"How do you even know that stuff?": Barriers to expertise sharing among spreadsheet users

TL;DR

This study explores social and design barriers to expertise sharing among spreadsheet users through interviews, highlighting challenges in collaboration, social norms, and self-evaluation affecting knowledge dissemination.

Contribution

It provides empirical insights into social and design factors influencing spreadsheet expertise sharing, with implications for improving collaborative learning in software.

Findings

Social norms and beliefs impact sharing behaviors.

Challenges include adapting personalized strategies and timing of sharing.

Self-evaluation and concerns about disruptions deter collaboration.

Abstract

Spreadsheet collaboration provides valuable opportunities for learning and expertise sharing between colleagues. Sharing expertise is essential for the retention of important technical skillsets within organisations, but previous studies suggest that spreadsheet experts often fail to disseminate their knowledge to others. We suggest that social norms and beliefs surrounding the value of spreadsheet use significantly influence user engagement in sharing behaviours. To explore this, we conducted 31 semi-structured interviews with professional spreadsheet users from two separate samples. We found that spreadsheet providers face challenges in adapting highly personalised strategies to often subjective standards and evaluating the appropriate social timing of sharing. In addition, conflicted self-evaluations of one's spreadsheet expertise, dismissive normative beliefs about the value of this knowledge, and concerns about the potential disruptions associated with collaboration can further deter sharing. We suggest these observations reflect the challenges of long-term learning in feature-rich software designed primarily with initial learnability in mind. We therefore provide implications for design to navigate this tension. Overall, our findings demonstrate how the complex interaction between technology design and social dynamics can shape collaborative learning behaviours in the context of feature-rich software.