What is a Subject Matter Expert (SME)?

You started your business with a vision and likely a significant amount of grit. In the early days, you were the expert on everything. You knew how to fix the printer, how to close the deal, and the exact specifications of your product. But as you grow, that model breaks down. The weight of trying to be the source of truth for every department is a fast track to burnout. It creates a bottleneck that slows down your entire operation.

This is where the concept of the Subject Matter Expert, or SME, moves from corporate jargon to a lifeline for your sanity. Understanding who these people are and how to use them allows you to step back from the weeds and focus on steering the ship. It is about trusting that you do not need to hold all the answers if you know exactly who does.

Defining the Subject Matter Expert

At its core, a Subject Matter Expert is exactly what it sounds like. It is an individual with deep, authoritative understanding of a particular process, function, technology, machine, or material. In a training context, the SME is the source of the raw content. They are the ones who know the history of why a procedure exists, the common pitfalls that are not written in the manual, and the nuances that only come with experience.

They might be a senior engineer, a top performing salesperson, or even a long term administrative assistant who knows the filing system better than anyone else. Their value lies in two specific areas:

• Accuracy: They ensure that any information shared with the team is factually correct and up to date.
• Context: They can explain the “why” behind the “what,” which is essential for adult learning.

The SME vs. The Instructional Designer

A common mistake managers make is assuming that because someone is an expert, they are also a teacher. These are two very different skill sets. While the SME possesses the knowledge, they often lack the ability to structure that knowledge in a way that is digestible for a beginner.

Think of it like building a house. The SME is the supplier of the raw materials (the wood, the brick, the glass). The Instructional Designer is the architect who takes those materials and draws up the blueprints so the house actually stands up.

• The SME provides the raw data, the facts, and the technical steps.
• The Instructional Designer organizes that data, removes unnecessary complexity, and creates a learning path.

If you ask an SME to “write a training course,” you will often get a dense, technical document that overwhelms new hires. It is vital to recognize this distinction so you do not set your experts up for failure.

The Curse of Knowledge

One of the biggest hurdles when working with an SME is a psychological phenomenon known as the “Curse of Knowledge.” When you know a subject intimately, it becomes very difficult to imagine what it is like not to know it. SMEs often skip over foundational steps because those steps seem obvious to them.

As a manager, your role is to act as a bridge or to assign a facilitator to interview the SME. You need to ask the “dumb” questions. When an SME says, “just reset the server,” you need to ask, “how exactly do you do that, and what happens if you don’t?”

Watch out for these signs of the Curse of Knowledge:

• Using undefined acronyms.
• Skipping steps in a process list.
• Getting frustrated when learners do not grasp concepts immediately.

Selecting and protecting your SMEs

Your SMEs are often your highest performers. This means they are busy. Pulling them away from their core work to help with documentation or training can feel like a penalty to them if not managed correctly. They might view it as a distraction from the work they are actually passionate about.

To mitigate this, you must position their involvement as a prestige opportunity and a way to scale their impact. Let them know that by transferring their knowledge, they are freeing themselves from answering the same questions repeatedly.

When selecting an SME for a project, look for these traits:

• Current competence: Ensure they are doing the job the way you want it done today, not how it was done three years ago.
• Communication skills: They do not need to be teachers, but they need to be able to articulate their thoughts.
• Patience: They need to be willing to have their knowledge challenged and deconstructed.

By validating their expertise and providing them with support to translate that expertise into training, you build a stronger, more resilient culture where knowledge flows freely rather than remaining locked in the heads of a few individuals.