# Make tacit knowledge reviewable The person who knows how the work is done has never written any of it down. Updated October 27, 2026 ## Expert knowledge capture, in short Expert knowledge capture is getting the judgment of an experienced employee out of their head and into a written draft others can review, question and correct. It matters to managers about to lose a senior person to retirement, a move or a long leave. Recording a structured interview, uploading it and having Elvina sort what was said into routine steps, exceptions and reasons are available now. Where the expert contradicts a documented procedure or leaves a point open, the draft carries a question instead of a guess, and the expert confirms it before it becomes a lesson. ## What happens on the free demo - Book 30 minutes. Pick a time with Elvina's team. The demo is free and runs on Zoom. - Show the team your goal. Bring one role or one procedure. The team shows how Elvina would handle it, using sample materials. - Agree on the next step. You leave with a plan for the first step and its price. Nothing reaches your team until you approve it. ## What you bring and what Elvina returns | You bring | Elvina returns, for your approval | Status | |---|---|---| | The recorded interview with the expert, uploaded as a source | The talk sorted into everyday steps, exceptions and the reasons given, open questions marked | available now | | The points the expert confirmed after reading the sorted notes | A lesson draft built from the confirmed points, ready for the expert to approve | available now | | The exceptions the expert handles that newer staff miss | A one-page job aid of those exceptions, each with the reason behind it | available now | ## Who this is for, and when The service manager at a residential HVAC company has a senior technician retiring in four months. Twenty years of judgment about which furnace faults are worth a second visit lives in his head. The manager wants that judgment written down in a form other technicians can review and argue with, not a recording that sits in a folder. ## How it works in Elvina The draft separates routine steps, exceptions and reasons behind decisions, with questions for unresolved points. - The manager records a structured interview with the technician, using prompts Elvina drafted from the Service Call Standard in Company Knowledge, and uploads the recording with his written permission. - Elvina transcribes the interview and, in Creation Studio, sorts what was said into routine steps, exceptions and the reasoning behind each judgment call. - Where the technician contradicted a documented procedure or left a point unresolved, Elvina writes a question instead of filling the gap. - The technician reads the synthesis in the Web workspace, corrects it, and the service manager approves it as a draft source for a future lesson. ## A worked example A fictional contractor, Summit Comfort Heating & Air, employs 19 field technicians. The retiring technician handles the hardest no-heat calls. Two 45-minute interviews cover ignition faults and when to recommend replacement over repair. The company's Service Call Standard v6 is the reference document. - A draft with 14 routine steps, nine exceptions and a 'why' note for each exception, such as why a flame-sensor reading below a stated value means a callback within a week. - Six open questions, including one where the technician's rule of thumb conflicts with the standard's replacement threshold. - The technician corrected two steps and confirmed the rest; the service manager sent the conflict to the owner of the standard. ## What to check before relying on it Ask the expert to verify the synthesis. A fluent interview summary is not an approved operating standard. - Written permission to use the recording is stored with the source. - Routine steps, exceptions and reasons are separated, not blended into one narrative. - Every unresolved point appears as a question with the expert's name on it. - The expert has confirmed the synthesis before it is used in any lesson. ## Where a person stays in charge A fluent summary of an interview is not an approved operating standard. Elvina organizes what the expert said; it does not verify it against physics or code, and it will not promote the draft to an approved source without the manager and the expert signing off. Contradictions with existing procedures are escalated to the document owner. ## Who this is not for, and when another tool fits ### This is not the right fit if - The expert has not agreed to be recorded. - You need the expert’s rules checked against codes or regulations. - The person leaves tomorrow and there is no time for an interview. ### Another kind of tool may fit better - A mentor pairing, when the skill is learned by working beside the expert for months. - A technical consultant, when the expert’s judgment must be verified against engineering or code. ## Questions **Q:** What if the expert remembers things differently in the second interview? Elvina shows both versions side by side and asks the expert which stands. Nothing is silently merged. **Q:** Can this run from a phone recording in the truck? Audio quality matters more than the device. A quiet room and a prompt list produce a cleaner transcript than a ride-along. **Q:** How long should an expert interview be? Shorter sessions on one topic work better than one long conversation. Two sessions of under an hour, each with its own prompt list, give a cleaner draft and leave the expert less tired than a single afternoon. ## Two things you can check on this site - See a sample on the demo. [Book a demo with my team](https://calendly.com/o-dutchak-smartexpert/30min?utm_source=elvina-site&utm_medium=proof) - Every lesson, plan and quiz stays a draft until you approve it. [Check the approval step in the chat](/skills/expert-knowledge-capture#talk-to-elvina) Checked October 27, 2026. No launch date is committed for planned features.