This post is a summary of what I’ve learned over the years about developing case studies. I hope this will serve as a reference, and save some effort, for anyone in the process of telling stories about their work. As I’ve written many times in this blog, telling compelling and engaging stories is one of the central duties of marketing. When it comes to case studies, I think I’m fortunate because I’ve discovered that I am better at telling real stories than I am at making them up from scratch. Oh well, no great novels for me.
A Word About Format
Case studies can be prepared in a variety of formats, but the process of collecting information should not change significantly. The format, or formats, that you choose to present the stories in should address the needs of the reader you are targeting. Is this for people visiting your website? For a sales presentation? Or, a presentation at a conference? No matter who it’s for, remember that case studies are just another way of making products and services tangible. thereby building credibility and trust. Here is a list of relevant formats:
- ABSTRACT – A concise presentation of information that explains what took place. Abstracts are well suited for internal training, bringing new employees up to speed, or refreshing you memory in advance of a presentation.
- SHORT-FORM – A brief version of the case study that highlights the challenge, intervention, and result. Typically this format focuses on the broad strokes. The short-form might also include your best image or testimonial. These work well in the context of websites, or to present a variety of studies to a client before diving deeper into the most relevant example.
- LONG-FORM – This is the full blown case study with supporting materials such as testimonials, press coverage, and deliverables. These work well as presentations, and as printed collateral that you can leave with a client. Sometimes. however, you won’t have permission to give away a printed version of the presentation, though you may have the right to incorporate it into a presentation deck during a sales meeting.
- THUMBNAIL – This is a very brief summary, often just the challenge and results, that serves as a teaser to get people interested in reading more. The thumbnail works well in to context of an online presentation if you have a page of thumbnails organized by industry category.
The Outline
Now that we’ve talked about different formats, let’s talk about the internal structure of the case study itself. Most case studies have a fairly simple and straightforward format. Sometimes the format is highlighted by standard section titles (see examples below) and sometimes, these titles are replace with more colorful phrases that imply which section is about to follow.
- THE TITLE – The title is very important because it’s the first thing the reader will see. The best titles are descriptive and to the point. Try incorporating the client’s name, their industry, or the product/service name. I wrote a case study for Adaptive Path about a project they did for MySpace, the title of that was “The Little User Research Project That Changed The Future Of MySpace In A Big Way.
- THUMBNAIL – If a thumbnail is included in a longer form, then it should follow directly after the title. This is you chance to really set the hook and engage the reader. This is also the point at which most readers will either commit to reading the study, or move on to another one. The best thumbnails are concise, colorful, and inspiring. Here’s the thumbnail from the MySpace case study: As the largest social network in the U.S., with over 76 million users, MySpace’s decision to overhaul all of the major sections of the site could not be taken lightly. Redesigning MySpace demanded a great deal of empathy for a diverse user base and clarification of what makes MySpace unique in the saturated social networking space. The resulting redesign was welcomed by users and shot MySpace to the top of online ad views.
- ABOUT THE CLIENT – This is the part of the case study where you establish who the client is, what industry they are in, and how they fit into the larger industry. It’s essentially an opportunity to set the scene and establish the backdrop for the rest of the study. This section can end with a statement of the goal of the engagement, which serves as a good transition to the next section. You can see an example of this from a recent case study I developed about PayCycle.
- THE CHALLENGE – Like the title states, this is about the challenge that your product or service took on. Define a problem, flush out the context in which it arose in greater detail, illuminate any other information that will either affect, or be affected by, your work.
- WHAT WE DID – Again, very straightforward. What did you do? Walk through the process step by step if necessary, and highlight key moments. This is an important place to also highlight what the client contributed to the solution. A successful case study should not only support your practice, but should support the organization that you’re working with. This will also help immensely when it comes to getting approval for the case study (more on that later).
- THE RESULTS – This is the most important section, and also the hardest to complete. It’s the most important because it offers the metrics of success that allows potential clients to measure the return on a potential investment in your product or service. It’s the hardest because results take time to measure. It can be hard to convince a client to go through the follow up measurement process once they’ve moved on to other things. Fortunately, it’s in your mutual interest to do so, which is what you’ll have to explain (again, more on that later).
Because the results is the last section of the case study it’s at the end of the attrition curve for readers. One way to offset this issue is to place some of the results early in the case study in a inset box or column. The visual design and layout can have a huge impact here. Here’s a quick sketch of what a printed long-form might look like. In the context of online case studies there are many ways to manage this issue with interaction design as well.
It Starts With Research
Now that we’ve got an idea of what a case study looks like, where do we start the process of creating one? Before we write anything we need to do some research; like any research, you’ll want to have a structure to work within to make sure you ask the right questions and get a good sample of data. In the past, I’ve created a case study worksheet which I used as a guide to the research process. You can see a list of sample questions you might want to include in your worksheet here.
The design of your worksheet is important because you, and you team, will probably spend a significant amount of time with it. Plus, it can be a helpful asset in the future if you ever want to review the project at a very detailed level. Unfortunately, most people don’t enjoy filling out forms, which is what the worksheet really is … so here are a couple things you can do to deal with this reality:
- Have your team fill out the worksheet while they do the project, thus completing the task in increments over time.
