Six tips on how to work with subject matter experts

As a project professional, you can’t expect to be an expert on everything. In fact, deep subject matter expertise isn’t even in the job description. While every successful project will need authoritative knowledge of specialist topics, that’s for others to bring.

As a project manager, you’re there to lead, govern and control the delivery of the project. In part, that means identifying the people who possess that information; setting out their responsibilities; and drawing out the insight that serves the project goals.

Here are six tips for working with subject matter experts (SMEs).

1. Find the right people

You need people with access to the necessary insight and information. Those specifics will be different for every project. But, whatever the task, it’s better if SMEs are a good fit.

The best SMEs understand project delivery and the stages of a project life cycle. They work with others in an integrated way and are open to being pushed by project managers and used to working to plans. Avoid those who seem more used to working alone. They may struggle with conflict, which is a natural part of project delivery.

2. Make it a proper partnership

Make sure the SME understands the deliverables, ideally before the project starts. Then keep them close throughout, informing them of its progress – or lack of. People need to know you follow through on everything you say.

“Trust is a scarce commodity in projects, so use it wisely,” says Karl Bates, a specialist in digital transformation in the healthcare sector.

Bates recalls one project in a hospital environment where a senior clinical nursing director served as the SME, leading a team of clinical information officers. Everyone was inducted in project and change management at the start of the process, and the senior lead was closely involved in the delivery and decision-making.

“Any disagreements were professional and based on fact, not on behaviour or opinion,” says Bates. “There was a good working environment, and the projects were delivered on time, on scope and to quality standards. But the most important thing: the project management and SME teams learnt a lot from each other.”

3. Keep the ‘why’ in mind

Tell an SME how their information is going to be used, and they’ll be less likely to see you as a drain on their time.

“If people know their contribution will make an improvement within the company, such as saving money, it’s going to make life easier for them,” says Ashleigh Hargrave, Head of Strategy Projects and Management at King Edward VI Foundation in Birmingham, a multi-academy trust (who appeared on a recent episode of APM Podcast).

Hargrave previously worked in project roles at Jaguar Land Rover and Coventry University. In both, SMEs wanted to know about the impact on real people, whether they were customers or students.

“You have to keep drawing everything back to the benefits,” she says. “Getting buy-in from an SME is all about making a difference to the end user.”

4. Rein them in

Bates recalls working on another project with a handful of SMEs from different NHS organisations. One monopolised all of the configuration and design meetings.

“This SME’s focus was to talk as much as possible in infinite detail and not let anyone else contribute,” he says.

“His impact was considerable. We mitigated this by more actively controlling sessions and using his line director to control his behaviour.”

But, says Bates, this outcome could have been prevented.

“The initial project manager failed to establish the ground rules for the project,” he explains. “It was a result of the project manager not following any formalised approach for project delivery.”

5. Make everything transparent

On the flip-side, you may have to help SMEs overcome their desire to hoard their knowledge.

Another of Bates’s past projects involved working with a client where the SME was also the project manager. It soon became clear they had no plan, no initiation document, no requirements documents, no high-level design document and no RAID log.

“The entire project had been progressed with the SME keeping all the information in their head,” says Bates. “This caused a massive impact with other aligned projects, with transparency being a key issue.”

Whether the research is quantitative or more anecdotal, it’s your job as project manager to ensure it’s recorded and accessible for all stakeholders.

6. Get to know them as people

If an expert is working in a way that feels counter-productive – or if they’re reluctant to help your project in the first place – ask if they’ll meet for a coffee, so you can find out more about what makes them tick.

Hargrave recalls discovering that one engineer at Jaguar Land Rover, who had a huge amount of knowledge in his field, shared her love of road biking.

“I asked if we could have a coffee and talk about cycling,” she says. “We built a relationship off that initial conversation, even passing each other on the road. And he then got involved in the programme.”