A practical checklist for case studies
There is no clever trick in this one, just a handful of decisions worth making deliberately. Run through this the next time case studies comes up.
Content is the part of a project most likely to be underestimated and most likely to delay a launch. The version that survives contact with a real deadline is the simple one.
The checklist
- Problem, approach, result, in that order
- Numbers make it credible
- Name the client if they will let you
- Someone is named as the owner
- There is a date to review it again
What is actually at stake
Problem, approach, result, in that order. Small and consistent beats large and occasional here. If it only works because one person remembers to do something, it does not work yet.
How to tell if yours is fine
Writing for the web is largely an editing job: the first draft is always longer than it needs to be. Three things worth confirming about case studies before you move on:
- Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
- Numbers make it credible — and you know whether that is true here
- There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped
The point is not perfection, it is knowing which of these you have consciously chosen to skip.