- Build the completed worksheets into the end-of-project team review meeting.
- Make it accessible online (Survey Monkey, Google Forms, BaseCamp, etc) so that it’s available to the whole team, and allow them to collaborate as they fill it out.
- Use the form as a guide to an in-person interview with the project team.
My experience has been that the success of these techniques depends on the individuals you’re working with and the culture of your organization. As a general rule, the interview approach will almost always work so long as you can find a time to meet. though it’s generally more time consuming for everyone involved (this is one good reason to embed it in the post-project review meeting). As a general rule it should take no more than 3 hours to thoroughly fill out the worksheet and collect the related assets.
Part of the worksheet process includes getting a set of sample deliverables that you can embed into the story. These can be images, quotes from research participants, design assets, or information about a particular practice or method used in the project. Once you’ve got the worksheet complete and an inventory of assets to work with, it’s time to analyze the data.
Analyzing The Data
Since the data is structured, it easy to get a handle on things fairly quickly. This is the time to ask what the story is really about, and how it fits into the larger portfolio of stories you tell. If the story is about a medical device and you already have some great stories in this area, maybe this one should be a short-form or thumbnail. Or, maybe you have a great story in the area but you only have permission to use it in the context of sales meetings. Or, maybe you turn it into a story about a particular design method or practice, such as interaction design?
One good way to evaluate the story is to create a case study matrix for your team. This will help put each story in context, and will also help your team select the most relevant story for the client their talking with. Here’s what such a matrix might look like:
As you can see, the empty boxes are areas where there are no case studies available. The Y axis shows practice areas, and the X axis shows the industries that you’ve worked in and will sell your products or services to. You’ll obviously want to adjust these to conform to the information architecture you use to qualify your leads. You’ll also probably want some sort of color coding to indicate where you can use these case studies (i.e. internal use only, sales meetings, public). Depending on the size of your firm you might need anywhere from six to eighteen case studies because more involved projects will cover multiple areas of the matrix.
Getting It In Writing
So now you know how your story relates to the case studies you’ve already got, and what the best format should be. In theory, as you work with the matrix you should be able to identify projects that are likely to fill in gaps before they even start. This is important because it allows you to get into the project early and set expectations with your internal team, and with the client. It’s great if the sales team is also involved so that they can take this into account as they sell. If there’s a project that can complete the matrix, it might be consistent with the larger business strategy to make some sacrifices to win the project. This is particularly relevant if you’re trying to bring your products and services into new industries or markets where you have not worked before.
When this is the case, you’ll want to make sure that you’ve got clear language in your contract that will allow you to talk about the project. This is a significant challenge, particularly when you’re working with large companies, so be prepared to negotiate. Also, go into the process understanding that it’s probably not worth blowing the deal, and that your chances of getting what you want might only be 50%.
- THE CONTRACT – You’ll probably want to consult your lawyer but the goal is to get some language into the contract that says that you can talk about the project, list the client on your website, get a testimonial, represent a deliverable, etc. They probably won’t agree to anything that doesn’t require their approval, but you can use language that states that they must be “reasonable” with respect to the approve process, and turn around time. Also, make sure that they’re on board with the commitment to share follow up project data with you, or your results section will be weak.
- THE SACRIFICES – Depending on what your product or service is, you may be able to provide an incentive for your clients to allow you to create a case study with discounts, offers to submit the work to competitions, faster turn around time, participation of senior staff, etc.
- THE EARLY START – If you’re working on a project that you think has significant potential as a case study, get in early and connect with the most senior person you can. Communicate that case studies are essential to your business, that as clients they relied on a case study in their decision to work with you, and talk about how it can provide value for them as well.
And Finally, Writing It
Here’s a good formula to follow:
- Start by writing the project abstract.
- Get approval from the project team that it’s an accurate representation of the project.
- Send the abstract to the client and tell them that this will be the basis for a case study. Explain that this version is for internal use only.
- Once you have approval, try your hand at the thumbnail. I recommend this because it’s a great way of setting the tone of the case study. I find it’s helpful to have someone of the project team check in on your progress as you go.
- With an solid thumbnail, outline the format you’ve decided to go with. If you’re doing both a short and long-form version, I recommend starting with the short-form, and then expanding it into the long-form later.
- This is a good time to check back in with the internal team and any other stakeholders.
- Assuming all is well, it’s time to bring in a copy-editor to clean it up.
- With the copy edited version in hand, it’s time to get approval from the client. Embedding the copy in a rich visual presentation may be more compelling, but you might also end up having to make a significant number of edits …. just something to be aware of.
- Once you have approval, it’s time to turn it over to a designer for each of the presentation formats you’re working with.
I have been asked whether it makes more sense to have a copywriter manage the whole process, or if it makes more sense to write it yourself and then work with a copy editor. The short answer is that it depends on how your organization is set up. The main thing is that one person manages the process from start to finish.
I hope this is helpful, and I look forward to any feedback and comments on how to improve these guidelines.
Before I begin, I am obliged to state that advertising, whether on a billboard, mobile phone, website or printed page, is only one small part of marketing. Sorry, but I’m gonna keep repeating that until people stop asking me if marketing is part of advertising or if advertising is part of marketing. Here’s 
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