Love the "path" analogy. It hadn't hit me before, but as I read this post it came home... what's wrong with so many case studies is they are just brag pieces. Here was the problem. Here was our brilliant solution. Blah!
We don't take the time to show the path we took from A to B, which is where the real brilliance is located.
Thanks Dan. Glad you thought enough of my post to write this... you just made me a bit smarter... owe you one! @TomMartin
Jake Yarbrough (jakeybro)
· 6 months ago
A little off topic, but since your post is about case studies, I hope you will indulge me. However, I've often wondered how effective and/or detrimental it would be to use case studies both for projects that worked and projects that did not work.
On the one hand it is good to know that a particular course of action was perfect and delivered results.
On the other hand, if we are being transparent, things rarely go as planned and we make mistakes. Momma always said that's the only way we learn, right?
Are clients interested in only seeing perfection? Or, would they appreciate seeing brutal honesty of process and thinking, accompanied by the realization that it didn't work out like we had planned. But, we became wiser and will be better prepared to handle similar situations going forward.
Any thoughts?
I don't want to attempt to find a Biblical example to illustrate my point, but I'm sure someone could figure out how to do it.
prostylus
· 5 months ago
That's good food for thought, Jake. But I can't imagine it getting much traction with many marketing people, much less CEOs. The problem is that prospective clients might stop reading before they reach the magic "lessons learned" part. Another potential drawback is that a clever competitor could get hold of the content, and present it out of context.
For the sake of argument, however, there are a couple ways that I might imagine this approach working.
One approach would still see the case study ending happily, with a solution eventually found and benefits served. The underlying message, however, would need to be how committed the vendor was to solving intractable problems. The case study would also need to take pains to emphasize that, as a matter of vendor policy, no extra costs were incurred during the learning curve.
The more notoriously difficult the problem, the better. If the vendor found a way, for example, to travel faster than the speed of light, all its failed early attempts would just add to the compelling narrative. Then again, if this were the case, a white paper, trade article or some other format favoring "thought leadership" might be a better way to present the story.
The other condition where your proposal might work would be if the case study was part of a large, very cohesive integrated marketing campaign that emphasized integrity, transparency and a larger success rate. For example, let's say a vendor developed a breakthrough crowd-sourcing platform designed to provide design solutions to paying subscribers. If the vendor could demonstrate its platform provided actionable solutions 80% of the time, then a transparent marketing campaign describing aberrational failures alongside a pattern of success might work. The important part is that the case studies of failed attempts would be clearly presented against the backdrop of an 80% success rate.
Bottom line - and I find this to be particularly true for freelance business writers: A "willingness to learn" is NOT a highly valued commodity among prospective clients.
All Comments
We don't take the time to show the path we took from A to B, which is where the real brilliance is located.
Thanks Dan. Glad you thought enough of my post to write this... you just made me a bit smarter... owe you one!
@TomMartin
On the one hand it is good to know that a particular course of action was perfect and delivered results.
On the other hand, if we are being transparent, things rarely go as planned and we make mistakes. Momma always said that's the only way we learn, right?
Are clients interested in only seeing perfection? Or, would they appreciate seeing brutal honesty of process and thinking, accompanied by the realization that it didn't work out like we had planned. But, we became wiser and will be better prepared to handle similar situations going forward.
Any thoughts?
I don't want to attempt to find a Biblical example to illustrate my point, but I'm sure someone could figure out how to do it.
For the sake of argument, however, there are a couple ways that I might imagine this approach working.
One approach would still see the case study ending happily, with a solution eventually found and benefits served. The underlying message, however, would need to be how committed the vendor was to solving intractable problems. The case study would also need to take pains to emphasize that, as a matter of vendor policy, no extra costs were incurred during the learning curve.
The more notoriously difficult the problem, the better. If the vendor found a way, for example, to travel faster than the speed of light, all its failed early attempts would just add to the compelling narrative. Then again, if this were the case, a white paper, trade article or some other format favoring "thought leadership" might be a better way to present the story.
The other condition where your proposal might work would be if the case study was part of a large, very cohesive integrated marketing campaign that emphasized integrity, transparency and a larger success rate. For example, let's say a vendor developed a breakthrough crowd-sourcing platform designed to provide design solutions to paying subscribers. If the vendor could demonstrate its platform provided actionable solutions 80% of the time, then a transparent marketing campaign describing aberrational failures alongside a pattern of success might work. The important part is that the case studies of failed attempts would be clearly presented against the backdrop of an 80% success rate.
Bottom line - and I find this to be particularly true for freelance business writers: A "willingness to learn" is NOT a highly valued commodity among prospective clients.