Find the material before the topic
Expertise usually leaves traces. Look for a project brief with a difficult constraint, a proposal that changed after discovery, a product decision and rejected alternative, a research paper or dataset, a customer-safe question that keeps recurring, an internal memo, a post that generated thoughtful disagreement, a mistake that changed the method, a demonstration or prototype, or notes from a talk or workshop.
Do not publish private material without permission. The artefact can stay internal while still helping the expert remember the decision accurately.
Use the MATERIAL method
M - Material: choose one source object. Avoid combining a month of unrelated notes into one session.
A - Audience: name who needs the explanation and what they are trying to decide or do.
T - Tension: identify the non-obvious problem, such as two good options, a hidden constraint, an objection, or a result that contradicted the plan.
E - Evidence: ask what supports the claim. Evidence can be a primary source, a method, a demonstration, a carefully scoped example, or a direct experience labelled as such.
R - Reasoning: have the expert explain why the evidence led to the conclusion. This is where judgment becomes visible.
I - Important limit: name where the lesson stops, what remains unknown, or when another approach is better.
A - Answer: record a complete explanation in the expert's own language.
L - Lift carefully: use the transcript to select excerpts, verify facts, and adapt the source into the right format without expanding the claim.
Example: a consultant with no content ideas
A consultant says they have nothing to publish. Their project archive contains a diagnostic template that separates symptoms, constraints, and decision rights.
Instead of asking, "What are your top leadership tips?", ask what problem the template was built to solve, what clients mistook for the problem, how a safely anonymised example works, which part of the template changes the decision, and when not to use it.
The answer might reveal that teams blamed poor communication when nobody had authority to reject a request. That creates a useful article or clip about decision rights, supported by a framework and a bounded example.
The expertise was not missing. The blank prompt was too far from the work.
A source-to-answer question sequence
Use this order: what is the source, and why does it matter? What was happening before it existed? Which detail changed your view? What options did you consider? What evidence supported the choice? What did you do? What happened next? What remains uncertain? Who should use this lesson? Who should not?
A strong follow-up is often simply, "Can you show me a specific example?"
Turn the transcript into useful formats
After recording, mark passages as a definition, distinction, decision, example, objection, method, or limit.
A distinction may work as a short clip. A method may need a written guide. A research finding may require citations and a longer explanation. Let the source determine the format.
Quality checklist
Ask whether the expert is close to the subject, the audience is specific, the answer includes an example, evidence is proportionate to the claim, primary sources are linked where possible, personal experience is labelled, the important limit is preserved, the transcript has been checked, confidential details are removed, and the final asset helps someone do or decide something.
Google's people-first guidance similarly values original information, first-hand expertise, clear authorship, and substantial help for an intended audience.
What this method cannot do
A source-first workflow cannot manufacture expertise. Some documents contain routine information, not a useful lesson. An expert can misremember events, overgeneralise an anecdote, or give a confident answer without evidence.
The method also does not remove editorial work. Facts need checking, examples need permission, and some advice needs specialist review.
Where REC fits
REC Content Studio lets a user provide a link, project, post, or notes. AI prepares a research-guided solo interview. The person records their answers. The session produces a transcript, and AI helps surface grounded highlight candidates for clips.
REC does not generate the underlying experience. It helps the person retrieve and explain it.
Open one project you understand deeply. Choose the decision that still requires explanation. That is a stronger starting point than a blank page.