These 6 tactics have kept me sane for over five years of working with subject matter experts on enterprise software.
Technology makes every industry generate problems complex enough to be interesting, but working with experts can get demanding, especially if you’re new to their domain.
These tactics have helped me get more from my experts and get familiar enough to make my skill set useful faster.
1. Start two dictionaries.
One for industry terminology you need to understand and the second for organisational terms and acronyms you may be able to improve, which can sometimes change over time. Other regular people joining the project along the way will be forever grateful to you.
2. Set group expert walkthroughs.
For multi-intent and non-linear tasks, experts tend to apply their knowledge to identify and act on patterns. This process can be extremely hard to explain, especially since everyone works slightly differently. A group of experts commenting on what another expert is doing can give you a multi-angle perspective, helping you to learn more and faster.
3. Use metaphors and generalise to focus on the outcome.
This will help you ensure you understand what they are trying to explain without making mistakes that could distract your expert and undermine your credibility. Align with your expert on the end goal you are both working towards.
4. Work with real-world data and real examples.
The feedback you will get will be focused on the problems you are trying to solve and not on unrealistic data.
When you work with real data analysing the output helps you infer the value of the outcome of the work for the end user.
E.g. Neurosurgeon performs a set of steps to check if the test id for an MRI variant matches a condition id in the system to see if she can get the patient scanned immediately.
The value is not in the workflow but in how the person using the system can act on the data in the real world.
5. Use peer review for iterations.
Ask a single expert for a quick review of your work before investing more time in it or presenting it to a larger audience. An expert review lowers the number of dead ends in your work and eliminates mistakes or inconsistencies that distract the audience, spoil feedback and undermine your credibility.
6. Get excited
No matter the industry or domain, your enthusiasm about the domain they are experts in is the best icebreaker, makes them more likely to support you and helps you learn faster.
Whatever your skill set is, embrace the industry-specific experience, as it will be invaluable for your career.
Vertical expertise can be transferred between related industries such as health and life sciences, and horizontal expertise between comparable problems or complexity levels similar among cyber security, insurance and market research.
Reflecting on your vertical and horizontal expertise gives you invaluable insights into specialisation opportunities and will help you find more interesting or valuable problems to work on.
Get the most out of experts because, professionally, you are what you do with your time.
Read this next if you are building software for non-technical stakeholders. 👇
