🧁 Big idea: the core thread that hangs everything together. This could your client’s purpose, one of your capabilities, a company value


For example: ‘agile’.

🧁 Payoff: pick the top 3 outcomes the client experienced. These will become the key sections within your case study.

For example: ‘simplicity’, ‘faster time to market’, ‘greater collaboration’.

🧁 Key metrics: what are the specific results the client experienced. These will become the highlights in your case study.

For example: ‘empowered people to make their own decisions to eliminate 5 levels of approval’, ‘when the market average is 9 months to get a product to market, the client now achieves it in 9 weeks’, ‘appointed customer champions in every department’.

🧁 Tell multiple stories: don’t wait for the end to share the big payoff, tell a mini story within each section.

🧁 Opening section: summarise the case study in 1-2 sentences, or use 3x bullet points to highlight the key outcomes.

🧁 Section structure:

  • What’s the big problem? What impact did it have on the business?
  • How did the product/service overcome the problem? Include concrete examples.
  • What was the result? And what does that now mean for the business?

🧁 Quotes: don’t waste client quotes on saying something rubbish, like, “I’d really recommend Company ABC.” Instead, tell the story through the client’s words.

🧁 BONUS! Extract these quotes as soundbites to use in other marketing materials.

🧁 Final section: provide a future view. What’s next for the client? And how does the product/service help them achieve that?

🧁 Wordcount: 1,200 – 1,500 words.

🧁 Keep questioning:

  • So what? Why is this important? Why does it matter?
  • What is the impact?
  • How does this relate to the key theme?

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