Back to the Conference Program

Contents

The information you need is usually locked in the head of one ore more SMEs (Subject Matter Experts). That expert has no time, no reason to pressing reason sit down and extensively review or explain the feature to a tech writer. And most of all, that SME often has no clear idea what you actually need. Getting it out  of the SME is one of the most critical and difficult parts of many documentation projects. It is also a skill that almost no technical writer is ever taught. We learn to structure, write, and edit. Format and reformat. And then, we are handed an expert and left to figure out that connection flow on our own.

This workshop treats the expert interview as a skill you can learn and practise. Using role-play, we’ll work through SME interviews from start to finish. First, how you can prepare for what the expert will skip without realising. We’ll discuss how to hear the missing step as it happens.

Takeaways

1. The Curse-of-Knowledge Map. A quick way to predict what experts will leave out before you even meet them.
2. The Question Ladder. Steps to define how to ask questions. Standard questions you’ll likely want to ask, and things you need ask the expert to DO.
3. Assumption-Flag Listening. Warning signs (a sudden piece of jargon, a quick "you just...", etc.)
4. The Readback Close. Saying it back for confirmation.