more insights on making the SME interview process go smoothly for everyone involved.?

Keep Reading

• How Can I Build a Bench of Thought Leaders?
• Working with Subject Matter Experts
• Building a Multi-Contributor Content Hub

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