SMEs are busy. Make their time count.
Cloud products aren’t getting simpler, and thanks in part to AI, they’re becoming more technical while changing faster.
That puts product marketers in a tricky position. The expertise needed to tell a strong story is increasingly spread across multiple people. Product and engineering may bring the technical perspective, while teams closer to the customer or market add context about what matters and why.
Technical audiences can spot vague claims and borrowed buzzwords quickly, so credible content still needs input from people who really know the technology.
The need for SME time is growing, but SME availability isn’t.
When one story needs multiple experts
We see this play out regularly across the product marketing teams we work with. On a recent project, we helped a major ERP provider shape a CFO-focused story for an industry event. The narrative depended on people with different areas of expertise, and no single SME could fill in every piece.
Our role was to connect those perspectives into one coherent story while giving each SME room to focus on the part that genuinely needed their expertise. That meant the product marketer didn’t have to personally reconcile every input or determine where each technical detail belonged.
Rather than squeezing another hour onto an SME’s calendar, a better path is to make the hour you get far more useful.
Give SMEs something to react to
A traditional SME interview might start with a big question like “Teach us everything we need to know about this topic.” That creates a lot of work for the expert. They have to determine what matters and explain the technology without specific parameters guiding their response.
A better approach is to front-load that thinking.
At 2A, we do the foundational work before SMEs join the conversation, from reviewing existing material to identifying where the story still needs expert input. AI-assisted workflows can help us flag gaps and inconsistencies, but the more important work is applying our cloud marketing experience to decide what matters to the audience and how each SME’s input should shape the larger story. Instead of “Tell us more,” the SME gets something concrete, like:
- Is this statement accurate?
- What details or capabilities are missing?
- Is this the right technical takeaway for this audience?
That preparation makes SME review more efficient, but efficiency alone isn’t enough. The real value comes from knowing where to push for more and which expert perspective could make the story stronger. That’s what keeps the content from becoming indistinguishable from everything else in the market.
A solid creative brief helps here, too. By establishing context and guardrails up front, it gives SMEs a clearer starting point and something more concrete to react to.
Save the human expertise for what matters
When SMEs come into the process with the groundwork already in place, they can spend their time where human expertise has the most impact. They can challenge assumptions and sharpen the technical takeaway while adding the nuance that makes a story credible to an informed audience.
That’s a much better use of limited SME time, especially when those same experts have plenty of other priorities competing for their attention. The more specific that input is, the easier it becomes to turn expertise into content that lands.
Make the expertise add up
Your SMEs are too busy to start with a blank page, so don’t. That’s the homework 2A can take on. We also build context across stakeholder conversations, connecting perspectives that may never come together in the same room and carrying that shared understanding forward as the story develops. Because we’re often the team hearing all of those inputs, we can help product marketers turn fragmented expertise into a story that holds together. The result is less coordination for the marketing team and a clearer story that can move forward faster.
