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Using case studies as a catalyst for product adoption

Most customers won’t use a product without knowing that someone is benefiting from it. I often receive questions like:

• Which success cases do you have?
• Who’s using your product?
• How long do your clients stick with your product?
• What did your product improve for someone like me?

I dare to say that without solid use cases, the B2B business model will only have mediocre product adoption, but when it does, sales will skyrocket.

In this article, you’ll learn what a case study is, what it can do for you, and how to create one.

Table of contents

What is a case study, what can a case study do for your product team, how can you create valuable case studies, personio: 8 years, $8 billion valuation, stripe: the top-of-mind payment platform.

A case study isn’t a 500-slide deck pitch nor a 100-page comprehensive document. Doing that will just bore your prospects to death. A simple and concise case study shows what your product or service did for your audience. In other words, how your product improved someone’s life.

A study case format can vary. It can be a blog on your company’s website, available for everyone, or it can be a brief slide deck with multiple cases. The best option is being available on the company website.

A bad study case will confuse people and leave them with more questions than answers.

A good study case demonstrates the value created in simple ways. It’s generally a one-pager with enough substance to build trust.

When working for B2B companies, the struggle is always the same. Acquiring customers requires trust, and you build trust by determining who you serve and how well you do that.

Getting the case studies right enables customers to open doors to you. It’s proof that you can deliver value for them. Without case studies, you may need to “buy” the customers to get a case study available for potential customers.

Let’s understand what valuable case studies should have. Then, we will evaluate two highly successful companies and review how case studies help them get customers.

In one of the B2B companies I worked with, the salespeople complained about how hard it was to persuade clients to listen to them. I learned that the company hadn’t pursued any case studies. That was a surprise to me. Then, I talked to the leadership team, and they flipped when I mentioned it.

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Sometimes, companies perceive study cases as arduous and cumbersome to create. I wouldn’t say it’s the easiest thing in the world, but it’s not that hard. You have to cover:

• Challenge description — What was the situation before your solution, and how did the customers deal with it
• Results achieved — What has your product enabled the customers to achieve
• Who — Your customer description, including market segment
• How — The product is the guide to the story, not the hero. A common mistake is positioning the product as the centerpiece, which is the customer and the challenge
• Social proof — A good study case will have quotes from customers. An excellent study case will have videos from the customers

That’s all you need. Five steps to thrive. No more, no less. Sometimes, the challenge is getting the first done and finding a suitable format.

Personio is a German scale-up, positioning itself as an all-in HR system. They were founded in 2015 and, since then, grew steadily. Now, spread over Europe with over ten thousand customers, they have a valuation of eight billion EUR.

What Personio does well is using its customers’ satisfaction to boost sales. Looking at their use cases , the first thing I stumbled upon was the following:

Personio shares many use cases in a simple and engaging way. The headline of each case gives an idea of what the customer achieved, and the blurbs show the industry and its size:

Each case follows a simple structure:

• Customer description
• Challenge faced
• What Personio enabled them to achieve
• Quotes from customers
• Working together

The cases take no more than four minutes to read, and understanding the value created happens in the first minute.

Have you ever heard about Stripe? Maybe you don’t know them, but chances are high that you use them indirectly when paying for something.

Stripe is a major payment platform used by many companies like Amazon, Google, Airbnb, Booking.com, Slack, Zoom, and many others.

Success stories are something Stripe masters. When you look at their customers , they first present results, which creates authority:

Stripe understands the value of case studies so well that it organizes them beautifully. Potential customers can search for various cases related to company size, use case, solution, and region. This way, customers can find relatable stories.

Let’s take e-commerce as an example. The first visualization puts the customer as the hero with a short result description:

When you go to the case study itself, you find a simple and solid structure to understand the value created. First, you learn about the customer, and then the challenge is presented with the achieved results by its side. After that, you can read how the solution was implemented and, finally, the achieved results.

Each case is well written in simple language, easy to read, and straightforward with the results. The cases have customer quotes emphasizing the partnership and what Stripe enabled the customer to achieve.

Stripe keeps the study cases consistent in format, size, style, and readability. That facilitates grasping the essence and deciding whether they are the ideal partner or not.

Key takeaways

Without study cases, acquiring customers will be more complex than you can estimate. Case studies can be simple and yet remain highly valuable. All you need to present is what the challenge was, how your product helped the customer overcome it, and which results it created

Great study cases have a reading time no longer than a few minutes, and understanding the value created should take a maximum of one minute. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel to create beautiful cases. Visit brands you identify with and understand how they craft their study cases. Create case studies now and thrive next. You will see a massive sales improvement once your case studies are convincing and valuable.

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How to write effective case studies for your software product

Case studies are one of the best ways to communicate product value to potential customers.

A well-done case study:

• Creates trust (recommendations from third parties are always more reliable than what the company itself claims)
• Provides social proof —in a situation where a potential customer isn’t sure what to do, they assume that others around them have more knowledge
• Gives more information about the product—you can’t fit everything onto your features page
• Creates a sense of “I can relate to this”, if the case study is for a company in the same space
• Allows you to target your marketing better towards much narrower customer groups, meaning a much more personalized experience

However, good case studies take time and commitment. You can’t just put together a case study based on any customer, in any format, and at any time.

Here are some tips for effective case studies that you can use for targeting, marketing communications, customer success, search optimization, and more.

Create niche studies for separate target groups

Even if your business has one specific main target group, it still probably has different verticals of customers under it. At the very least, you definitely have various strong use cases for your product.

For example—if your main target group is SMBs, you still have:

• SMBs that do retail
• SMBs that do online sales
• SMBs that do software

…and so on.

The effectiveness of case studies comes largely from the relatability aspect of them.

Imagine doing research for a software solution you need. If you immediately see a case study for another company with a use case nearly identical to yours, you will:

• Get a lot of extra information without having to reach out to the company
• Be immediately assured that the product is suitable for your specific use case

And, on the flip side, if you’re doing research and the available case studies are wildly different from what you need, it might be a red flag for you.

This means that the most effective case studies are the ones that are the most heavily tailored for your most desired target group(s).

There’s no point in doing a case study for edge case customers who you aren’t actively pursuing.

Try to figure out all the different main use cases that exist within your ideal customer target group, and build case studies for all (or most) of them.

This way, you can build the most in-depth rapport with your ideal customers. It’s great ammo for effective success/sales processes, and saves you time on tailoring communication on the spot.

Choose your case study candidates wisely

Besides making sure you have a good range of different case studies, it’s also important to be picky about who the selected ones are.

You obviously value all of your customers. However, some of them are definitely more useful than others when it comes to communicating your value.

After you have picked the target groups you’d like case studies for, make sure you pick customers who:

• Use the product often and have used it recently. This guarantees that they’re up to date with any new features you have, the current design, recent changes, etc. Having an outdated opinion isn’t very useful.
• Have seen solid results from using your product. Oftentimes, the customers who have been most impressed with your product will let you know about it by reaching out. Make a list of these people as soon as you communicate with them, for easy reaching out later.
• Are truly enthusiastic about your product—again, these people usually reach out and express their joy.
• Are at least relatively well-known in their space (if possible).

Whereas most users are efficient at being your customers, they might not be efficient at communicating your product value to the outside world.

Pick and choose the people who are most qualified, excited, able, and constructive, and you’ll be able to create the most informative and valuable case studies.

Focus on value first

Case studies communicate nothing if the only message is “yes, this product is “good””.

It’s important that your case studies focus on the value your product has offered a customer—and therefore can offer to others, too.

For example, Canny’s case studies consist of three parts—challenge, solution, and results.

Here’s what that looks like in the case study for ReadMe , one of our customers:

The challenge describes what the company was struggling with before they chose Canny.

The solution explains how Canny solved the issue they were having before.

The results highlight the real value the customer has seen from using Canny.

The most important thing here is, again, focusing on value. Value is what customers are signing up for and handing their money over to you for.

The more you can emphasize that in your case studies, the better. Ideally, you would be able to show clear ROI with actual numbers—e.g “increased conversions by x”.

It’s a simple principle of social proof—“If another company like mine is getting value from this product, so can I”.

Pay attention to formatting and design

Case studies are an excellent source of information, but they need to be easy to digest.

With the abundance of information already available for any product out there, nobody has time to read through pages of text walls in addition.

Try to format your studies in an easy-to-consume way:

• As with any piece of content, use headings and bulleted lists to break up text
• The three-step solution we mentioned above is a good start for sectioning your proof
• Use as many easy-to-understand visuals as possible

A few additional tips

Since case studies are mostly meant for creating a feeling of recognition, add the company’s “profile” in an easy to spot place.

This way, people browsing the studies will know if they’re in a similar position as the highlighted company, even if they haven’t heard of it before.

Make the most important things stand out for quick browsing. If someone is just glancing over the page, they’ll be drawn to the highlights of the case study.

This includes strong statements, direct quotes that make a point, and any other value “evidence” one-liners straight from the customer.

Add plenty of CTA’s—your case study pages should still be built for conversion.

Give your potential customers easy access to start a trial or use the product if they decide to.

Spend some time and effort on creating impactful case studies

As much as you would like to get some social proof out there ASAP, waiting a little and putting effort into case studies is worth it.

Mediocre studies on not-so-ideal customers aren’t going to be detailed or useful enough, nor provide the proof of value you’re looking for.

Focus on planning for and discussing your target audiences, providing a variety of cases, and optimizing design and copy.

You’ll have proof of value out there for everyone to see, and save some time for yourself and your potential customers.

Elen Veenpere

Marketer at Canny. Elen enjoys drinking unnecessary amounts of coffee, typing words, and filling out marketing spreadsheets.

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Awesome post! Keep up the great work! 🙂

Thanks for the heads up on the benefit of product case studies.

Last Updated on May 14, 2023

Product Case Studies: Examples and Best Practices for Success

Discover the power of product case studies with our comprehensive guide.

Posted May 15, 2023

Product case studies are an important tool that businesses use to showcase their products and demonstrate their value. They are especially crucial for companies that have innovative and complex products that require explanation and demonstration to potential customers. A product case study can help potential customers to understand a product's features, benefits, and the results they can expect when using it. In this article, we will explore the importance of product case studies, how to identify the right products for case studies, tips for creating compelling case studies, and best practices for promoting them.

Why Product Case Studies are Important for Businesses

Product case studies provide businesses with a platform to showcase their products in a real-life scenario and demonstrate how they solve customers' problems. By doing so, businesses can communicate the value of their products to potential customers and build trust with them. According to a study by MarketingSherpa, 71% of B2B buyers read case studies during their decision-making process, making them a highly effective marketing tool. Case studies provide social proof and credibility that inspire others to use the product and generate leads. Additionally, product case studies can be repurposed into blog posts, website pages, social media posts, and email marketing campaigns, giving businesses an ongoing source of content to engage their audiences.

How to Identify the Right Products for Case Studies

The first step in creating a successful product case study is identifying the right product to showcase. The ideal product is one that solves a problem that your ideal customer faces, has unique features that set it apart from competitors and generates positive results. It's important to consider the availability of resources, such as time, budget, and personnel. You also need to assess how representative the product is of your business's value proposition and goals. Finally, consider the potential impact of the case study and how well it aligns with the target audience's interests.

Tips for Choosing the Best Format for Your Product Case Study

The format of your product case study will depend on the product, audience, and objective of your study. Common formats include written case study, video case study, podcast case study, and presentation format. The chosen format should match the objectives of your study, the target audience's preferences, and your available resources. The format should be well-designed, clear, persuasive, and include all relevant information that the reader or viewer needs to know about the product.

Elements of a Compelling Product Case Study

Effective product case studies share certain elements that make them compelling to readers and viewers. The elements include the background of the company and customer, the problem or pain point that the customer faced, the solution offered by the product, the implementation and usage of the product, and the results achieved by the customer. A good product case study should be well-structured, engaging, and informative. It should have a clear and concise message, a call to action, and be supported by data and quotes from the customer or expert.

Steps to Creating a Successful Product Case Study

The process of creating a successful product case study encompasses various steps that businesses should undertake. The first step is to identify the product, identifying the customers who use it and their needs. The second step is to collect data by researching, interviewing customers and experts. The third step is to create a structure or outline that guides the case study, including the key elements mentioned above. The fourth step is to draft the case study, edit it, and get feedback from customers and experts. Finally, businesses should promote the case study to their ideal audience through multiple channels.

Real-life Examples of Successful Product Case Studies

There are numerous examples of successful product case studies that businesses can use to inspire their strategies. One example is the Dropbox case study, a written case study that showcases Dropbox's product's integration with other services, cost savings for businesses, and customer feedback. Another example is the Hubspot case study, a video case study that focuses on the customer's business challenges, the solution, and the results achieved by their partnership with Hubspot. These case studies are well-written, engaging, and informative, providing valuable insights for potential customers.

How to Measure the Success of Your Product Case Study

After creating and promoting a product case study, it's essential to track its success to improve future strategies. Metrics such as the number of views, engagement, clicks, leads generated, sales, and customer retention rate can provide insights into the case study's effectiveness. Additionally, reviewing customer feedback such as testimonials, ratings, and reviews can give businesses valuable insights into the impact their product case study had on customers.

Best Practices for Promoting Your Product Case Studies

After creating a product case study, it's critical to promote it to reach your ideal audience effectively. Best practices for promoting your product case studies include using multiple channels such as social media, email marketing campaigns, press releases, website pages, blog posts, and paid advertising. Additionally, segmenting the audience based on their interests and preferences can increase engagement and lead generation. Finally, businesses should measure and analyze the metrics to adapt their strategies based on the case study's feedback.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Creating Product Case Studies

Creating compelling and effective product case studies can be challenging, and it's essential to avoid common mistakes that can hinder their impact. Common mistakes include failing to target the right audience, not having a clear message or value proposition, making the case study too sales-oriented, or lacking concrete data and statistics. It's crucial to have a thorough understanding of the product, the customers, and their needs, and providing an objective evaluation of the results to avoid these pitfalls.

How to Use Customer Feedback in Your Product Case Studies

Customer feedback is an essential source of insights for businesses that want to create engaging and effective product case studies. The feedback can be collected through customer satisfaction surveys, interviews, and reviews. By incorporating customer feedback in product case studies, businesses can improve the credibility of the study, provide social proof and build trust with potential customers. Additionally, customer feedback can help businesses to improve their products, services, and marketing strategies based on customer needs and preferences.

The Role of Storytelling in Creating Effective Product Case Studies

Storytelling is a powerful tool in creating compelling and persuasive product case studies. By telling the customer's story, businesses can connect emotionally with potential customers and demonstrate the benefits, value, and relevance of the product. Storytelling can also make the case study more engaging, memorable, and relatable. The story format can help simplify complex concepts and make it easier for customers to understand the product's features and benefits.

Tips for Conducting Interviews with Customers and Experts for Your Product Case Study

Conducting interviews with customers and experts is a crucial step in creating accurate and informative product case studies. Tips for conducting successful interviews include preparing a structured agenda or script, identifying the right experts and customers, asking open-ended questions, listening actively, taking detailed notes, and following up after the interview. By conducting thorough and well-prepared interviews, businesses can gather valuable insights, quotes, and data that can help shape the product case study effectively.

How to Incorporate Data and Statistics in Your Product Case Study

Data and statistics can provide valuable insights that justify the value and impact of the product being showcased in the case study. When incorporating data and statistics in a product case study, it's essential to use credible and reliable sources, present the data in a clear and concise format, and link the data to the customers' needs and challenges. Data and statistics can also help businesses to identify trends and patterns in their customer behavior and preferences, leading to better marketing strategies and product development.

The Benefits of Using Video in Your Product Case Study

Video is a powerful and engaging format that can increase the impact and reach of product case studies. Video case studies can offer a more immersive and engaging experience for potential customers, allowing them to see the product's features, benefits, and value in action. Video case studies can also be easily shared across multiple social media platforms, generating greater brand awareness and recognition. Additionally, video case studies can provide visual data, graphs, and diagrams that can be more impactful than written or spoken testimonies.

How to Leverage Social Media to Amplify your Product Case Study

Social media is a powerful tool that can be used to amplify the reach and engagement of product case studies. Tips for leveraging social media include identifying the right social media platforms, creating shareable content that resonates with the audience, using relevant hashtags, tagging influential people in the industry, and promoting the content to targeted audiences. Social media can also be used to generate feedback, encourage testimonials, and gain insights into customers' views and opinions.

The Importance of A/B Testing in Optimizing your product case study

A/B testing can provide valuable insights into how potential customers interact with product case studies and what elements are most persuasive. A/B testing involves creating two versions of the product case study, each with a slightly different element, such as colors, headlines, or calls to action. By measuring how customers interact with each version, businesses can identify which elements are most effective and optimize the case study accordingly. A/B testing can lead to increased engagement, conversion rates, and customer satisfaction.

Best practices for collecting qualitative data through surveys and interviews

Collecting qualitative data through surveys and interviews is a valuable source of insights for product case studies. Best practices for collecting qualitative data include creating a structured interview process or survey, identifying the right questions, avoiding leading questions, listening actively, encouraging detailed responses, and using open-ended questions. Additionally, businesses should ensure confidentiality and anonymity to encourage honest and objective feedback from customers and experts.

Top mistakes businesses make when creating product case studies

Creating effective and compelling product case studies can be challenging, and businesses can make common mistakes that can hinder their impact. Common mistakes include not targeting the right audience, failing to have a clear message or value proposition, making the case study too sales-oriented, and lacking concrete data and statistics. It's crucial to have a thorough understanding of the product, the customers, and their needs, and providing an objective evaluation of the results to avoid these pitfalls.

The role of branding in creating an effective product case study

Branding plays a crucial role in creating an effective and persuasive product case study. The case study should reflect the brand identity and voice, including logos, fonts, and colors. It should also align with the target audience's preferences and interests and embody the brand's values, mission, and vision. An effective product case study should differentiate the brand from competitors and communicate the unique selling proposition. Lastly, brand consistency should be maintained across all channels and formats used to promote the case study.

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How to Write a Case Study: Bookmarkable Guide & Template

Updated: October 10, 2023

Published: January 12, 2023

Earning the trust of prospective customers can be a struggle. Before you can even begin to expect to earn their business, you need to demonstrate your ability to deliver on what your product or service promises.

Sure, you could say that you're great at X or that you're way ahead of the competition when it comes to Y. But at the end of the day, what you really need to win new business is cold, hard proof.

One of the best ways to prove your worth is through a compelling case study. In fact, HubSpot’s 2020 State of Marketing report found that case studies are so compelling that they are the fifth most commonly used type of content used by marketers.

Below, I'll walk you through what a case study is, how to prepare for writing one, what you need to include in it, and how it can be an effective tactic. To jump to different areas of this post, click on the links below to automatically scroll.

Case Study Definition

Case study templates, how to write a case study.

• How to Format a Case Study

Business Case Study Examples

A case study is a specific challenge a business has faced, and the solution they've chosen to solve it. Case studies can vary greatly in length and focus on several details related to the initial challenge and applied solution, and can be presented in various forms like a video, white paper, blog post, etc.

In professional settings, it's common for a case study to tell the story of a successful business partnership between a vendor and a client. Perhaps the success you're highlighting is in the number of leads your client generated, customers closed, or revenue gained. Any one of these key performance indicators (KPIs) are examples of your company's services in action.

When done correctly, these examples of your work can chronicle the positive impact your business has on existing or previous customers and help you attract new clients.

Free Case Study Templates

Showcase your company's success using these three free case study templates.

• Data-Driven Case Study Template
• Product-Specific Case Study Template
• General Case Study Template

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

Why write a case study? 

I know, you’re thinking “ Okay, but why do I need to write one of these? ” The truth is that while case studies are a huge undertaking, they are powerful marketing tools that allow you to demonstrate the value of your product to potential customers using real-world examples. Here are a few reasons why you should write case studies. 

1. Explain Complex Topics or Concepts

Case studies give you the space to break down complex concepts, ideas, and strategies and show how they can be applied in a practical way. You can use real-world examples, like an existing client, and use their story to create a compelling narrative that shows how your product solved their issue and how those strategies can be repeated to help other customers get similar successful results.  

2. Show Expertise

Case studies are a great way to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise on a given topic or industry. This is where you get the opportunity to show off your problem-solving skills and how you’ve generated successful outcomes for clients you’ve worked with. 

3. Build Trust and Credibility

In addition to showing off the attributes above, case studies are an excellent way to build credibility. They’re often filled with data and thoroughly researched, which shows readers you’ve done your homework. They can have confidence in the solutions you’ve presented because they’ve read through as you’ve explained the problem and outlined step-by-step what it took to solve it. All of these elements working together enable you to build trust with potential customers.

4. Create Social Proof

Using existing clients that have seen success working with your brand builds social proof . People are more likely to choose your brand if they know that others have found success working with you. Case studies do just that — putting your success on display for potential customers to see. 

All of these attributes work together to help you gain more clients. Plus you can even use quotes from customers featured in these studies and repurpose them in other marketing content. Now that you know more about the benefits of producing a case study, let’s check out how long these documents should be. 

How long should a case study be?

The length of a case study will vary depending on the complexity of the project or topic discussed. However, as a general guideline, case studies typically range from 500 to 1,500 words. 

Whatever length you choose, it should provide a clear understanding of the challenge, the solution you implemented, and the results achieved. This may be easier said than done, but it's important to strike a balance between providing enough detail to make the case study informative and concise enough to keep the reader's interest.

The primary goal here is to effectively communicate the key points and takeaways of the case study. It’s worth noting that this shouldn’t be a wall of text. Use headings, subheadings, bullet points, charts, and other graphics to break up the content and make it more scannable for readers. We’ve also seen brands incorporate video elements into case studies listed on their site for a more engaging experience. 

Ultimately, the length of your case study should be determined by the amount of information necessary to convey the story and its impact without becoming too long. Next, let’s look at some templates to take the guesswork out of creating one. 

To help you arm your prospects with information they can trust, we've put together a step-by-step guide on how to create effective case studies for your business with free case study templates for creating your own.

Tell us a little about yourself below to gain access today:

And to give you more options, we’ll highlight some useful templates that serve different needs. But remember, there are endless possibilities when it comes to demonstrating the work your business has done.

1. General Case Study Template

Do you have a specific product or service that you’re trying to sell, but not enough reviews or success stories? This Product Specific case study template will help.

This template relies less on metrics, and more on highlighting the customer’s experience and satisfaction. As you follow the template instructions, you’ll be prompted to speak more about the benefits of the specific product, rather than your team’s process for working with the customer.

4. Bold Social Media Business Case Study Template

You can find templates that represent different niches, industries, or strategies that your business has found success in — like a bold social media business case study template.

In this template, you can tell the story of how your social media marketing strategy has helped you or your client through collaboration or sale of your service. Customize it to reflect the different marketing channels used in your business and show off how well your business has been able to boost traffic, engagement, follows, and more.

5. Lead Generation Business Case Study Template

It’s important to note that not every case study has to be the product of a sale or customer story, sometimes they can be informative lessons that your own business has experienced. A great example of this is the Lead Generation Business case study template.

If you’re looking to share operational successes regarding how your team has improved processes or content, you should include the stories of different team members involved, how the solution was found, and how it has made a difference in the work your business does.

Now that we’ve discussed different templates and ideas for how to use them, let’s break down how to create your own case study with one.

• Get started with case study templates.
• Determine the case study's objective.
• Establish a case study medium.
• Find the right case study candidate.
• Contact your candidate for permission to write about them.
• Ensure you have all the resources you need to proceed once you get a response.
• Download a case study email template.
• Define the process you want to follow with the client.
• Ensure you're asking the right questions.
• Layout your case study format.
• Publish and promote your case study.

1. Get started with case study templates.

Telling your customer's story is a delicate process — you need to highlight their success while naturally incorporating your business into their story.

If you're just getting started with case studies, we recommend you download HubSpot's Case Study Templates we mentioned before to kickstart the process.

2. Determine the case study's objective.

All business case studies are designed to demonstrate the value of your services, but they can focus on several different client objectives.

Your first step when writing a case study is to determine the objective or goal of the subject you're featuring. In other words, what will the client have succeeded in doing by the end of the piece?

The client objective you focus on will depend on what you want to prove to your future customers as a result of publishing this case study.

Your case study can focus on one of the following client objectives:

• Complying with government regulation
• Lowering business costs
• Becoming profitable
• Generating more leads
• Closing on more customers
• Generating more revenue
• Expanding into a new market
• Becoming more sustainable or energy-efficient

3. Establish a case study medium.

Next, you'll determine the medium in which you'll create the case study. In other words, how will you tell this story?

Case studies don't have to be simple, written one-pagers. Using different media in your case study can allow you to promote your final piece on different channels. For example, while a written case study might just live on your website and get featured in a Facebook post, you can post an infographic case study on Pinterest and a video case study on your YouTube channel.

Here are some different case study mediums to consider:

Written Case Study

Consider writing this case study in the form of an ebook and converting it to a downloadable PDF. Then, gate the PDF behind a landing page and form for readers to fill out before downloading the piece, allowing this case study to generate leads for your business.

Video Case Study

Plan on meeting with the client and shooting an interview. Seeing the subject, in person, talk about the service you provided them can go a long way in the eyes of your potential customers.

Infographic Case Study

Use the long, vertical format of an infographic to tell your success story from top to bottom. As you progress down the infographic, emphasize major KPIs using bigger text and charts that show the successes your client has had since working with you.

Podcast Case Study

Podcasts are a platform for you to have a candid conversation with your client. This type of case study can sound more real and human to your audience — they'll know the partnership between you and your client was a genuine success.

4. Find the right case study candidate.

Writing about your previous projects requires more than picking a client and telling a story. You need permission, quotes, and a plan. To start, here are a few things to look for in potential candidates.

Product Knowledge

It helps to select a customer who's well-versed in the logistics of your product or service. That way, he or she can better speak to the value of what you offer in a way that makes sense for future customers.

Remarkable Results

Clients that have seen the best results are going to make the strongest case studies. If their own businesses have seen an exemplary ROI from your product or service, they're more likely to convey the enthusiasm that you want prospects to feel, too.

One part of this step is to choose clients who have experienced unexpected success from your product or service. When you've provided non-traditional customers — in industries that you don't usually work with, for example — with positive results, it can help to remove doubts from prospects.

Recognizable Names

While small companies can have powerful stories, bigger or more notable brands tend to lend credibility to your own. In fact, 89% of consumers say they'll buy from a brand they already recognize over a competitor, especially if they already follow them on social media.

Customers that came to you after working with a competitor help highlight your competitive advantage and might even sway decisions in your favor.

5. Contact your candidate for permission to write about them.

To get the case study candidate involved, you have to set the stage for clear and open communication. That means outlining expectations and a timeline right away — not having those is one of the biggest culprits in delayed case study creation.

Most importantly at this point, however, is getting your subject's approval. When first reaching out to your case study candidate, provide them with the case study's objective and format — both of which you will have come up with in the first two steps above.

To get this initial permission from your subject, put yourself in their shoes — what would they want out of this case study? Although you're writing this for your own company's benefit, your subject is far more interested in the benefit it has for them.

Benefits to Offer Your Case Study Candidate

Here are four potential benefits you can promise your case study candidate to gain their approval.

Brand Exposure

Explain to your subject to whom this case study will be exposed, and how this exposure can help increase their brand awareness both in and beyond their own industry. In the B2B sector, brand awareness can be hard to collect outside one's own market, making case studies particularly useful to a client looking to expand their name's reach.

Employee Exposure

Allow your subject to provide quotes with credits back to specific employees. When this is an option for them, their brand isn't the only thing expanding its reach — their employees can get their name out there, too. This presents your subject with networking and career development opportunities they might not have otherwise.

Product Discount

This is a more tangible incentive you can offer your case study candidate, especially if they're a current customer of yours. If they agree to be your subject, offer them a product discount — or a free trial of another product — as a thank-you for their help creating your case study.

Backlinks and Website Traffic

Here's a benefit that is sure to resonate with your subject's marketing team: If you publish your case study on your website, and your study links back to your subject's website — known as a "backlink" — this small gesture can give them website traffic from visitors who click through to your subject's website.

Additionally, a backlink from you increases your subject's page authority in the eyes of Google. This helps them rank more highly in search engine results and collect traffic from readers who are already looking for information about their industry.

6. Ensure you have all the resources you need to proceed once you get a response.

So you know what you’re going to offer your candidate, it’s time that you prepare the resources needed for if and when they agree to participate, like a case study release form and success story letter.

Let's break those two down.

Case Study Release Form

This document can vary, depending on factors like the size of your business, the nature of your work, and what you intend to do with the case studies once they are completed. That said, you should typically aim to include the following in the Case Study Release Form:

• A clear explanation of why you are creating this case study and how it will be used.
• A statement defining the information and potentially trademarked information you expect to include about the company — things like names, logos, job titles, and pictures.
• An explanation of what you expect from the participant, beyond the completion of the case study. For example, is this customer willing to act as a reference or share feedback, and do you have permission to pass contact information along for these purposes?
• A note about compensation.

Success Story Letter

As noted in the sample email, this document serves as an outline for the entire case study process. Other than a brief explanation of how the customer will benefit from case study participation, you'll want to be sure to define the following steps in the Success Story Letter.

7. Download a case study email template.

While you gathered your resources, your candidate has gotten time to read over the proposal. When your candidate approves of your case study, it's time to send them a release form.

A case study release form tells you what you'll need from your chosen subject, like permission to use any brand names and share the project information publicly. Kick-off this process with an email that runs through exactly what they can expect from you, as well as what you need from them. To give you an idea of what that might look like, check out this sample email:

8. Define the process you want to follow with the client.

Before you can begin the case study, you have to have a clear outline of the case study process with your client. An example of an effective outline would include the following information.

The Acceptance

First, you'll need to receive internal approval from the company's marketing team. Once approved, the Release Form should be signed and returned to you. It's also a good time to determine a timeline that meets the needs and capabilities of both teams.

The Questionnaire

To ensure that you have a productive interview — which is one of the best ways to collect information for the case study — you'll want to ask the participant to complete a questionnaire before this conversation. That will provide your team with the necessary foundation to organize the interview, and get the most out of it.

The Interview

Once the questionnaire is completed, someone on your team should reach out to the participant to schedule a 30- to 60-minute interview, which should include a series of custom questions related to the customer's experience with your product or service.

The Draft Review

After the case study is composed, you'll want to send a draft to the customer, allowing an opportunity to give you feedback and edits.

The Final Approval

Once any necessary edits are completed, send a revised copy of the case study to the customer for final approval.

Once the case study goes live — on your website or elsewhere — it's best to contact the customer with a link to the page where the case study lives. Don't be afraid to ask your participants to share these links with their own networks, as it not only demonstrates your ability to deliver positive results and impressive growth, as well.

9. Ensure you're asking the right questions.

Before you execute the questionnaire and actual interview, make sure you're setting yourself up for success. A strong case study results from being prepared to ask the right questions. What do those look like? Here are a few examples to get you started:

• What are your goals?
• What challenges were you experiencing before purchasing our product or service?
• What made our product or service stand out against our competitors?
• What did your decision-making process look like?
• How have you benefited from using our product or service? (Where applicable, always ask for data.)

Keep in mind that the questionnaire is designed to help you gain insights into what sort of strong, success-focused questions to ask during the actual interview. And once you get to that stage, we recommend that you follow the "Golden Rule of Interviewing." Sounds fancy, right? It's actually quite simple — ask open-ended questions.

If you're looking to craft a compelling story, "yes" or "no" answers won't provide the details you need. Focus on questions that invite elaboration, such as, "Can you describe ...?" or, "Tell me about ..."

In terms of the interview structure, we recommend categorizing the questions and flowing them into six specific sections that will mirror a successful case study format. Combined, they'll allow you to gather enough information to put together a rich, comprehensive study.

Open with the customer's business.

The goal of this section is to generate a better understanding of the company's current challenges and goals, and how they fit into the landscape of their industry. Sample questions might include:

• How long have you been in business?
• How many employees do you have?
• What are some of the objectives of your department at this time?

Cite a problem or pain point.

To tell a compelling story, you need context. That helps match the customer's need with your solution. Sample questions might include:

• What challenges and objectives led you to look for a solution?
• What might have happened if you did not identify a solution?
• Did you explore other solutions before this that did not work out? If so, what happened?

Discuss the decision process.

Exploring how the customer decided to work with you helps to guide potential customers through their own decision-making processes. Sample questions might include:

• How did you hear about our product or service?
• Who was involved in the selection process?
• What was most important to you when evaluating your options?

Explain how a solution was implemented.

The focus here should be placed on the customer's experience during the onboarding process. Sample questions might include:

• How long did it take to get up and running?
• Did that meet your expectations?
• Who was involved in the process?

Explain how the solution works.

The goal of this section is to better understand how the customer is using your product or service. Sample questions might include:

• Is there a particular aspect of the product or service that you rely on most?
• Who is using the product or service?

End with the results.

In this section, you want to uncover impressive measurable outcomes — the more numbers, the better. Sample questions might include:

• How is the product or service helping you save time and increase productivity?
• In what ways does that enhance your competitive advantage?
• How much have you increased metrics X, Y, and Z?

10. Lay out your case study format.

When it comes time to take all of the information you've collected and actually turn it into something, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. Where should you start? What should you include? What's the best way to structure it?

To help you get a handle on this step, it's important to first understand that there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to the ways you can present a case study. They can be very visual, which you'll see in some of the examples we've included below, and can sometimes be communicated mostly through video or photos, with a bit of accompanying text.

Here are the sections we suggest, which we'll cover in more detail down below:

• Title: Keep it short. Develop a succinct but interesting project name you can give the work you did with your subject.
• Subtitle: Use this copy to briefly elaborate on the accomplishment. What was done? The case study itself will explain how you got there.
• Executive Summary : A 2-4 sentence summary of the entire story. You'll want to follow it with 2-3 bullet points that display metrics showcasing success.
• About the Subject: An introduction to the person or company you served, which can be pulled from a LinkedIn Business profile or client website.
• Challenges and Objectives: A 2-3 paragraph description of the customer's challenges, before using your product or service. This section should also include the goals or objectives the customer set out to achieve.
• How Product/Service Helped: A 2-3 paragraph section that describes how your product or service provided a solution to their problem.
• Results: A 2-3 paragraph testimonial that proves how your product or service specifically benefited the person or company and helped achieve its goals. Include numbers to quantify your contributions.
• Supporting Visuals or Quotes: Pick one or two powerful quotes that you would feature at the bottom of the sections above, as well as a visual that supports the story you are telling.
• Future Plans: Everyone likes an epilogue. Comment on what's ahead for your case study subject, whether or not those plans involve you.
• Call to Action (CTA): Not every case study needs a CTA, but putting a passive one at the end of your case study can encourage your readers to take an action on your website after learning about the work you've done.

When laying out your case study, focus on conveying the information you've gathered in the most clear and concise way possible. Make it easy to scan and comprehend, and be sure to provide an attractive call-to-action at the bottom — that should provide readers an opportunity to learn more about your product or service.

11. Publish and promote your case study.

Once you've completed your case study, it's time to publish and promote it. Some case study formats have pretty obvious promotional outlets — a video case study can go on YouTube, just as an infographic case study can go on Pinterest.

But there are still other ways to publish and promote your case study. Here are a couple of ideas:

Lead Gen in a Blog Post

As stated earlier in this article, written case studies make terrific lead-generators if you convert them into a downloadable format, like a PDF. To generate leads from your case study, consider writing a blog post that tells an abbreviated story of your client's success and asking readers to fill out a form with their name and email address if they'd like to read the rest in your PDF.

Then, promote this blog post on social media, through a Facebook post or a tweet.

Published as a Page on Your Website

As a growing business, you might need to display your case study out in the open to gain the trust of your target audience.

Rather than gating it behind a landing page, publish your case study to its own page on your website, and direct people here from your homepage with a "Case Studies" or "Testimonials" button along your homepage's top navigation bar.

Format for a Case Study

The traditional case study format includes the following parts: a title and subtitle, a client profile, a summary of the customer’s challenges and objectives, an account of how your solution helped, and a description of the results. You might also want to include supporting visuals and quotes, future plans, and calls-to-action.

Image Source

The title is one of the most important parts of your case study. It should draw readers in while succinctly describing the potential benefits of working with your company. To that end, your title should:

• State the name of your custome r. Right away, the reader must learn which company used your products and services. This is especially important if your customer has a recognizable brand. If you work with individuals and not companies, you may omit the name and go with professional titles: “A Marketer…”, “A CFO…”, and so forth.
• State which product your customer used . Even if you only offer one product or service, or if your company name is the same as your product name, you should still include the name of your solution. That way, readers who are not familiar with your business can become aware of what you sell.
• Allude to the results achieved . You don’t necessarily need to provide hard numbers, but the title needs to represent the benefits, quickly. That way, if a reader doesn’t stay to read, they can walk away with the most essential information: Your product works.

The example above, “Crunch Fitness Increases Leads and Signups With HubSpot,” achieves all three — without being wordy. Keeping your title short and sweet is also essential.

2. Subtitle

Your subtitle is another essential part of your case study — don’t skip it, even if you think you’ve done the work with the title. In this section, include a brief summary of the challenges your customer was facing before they began to use your products and services. Then, drive the point home by reiterating the benefits your customer experienced by working with you.

The above example reads:

“Crunch Fitness was franchising rapidly when COVID-19 forced fitness clubs around the world to close their doors. But the company stayed agile by using HubSpot to increase leads and free trial signups.”

We like that the case study team expressed the urgency of the problem — opening more locations in the midst of a pandemic — and placed the focus on the customer’s ability to stay agile.

3. Executive Summary

The executive summary should provide a snapshot of your customer, their challenges, and the benefits they enjoyed from working with you. Think it’s too much? Think again — the purpose of the case study is to emphasize, again and again, how well your product works.

The good news is that depending on your design, the executive summary can be mixed with the subtitle or with the “About the Company” section. Many times, this section doesn’t need an explicit “Executive Summary” subheading. You do need, however, to provide a convenient snapshot for readers to scan.

In the above example, ADP included information about its customer in a scannable bullet-point format, then provided two sections: “Business Challenge” and “How ADP Helped.” We love how simple and easy the format is to follow for those who are unfamiliar with ADP or its typical customer.

4. About the Company

Readers need to know and understand who your customer is. This is important for several reasons: It helps your reader potentially relate to your customer, it defines your ideal client profile (which is essential to deter poor-fit prospects who might have reached out without knowing they were a poor fit), and it gives your customer an indirect boon by subtly promoting their products and services.

Feel free to keep this section as simple as possible. You can simply copy and paste information from the company’s LinkedIn, use a quote directly from your customer, or take a more creative storytelling approach.

In the above example, HubSpot included one paragraph of description for Crunch Fitness and a few bullet points. Below, ADP tells the story of its customer using an engaging, personable technique that effectively draws readers in.

5. Challenges and Objectives

The challenges and objectives section of your case study is the place to lay out, in detail, the difficulties your customer faced prior to working with you — and what they hoped to achieve when they enlisted your help.

In this section, you can be as brief or as descriptive as you’d like, but remember: Stress the urgency of the situation. Don’t understate how much your customer needed your solution (but don’t exaggerate and lie, either). Provide contextual information as necessary. For instance, the pandemic and societal factors may have contributed to the urgency of the need.

Take the above example from design consultancy IDEO:

“Educational opportunities for adults have become difficult to access in the United States, just when they’re needed most. To counter this trend, IDEO helped the city of South Bend and the Drucker Institute launch Bendable, a community-powered platform that connects people with opportunities to learn with and from each other.”

We love how IDEO mentions the difficulties the United States faces at large, the efforts its customer is taking to address these issues, and the steps IDEO took to help.

6. How Product/Service Helped

This is where you get your product or service to shine. Cover the specific benefits that your customer enjoyed and the features they gleaned the most use out of. You can also go into detail about how you worked with and for your customer. Maybe you met several times before choosing the right solution, or you consulted with external agencies to create the best package for them.

Whatever the case may be, try to illustrate how easy and pain-free it is to work with the representatives at your company. After all, potential customers aren’t looking to just purchase a product. They’re looking for a dependable provider that will strive to exceed their expectations.

In the above example, IDEO describes how it partnered with research institutes and spoke with learners to create Bendable, a free educational platform. We love how it shows its proactivity and thoroughness. It makes potential customers feel that IDEO might do something similar for them.

The results are essential, and the best part is that you don’t need to write the entirety of the case study before sharing them. Like HubSpot, IDEO, and ADP, you can include the results right below the subtitle or executive summary. Use data and numbers to substantiate the success of your efforts, but if you don’t have numbers, you can provide quotes from your customers.

We can’t overstate the importance of the results. In fact, if you wanted to create a short case study, you could include your title, challenge, solution (how your product helped), and result.

8. Supporting Visuals or Quotes

Let your customer speak for themselves by including quotes from the representatives who directly interfaced with your company.

Visuals can also help, even if they’re stock images. On one side, they can help you convey your customer’s industry, and on the other, they can indirectly convey your successes. For instance, a picture of a happy professional — even if they’re not your customer — will communicate that your product can lead to a happy client.

In this example from IDEO, we see a man standing in a boat. IDEO’s customer is neither the man pictured nor the manufacturer of the boat, but rather Conservation International, an environmental organization. This imagery provides a visually pleasing pattern interrupt to the page, while still conveying what the case study is about.

9. Future Plans

This is optional, but including future plans can help you close on a more positive, personable note than if you were to simply include a quote or the results. In this space, you can show that your product will remain in your customer’s tech stack for years to come, or that your services will continue to be instrumental to your customer’s success.

Alternatively, if you work only on time-bound projects, you can allude to the positive impact your customer will continue to see, even after years of the end of the contract.

10. Call to Action (CTA)

Not every case study needs a CTA, but we’d still encourage it. Putting one at the end of your case study will encourage your readers to take an action on your website after learning about the work you've done.

It will also make it easier for them to reach out, if they’re ready to start immediately. You don’t want to lose business just because they have to scroll all the way back up to reach out to your team.

To help you visualize this case study outline, check out the case study template below, which can also be downloaded here .

You drove the results, made the connection, set the expectations, used the questionnaire to conduct a successful interview, and boiled down your findings into a compelling story. And after all of that, you're left with a little piece of sales enabling gold — a case study.

To show you what a well-executed final product looks like, have a look at some of these marketing case study examples.

1. "Shopify Uses HubSpot CRM to Transform High Volume Sales Organization," by HubSpot

What's interesting about this case study is the way it leads with the customer. This reflects a major HubSpot value, which is to always solve for the customer first. The copy leads with a brief description of why Shopify uses HubSpot and is accompanied by a short video and some basic statistics on the company.

Notice that this case study uses mixed media. Yes, there is a short video, but it's elaborated upon in the additional text on the page. So, while case studies can use one or the other, don't be afraid to combine written copy with visuals to emphasize the project's success.

2. "New England Journal of Medicine," by Corey McPherson Nash

When branding and design studio Corey McPherson Nash showcases its work, it makes sense for it to be visual — after all, that's what they do. So in building the case study for the studio's work on the New England Journal of Medicine's integrated advertising campaign — a project that included the goal of promoting the client's digital presence — Corey McPherson Nash showed its audience what it did, rather than purely telling it.

Notice that the case study does include some light written copy — which includes the major points we've suggested — but lets the visuals do the talking, allowing users to really absorb the studio's services.

3. "Designing the Future of Urban Farming," by IDEO

Here's a design company that knows how to lead with simplicity in its case studies. As soon as the visitor arrives at the page, he or she is greeted with a big, bold photo, and two very simple columns of text — "The Challenge" and "The Outcome."

Immediately, IDEO has communicated two of the case study's major pillars. And while that's great — the company created a solution for vertical farming startup INFARM's challenge — it doesn't stop there. As the user scrolls down, those pillars are elaborated upon with comprehensive (but not overwhelming) copy that outlines what that process looked like, replete with quotes and additional visuals.

4. "Secure Wi-Fi Wins Big for Tournament," by WatchGuard

Then, there are the cases when visuals can tell almost the entire story — when executed correctly. Network security provider WatchGuard can do that through this video, which tells the story of how its services enhanced the attendee and vendor experience at the Windmill Ultimate Frisbee tournament.

5. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Boosts Social Media Engagement and Brand Awareness with HubSpot

In the case study above , HubSpot uses photos, videos, screenshots, and helpful stats to tell the story of how the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame used the bot, CRM, and social media tools to gain brand awareness.

6. Small Desk Plant Business Ups Sales by 30% With Trello

This case study from Trello is straightforward and easy to understand. It begins by explaining the background of the company that decided to use it, what its goals were, and how it planned to use Trello to help them.

It then goes on to discuss how the software was implemented and what tasks and teams benefited from it. Towards the end, it explains the sales results that came from implementing the software and includes quotes from decision-makers at the company that implemented it.

7. Facebook's Mercedes Benz Success Story

Facebook's Success Stories page hosts a number of well-designed and easy-to-understand case studies that visually and editorially get to the bottom line quickly.

Each study begins with key stats that draw the reader in. Then it's organized by highlighting a problem or goal in the introduction, the process the company took to reach its goals, and the results. Then, in the end, Facebook notes the tools used in the case study.

Showcasing Your Work

You work hard at what you do. Now, it's time to show it to the world — and, perhaps more important, to potential customers. Before you show off the projects that make you the proudest, we hope you follow these important steps that will help you effectively communicate that work and leave all parties feeling good about it.

Editor's Note: This blog post was originally published in February 2017 but was updated for comprehensiveness and freshness in July 2021.

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Showcase your company's success using these free case study templates.

How to write a case study — examples, templates, and tools

It’s a marketer’s job to communicate the effectiveness of a product or service to potential and current customers to convince them to buy and keep business moving. One of the best methods for doing this is to share success stories that are relatable to prospects and customers based on their pain points, experiences, and overall needs.

That’s where case studies come in. Case studies are an essential part of a content marketing plan. These in-depth stories of customer experiences are some of the most effective at demonstrating the value of a product or service. Yet many marketers don’t use them, whether because of their regimented formats or the process of customer involvement and approval.

A case study is a powerful tool for showcasing your hard work and the success your customer achieved. But writing a great case study can be difficult if you’ve never done it before or if it’s been a while. This guide will show you how to write an effective case study and provide real-world examples and templates that will keep readers engaged and support your business.

In this article, you’ll learn:

What is a case study?

How to write a case study, case study templates, case study examples, case study tools.

