Pictures of my plants + how to talk to internal SMEs
It took me less than an hour to write this newsletter and 3 weeks to edit it. And it's still going to have typos 🙃
Have you ever met new parents who shove the pictures of their babies in your face?
Well, I am here to annoy you today. But I’m a plant mom, so there will be no pictures of actual cherubs.
The recent plant craze aside, I’ve always liked growing things.
The house I grew up in had lemon trees, mango trees, a mini orange tree, and a cashew tree. When the ground got dry during the dry season (we don’t have summer in Nigeria), I’d take my little bucket and bathe them in water.
There’s no place for trees in my current apartment, so I pride myself on growing my tiny houseplants.
A cute lil cactus plant that my boyfriend gifted me.
The first bloom of my purple heart plant.
The babies I brought home from my first plant haul.
Talking to SMEs in your company
All through my time in an agency, I longed for direct access to SMEs. I wanted answers straight from experts. From people who did the thing. I didn’t want to spend hours combing through terrible HARO responses that were obvious attempts at link-building.
Working at Float felt like an answered prayer.
The SMEs were right there. All I needed to do was reach out and ask, and my article would magically be filled with secrets only a pro would know.
But it wasn't as easy as I thought.
I spent the first few weeks asking the wrong people the wrong questions.
That led to me getting bounced around a lot.
If I were to do it all over again, this is the approach I’d take.
First, I’d determine two things:
Who do I go with questions about the product?
Who do I go to with questions about our customers?
You see, every SME has what they are good at.
For example, Mia, our UX research lead, was the best person to go to for customer insights. Michael, our director of products, had experience as a product manager (similar to a project manager), so it made sense to ask him questions about the product and the customers.
This might seem like an easy step, but it would have saved me hours.
So how do you identify who to talk to?
Ask: My manager helped a lot by pointing me to possible people to talk to. A simple "Who should I talk to for x" would help
Observe: I started following conversations on Slack and taking note of who was talking about what
Stalk: I dig into our team members' LinkedIn accounts to see their work experience. For example, I found out that our director of products used to work at an agency.
Now to asking the right questions.
If you don’t know how to ask the right questions, you’re not going to get the right responses.
What does the right question look/sound like?
Well, for one, it’s not basic. I avoid asking one-line "what is" questions.
I don’t mean that I don’t sometimes ask for definitions. But I think of the best way to phrase it.
For example, if I am writing an introductory article on a topic, I ask our director of product, how would you explain X to someone who strikes up a conversation with you at a party?
If I was writing for an audience at a higher knowledge level, I might ask, what’s one thing people get wrong about X?
Two, it’s specific.
Right from the beginning, I am very clear about what it is I want to learn.
After noticing SMEs asking me what exactly I wanted to ask them about, I took it as a cue to improve how specific I was.
Instead of asking how to do X, I outline how I think the process works (based on research, of course) and ask if I am on the right path.
I usually get two reactions. They either give me a thumbs up and tell me that I’m right. I know they secretly thank me for saving them hours and making their lives easier.
Or they see holes in my ideas, and it triggers them into saying, “No! That’s terribly wrong.”
Finally, I like framing the questions to their experience.
It makes them talk about their experiences. For example, one of my favorite questions is, "When faced with X, what steps did you take?" Instead of them listing some short bullet points, they often share a story or provide an anecdote or link to a helpful Slack conversation.
While doing this, it's always a good idea to build a database of responses so that you don't need to go back to SMEs every single time you need a quote. Some things can be used across multiple pieces. It also helps so that when someone new comes in, they know who to reach out to.
Final tip. Share a link to the article and thank them. This does several things
It shows that you appreciate their time.
It shows you actually published the article, and you didn't badger them for hours with no result.
They can spot errors and correct them.
Till next time 👋🏾