Your SME is annoyed: 'Don't you guys talk to each other?' Here's a fix. (Intellicomms™)

This AI workflow turns one interview into six team solutions

“Lilya Brik” (undated) by Alexander Rodchenko

Stop torturing your SMEs with six different comms people asking overlapping questions. This AI-powered interview workflow can feed your entire communications ecosystem and give your SMEs a break.

Let’s say your company is launching Widget2 next month.

• The PR lead needs market disruption angles.

• The storytelling team wants employee pride talking points.

• Social media is on the hunt for customer benefit snippets.

• Exec comms needs strategic vision sound bites.

• Internal comms for the Sales department needs competitive differentiators.

• And regional comms needs localized impact data.

Previously I’ve described similar scenarios:

The tale of three teams (and one giant missed opportunity)

Your internal/external teams are working against each other. Mixternal fixes that.

In the old world, the Widget2 product lead gets pinged by six different comms pros over two weeks, repeating the same background information while each comms person extracts their tiny piece of the puzzle.

• Aren’t you all on the same team? she asks, her annoyance clear. Don’t you guys talk to each other?

Your mixternal teams are working against each other, creating redundancy and missed opportunities. As I’ve previously shouted from the mountaintop, maintaining artificial barriers between communications functions wastes resources and causes stakeholder fatigue.

Here’s an AI workflow that fixes this dysfunction.

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How This Template Saves Your Sanity

This three-part AI workflow consolidates team questions, helps conduct comprehensive interviews, and distributes insights—all through one conversation with a single point of contact (🙈 not it!) on the comms team.

In this article, I share:

• ✅ Part 1: Pre-Interview Consolidation: Team members submit their needs; AI generates a master interview guide

• ✅ Part 2: Live Interview Assistant: Real-time guidance for pivoting when conversations take an unexpected turn

• ✅ Part 3: Post-Interview Distribution: Raw notes become team-specific deliverables in seconds

• ✅ A recap on how to use the workflow before/during/after the interview

• ✅ Why this works

🖼️ I also share screenshots of a chatbot’s output for a hypothetical use case, so you can see what this workflow looks like in action. You will:

• immediately grasp the benefit

• instantly recognize how you can tweak the prompt for your needs

• 😮 be surprised—as I was—at the thoughtful additional material the chatbot suggests to enhance and improve your stakeholder conversations

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The Template

The designated interviewer (i.e., the single point of contact, however that’s decided) handles everything in this AI-assisted workflow.

• Your team members will appreciate getting time back to catch up on Love Island put out the brushfire du jour.

PART 1: Pre-Interview Consolidation Prompt

🚨 Note: You can tweak this prompt to suit your needs. The more information you provide about your company, industry, team makeup, expertise, etc., the better the outcome.

For example, in the first paragraph of this prompt, you can add something like this (in bold):

• You are an expert corporate communications strategist in the pharmaceutical industry with 10 years of experience. You are skilled at conducting comprehensive stakeholder interviews that serve multiple needs simultaneously. You do comms work at a Fortune 100 company that’s been around for 80 years but maintains a startup mentality. The executives at your company are savvy, highly accomplished, and understand the benefits of corporate communications and the need to effectively communicate with various audiences with equally varying needs. [etc., etc., etc.]

Or whatever you need to say to get the AI into the right mindset.

• If you have supporting documentation (e.g., PPTX files 🤮, product specs, transcript from a recorded Zoom call, market research), upload them to the chatbot and add language like reference the attached documents.

And now, the template…

You are an expert corporate communications strategist skilled at conducting comprehensive stakeholder interviews that serve multiple corp comms team needs simultaneously. [ADD MORE CONTEXT; SEE ABOVE FOR AN EXAMPLE] Help me create a master interview guide.

STEP 1: First, identify the interview type based on this context: [DESCRIBE YOUR SITUATION; FOR EXAMPLE, A PRODUCT LAUNCH, AN ACQUISITION ANNOUNCEMENT, ETC. PROVIDE AS MUCH DETAIL AS POSSIBLE.]

Interview Types:
- HUMAN INTEREST/PROFILE: Employee spotlights, team features, personal stories
- PRODUCT/INITIATIVE LAUNCH: New products, services, programs, or major announcements  
- CRISIS/ISSUES: Problems, challenges, negative events, or damage control
- EXECUTIVE/LEADERSHIP: Strategic vision, company direction, leadership perspectives
- CORPORATE INITIATIVE: Merger, acquisition, organizational changes, earnings or financial updates, leadership changes

STEP 2: Based on the interview type you identified, use this framework: