Rolling Case Studies

I was suddently without a job 5 years ago and a difficult experience was worse by not having case studies ready. I felt scattered and the road to preparedness felt long. I came out the other end, resolved to never be in that position again. My solution was creating a rolling case study process, where I write case studies as I go. By creating a workflow, I could maintain a state of readiness by having the meat of my case studies identified.

Benefits

It’s good practice

My best case studies are ones filled with details. I’m able to do that because I am writing while the knowledge is fresh. Were I to revisit that case study a year or two later, I may not recall the minutia that contributed to decisions.

Ensures you capture the prior state

A good case study shows the previous state before the project. This is what users experience before you started the body of work. One of the first things I do when creating a case study, is to capture via a screen recording what the current experience looks like.

Taking baby steps makes it less daunting

Writing case studies can evoke all sorts of emotions and anxieties, if you’re anything like me. Breaking down case studies into sections and completing as I go makes this easier. What’s better is that in my weekly review task, I review my case study documents to update what I can and complete any to-do’s.

Record of your work

While not all case studies are good to publish, it’s great to have a record of your work that demonstrates your impact.

How I stay on top of my case studies

I wanted to design a process that was easy and held me accountable. I use a Notion database to manage my case studies (grab my free template here). They are grouped by status with each page containing relevant information. This makes it easy for me to see where each case study is.

My general process

Whenever I start a new project, I create a Case Study document in my Notion database. The template adds a workflow tracker to each document, providing dedicated to-do’s to help me track what I’ve done.

1. Give the case study a title and description.
2. Create a Dropbox folder and add the URL to Dropbox Folder. This folder is where I stash all assets retaining to the project.
3. Grab screenshots or recordings of existing experiences and add them to Notion document.
4. Write case study after project end.
5. Create and add images.
6. Review content.
7. Peer review.
8. Publish case study.

Each case study has a workflow tracker, to ensure certain steps are followed.

As the project unfolds, I revisit this document and populate information under each section. Each heading in the case study has writing tips, to remind me of key things. This tends to be bulleted lists in the early stages.

My Notion template has inline prompts to help me think about each section and not forget a key aspect.

Writing a case study

I write the case study directly in Notion, editing my bulleted lists to be cohesive thoughts. I highlight and add labels where I want to add images. Using Figma, I’ll create a library to house the images I created, so they are handy for websites and slide decks.

Closing out a case study

Once a case study is in a good spot, I run it through Hemingway Editor to check my readability. Case studies should be in conversational english and this tool helps me ensure that. I also seek feedback from two peers, a colleague who is familiar with the project, and a colleague from the outside. This helps ensure I am covering my subject matter from internal and external angles.

Once the case study is finalized I keep it in Notion for archival purposes. I also generate markdown and HTML archives of the content to stash in dropbox. If I decide to publish any of these case studies, I’ll port the markdown files into my private portfolio.

Conclusion

I was recently laid off from Twilio in early February of 2023. This process enabled me to update my portfolio in less than 48 hours. I hope that this got you thinking about how you document your own work. Even if a lot of your projects don’t make it into your portfolio, it’s always best to have a detailed portfolio.