Ask HN: What makes a good Case Study? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What makes a good Case Study?

3 pointsspencerfry1 comment

I'm in the process of trying to re-think what a case study is. Everything I read is just boring. There's no unifying themes between the case studies, it's just marketing speak, and there's no fun. You never go "oh, I wanna read case studies about this company."

Do you have any suggestions on what would make a fun case study? Would love to hear 'em.

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Interestingly enough, I was thinking about how I would do a case study this morning and here's what I came up with:

* Tell a story. This would be in the form of an interview. Basic questions from my company and let the business do most of the talking. Get to the heart of how the person uses my product.

* Use basic data and charts.

  - Show how the bottom line increased

  - Show how productivity increased with the use of my product

  - Show how my product improved conversion

* Let the person pitch themselves a little bit.

The best case studies are done by 37signals. I actually enjoy reading them and peeking into how other companies work. For example: http://productblog.37signals.com/products/2010/05/make-sport...

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