March 19th: The Writer & the SME

by Jim Korth, PR committee

Have you ever had a conversation with a technical person and felt like you were speaking two different languages? Have you tried to understand the manner of thinking and motivations of your subject matter expert and decide you were from separate planets? While frustrating, our ability to understand our subject matter expert (SME) is critical to our delivering on our commitments. Kathryn and Stephen Poe are veteran technical communication professionals and have felt these frustrations countless times. They will be the featured March LSC meeting presenters regaling us with their program, “The Writer and the SME.” As technical communication professionals, we rely on SMEs to provide us the information we need to

Thursday, March 19, 2009 6:15-8:00 p.m. Crowne Plaza Hotel North 14315 Midway Road Addison, Texas Reserve your seat now! Dinner (with reservations):   - $25 STC members   - $20 Students with student ID   - $30 Guests Program Only:   - $12 STC members   - $15 Guests Reservations after March 16:   - Dinner: $5 more   - Program Only (all): $15

do our jobs and explain technical material to non-technical audiences. Technical people may be deeply and narrowly focused within their concentration and think and speak using jargon, acronyms, and abstractions that are mystifying and confusing. Many technical people simply don’t possess the verbal and other communication skills we would like them to have nor have the passion to inform about their areas of technical expertise.

In Kathryn and Stephen’s program, they will have a live “geek” in attendance and participating in their discussion. Doing a mock interview and role play, we will look inside the techie’s mind and motivations. We will gain an understanding of how to better work with these vitally important people. Attendees will come away from the program with a set of tools they can use to get the information they need with the minimum pain for you and your SME.

Kathryn Poe is an Associate Fellow of STC and entering her 20th year in technical communication. She has worked in vertical markets including software, manufacturing, hardware, professional sales and services, telephony and networking, and pharmaceuticals. Kathryn has dealt with Subject Matter Experts from the helpful to the disinterested to the down-right hostile and lived to write another day.

Stephen D. Poe is Vice President of Product Management at Crawford Technologies. His 25 years experience in software includes working as a programmer, development manager, and Chief Technology Officer. Stephen is a frequent presenter at technical conferences worldwide and occasionally writes articles. He recently won an Award of Merit from the Toronto STC chapter for an educational presentation. Stephen also sat on the Advisory Committee to the W3C and was an invited consultant to the European Standards Organization (CEN).

Kathryn and Stephen Poe look forward to providing valuable insights on how to succeed in working with your SMEs.