A Smarter Approach to SME Engagement with Lineup’s Desmond Stewart
The world has drastically changed in the last 20 years – yet many organizations are still trying to recruit and retain subject matter experts (SMEs) using systems built for a workforce that looks very different.
SMEs are the practitioners, specialists, and industry veterans who write exam content, serve on committees, and ensure a credential is valuable. They're also increasingly hard to find and even harder to keep.
Desmond Stewart would know. As Account Development Manager at Lineup, he works with dozens of professional associations and helps them overcome those struggles.
"It comes down to organizations needing to ask themselves, ‘are we looking at SME management as an investment or an expense?’" he says. “Because if you view it as an expense, how you approach recruitment and retention is going to be significantly different and not the most beneficial in today’s world.”
Desmond shares his four key takeaways regarding the current state of SMEs and how organizations can prepare for the next three to five years to keep their SME communities intact.
1. What It Means to Be an “Expert”
For decades, to become an “expert” you followed a predictable path: went to school, gained experience, and eventually gave back to your industry through volunteer roles and committee work.
With the rising costs of education and living, that path is getting harder to walk. Or as Desmond puts it, “Expertise isn’t what it used to be.”
This reality keeps organizations from building strong pipelines. In fields like building inspection and contracting, younger professionals aren't replacing outgoing experts at the pace the industry needs. In healthcare, the workforce is already stretched thin. And across the board, the people organizations need most are doing a quiet cost-benefit analysis whenever they're asked to give more time.
To adapt to this, Desmond encourages organizations to rethink who the term “expert” belongs to.
"A lot of associations are already trying to reduce barriers," he says. "But it has to become about shepherding more people toward a field, instead of being exclusionary. If your recruitment strategy relies on ‘I know someone who knows someone’, you're going to run out of someones.”
2. The Value of Community
One thing Desmond continually comes back to is: people want to contribute; they want to share their expertise. But, at the end of day, many don’t have much left to give.
"The value of community is probably more important than it's ever been,” Desmond notes.
That's the opening organizations need to step into. But it requires knowing your people’s demographics, backgrounds, and interests. The organizations doing this well have moved away from informal referral networks toward transparent, data-informed recruitment. And they back it up by recognizing their people for the value they add.
"Being properly recognized for your contributions translates across all languages," Desmond says. "That dollar is accepted everywhere."
3. Systems vs. a System
Desmond sees the same problem across organizations struggling with SME engagement. They have systems, but they don't have a system.
"When people think of participating, they’re thinking in the context of everything else they have going on in life,” Desmond says. “And if it’s hard logistically to participate, that's where you’ll see retention dip. Instead, they just pay their dues and move on instead of giving back in some way."
A disconnected tech stack, fragmented communication, and outdated recruitment processes cause this disengagement. When someone is already stretched thin, the accumulation of these tasks adds up fast.
The fix is one centralized place where you know your people, what they've contributed, and what they need to stay engaged.
4. Double Down on Your Organization’s Value: Your People
As AI gets pushed into every corner of the economy and financial pressure builds, Desmond believes leaders will be tempted to deprioritize their people – and that would be a massive mistake, especially for professional associations.
“As AI becomes more integrated into exam development, it may help generate exam questions, but your SMEs will be the ones to validate that content,” he explains. “And that content is your organization’s most valuable asset.”
For Desmond, that means:
Recruiting intentionally by casting a wide net
Reducing friction for participants
Recognizing contributions in ways that resonate with people
Building a community that makes SMEs want to stay, not just show up once and move on.
"If you are interested in still being here in three to five years, you're not going to forsake your principles,” he says. “You're going to figure out how to adjust to make sure they can always reign supreme."
Want to hear more from Desmond? Listen to his recent conversation on the Beyond the Test podcast, where he and host Rory McCorkle go deep on SME fatigue, recruitment strategies, and building meaningful engagement.
Schedule a free demo to learn more about Lineup’s people-first tech solutions.
