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What is a Case Study?

A case study is an “atomic unit” of a completed project. It is the story that we tell each other, clients, and partners about the project and highlights the most interesting pieces of the work.

The goal of a case study is to create the clearest picture of a project and its impact in the shortest amount of time.

<aside> 🧑🏽 Like anything, the same work can be framed in a variety of different ways, so think about your audience and how you are framing the work. This will help you highlight the right materials and make the most impactful case study.

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Elements of a Case Study

Similar to other stories we tell, we often use the Hero’s Journey as a framework to create a narrative that is clear and shows our impact. The basic elements of a case study:

• Type of Project: How are we framing the work here? Is this a media-focused project, an innovation one, etc...?
• Client: Who are they? Assume the audience doesn’t know who they are. Within large, well-known organizations, this can be a single team.
• Client’s challenge: What did they call on us to help them with? What was the brief, ask, or need?
• Outcome: What was the impact of our solution? This is often more interesting than the solution itself since it speaks as proof of the effectiveness of the solution itself.
  • Tip: Ideally this directly and quantifiably ties to the challenge. How much did we solve it? Are there indicators that we helped solve it?
  • The solution or “output” of the work can also work if we don’t have metrics that show a result
• What we did: These are interesting things we did to deliver the solution. What are the unique “points of proof” that demonstrate how we got to the outcome? It’s good to show a variety of different types of deliverables, sessions, activities, etc... Show the holistic nature of what we did. Also - if there are any key insights (that are not proprietary) those can also be highlighted.

<aside> 🔥 Be brief, use visuals (they make it more real), and be focused (one solution per slide).

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Examples of a Case Study

Capabilities Deck Case Study

Double Click me! A case study with the key pieces highlighted.

Website Case Study