Case Study Writing

Structure

The Honest Arc

1. Context — Company, timeline, your role, team size. No fluff. Just facts.
2. Problem — What was broken, missing, or failing. Be specific with metrics if you have them.
3. Constraints — What made this hard. Budget, timeline, technical limits, organizational politics. Constraints make the story real.
4. Process — What you actually did. Not a waterfall diagram. The real, messy process including dead ends.
5. Key decisions — The 2-3 decisions that mattered most. What were the options? Why did you choose what you chose?
6. What failed — What didn't work. What you tried and abandoned. This is where credibility lives.
7. Outcome — Measurable results. Revenue, conversion, engagement, adoption, time saved. Numbers beat adjectives.
8. Reflection — What you'd do differently. What you learned.