A case study is the detailed story of a customer’s experience with a product or service that demonstrates their success and often includes measurable outcomes. Case studies are used in a range of fields and for various reasons, from business to academic research. They’re especially impactful in marketing as brands work to convince and convert consumers with relatable, real-world stories of actual customer experiences.

The best case studies tell the story of a customer’s success, including the steps they took, the results they achieved, and the support they received from a brand along the way. To write a great case study, you need to:

• Celebrate the customer and make them — not a product or service — the star of the story.
• Craft the story with specific audiences or target segments in mind so that the story of one customer will be viewed as relatable and actionable for another customer.
• Write copy that is easy to read and engaging so that readers will gain the insights and messages intended.
• Follow a standardized format that includes all of the essentials a potential customer would find interesting and useful.
• Support all of the claims for success made in the story with data in the forms of hard numbers and customer statements.

Case studies are a type of review but more in depth, aiming to show — rather than just tell — the positive experiences that customers have with a brand. Notably, 89% of consumers read reviews before deciding to buy, and 79% view case study content as part of their purchasing process. When it comes to B2B sales, 52% of buyers rank case studies as an important part of their evaluation process.

Telling a brand story through the experience of a tried-and-true customer matters. The story is relatable to potential new customers as they imagine themselves in the shoes of the company or individual featured in the case study. Showcasing previous customers can help new ones see themselves engaging with your brand in the ways that are most meaningful to them.

Besides sharing the perspective of another customer, case studies stand out from other content marketing forms because they are based on evidence. Whether pulling from client testimonials or data-driven results, case studies tend to have more impact on new business because the story contains information that is both objective (data) and subjective (customer experience) — and the brand doesn’t sound too self-promotional.

Case studies are unique in that there’s a fairly standardized format for telling a customer’s story. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for creativity. It’s all about making sure that teams are clear on the goals for the case study — along with strategies for supporting content and channels — and understanding how the story fits within the framework of the company’s overall marketing goals.

Here are the basic steps to writing a good case study.

1. Identify your goal

Start by defining exactly who your case study will be designed to help. Case studies are about specific instances where a company works with a customer to achieve a goal. Identify which customers are likely to have these goals, as well as other needs the story should cover to appeal to them.

The answer is often found in one of the buyer personas that have been constructed as part of your larger marketing strategy. This can include anything from new leads generated by the marketing team to long-term customers that are being pressed for cross-sell opportunities. In all of these cases, demonstrating value through a relatable customer success story can be part of the solution to conversion.

2. Choose your client or subject

Who you highlight matters. Case studies tie brands together that might otherwise not cross paths. A writer will want to ensure that the highlighted customer aligns with their own company’s brand identity and offerings. Look for a customer with positive name recognition who has had great success with a product or service and is willing to be an advocate.

The client should also match up with the identified target audience. Whichever company or individual is selected should be a reflection of other potential customers who can see themselves in similar circumstances, having the same problems and possible solutions.

Some of the most compelling case studies feature customers who:

• Switch from one product or service to another while naming competitors that missed the mark.
• Experience measurable results that are relatable to others in a specific industry.
• Represent well-known brands and recognizable names that are likely to compel action.
• Advocate for a product or service as a champion and are well-versed in its advantages.

Whoever or whatever customer is selected, marketers must ensure they have the permission of the company involved before getting started. Some brands have strict review and approval procedures for any official marketing or promotional materials that include their name. Acquiring those approvals in advance will prevent any miscommunication or wasted effort if there is an issue with their legal or compliance teams.

3. Conduct research and compile data

Substantiating the claims made in a case study — either by the marketing team or customers themselves — adds validity to the story. To do this, include data and feedback from the client that defines what success looks like. This can be anything from demonstrating return on investment (ROI) to a specific metric the customer was striving to improve. Case studies should prove how an outcome was achieved and show tangible results that indicate to the customer that your solution is the right one.

This step could also include customer interviews. Make sure that the people being interviewed are key stakeholders in the purchase decision or deployment and use of the product or service that is being highlighted. Content writers should work off a set list of questions prepared in advance. It can be helpful to share these with the interviewees beforehand so they have time to consider and craft their responses. One of the best interview tactics to keep in mind is to ask questions where yes and no are not natural answers. This way, your subject will provide more open-ended responses that produce more meaningful content.

4. Choose the right format

There are a number of different ways to format a case study. Depending on what you hope to achieve, one style will be better than another. However, there are some common elements to include, such as:

• An engaging headline
• A subject and customer introduction
• The unique challenge or challenges the customer faced
• The solution the customer used to solve the problem
• The results achieved
• Data and statistics to back up claims of success
• A strong call to action (CTA) to engage with the vendor

It’s also important to note that while case studies are traditionally written as stories, they don’t have to be in a written format. Some companies choose to get more creative with their case studies and produce multimedia content, depending on their audience and objectives. Case study formats can include traditional print stories, interactive web or social content, data-heavy infographics, professionally shot videos, podcasts, and more.

5. Write your case study

We’ll go into more detail later about how exactly to write a case study, including templates and examples. Generally speaking, though, there are a few things to keep in mind when writing your case study.

• Be clear and concise. Readers want to get to the point of the story quickly and easily, and they’ll be looking to see themselves reflected in the story right from the start.
• Provide a big picture. Always make sure to explain who the client is, their goals, and how they achieved success in a short introduction to engage the reader.
• Construct a clear narrative. Stick to the story from the perspective of the customer and what they needed to solve instead of just listing product features or benefits.
• Leverage graphics. Incorporating infographics, charts, and sidebars can be a more engaging and eye-catching way to share key statistics and data in readable ways.
• Offer the right amount of detail. Most case studies are one or two pages with clear sections that a reader can skim to find the information most important to them.
• Include data to support claims. Show real results — both facts and figures and customer quotes — to demonstrate credibility and prove the solution works.

6. Promote your story

Marketers have a number of options for distribution of a freshly minted case study. Many brands choose to publish case studies on their website and post them on social media. This can help support SEO and organic content strategies while also boosting company credibility and trust as visitors see that other businesses have used the product or service.

Marketers are always looking for quality content they can use for lead generation. Consider offering a case study as gated content behind a form on a landing page or as an offer in an email message. One great way to do this is to summarize the content and tease the full story available for download after the user takes an action.

Sales teams can also leverage case studies, so be sure they are aware that the assets exist once they’re published. Especially when it comes to larger B2B sales, companies often ask for examples of similar customer challenges that have been solved.

Now that you’ve learned a bit about case studies and what they should include, you may be wondering how to start creating great customer story content. Here are a couple of templates you can use to structure your case study.

Template 1 — Challenge-solution-result format

• Start with an engaging title. This should be fewer than 70 characters long for SEO best practices. One of the best ways to approach the title is to include the customer’s name and a hint at the challenge they overcame in the end.
• Create an introduction. Lead with an explanation as to who the customer is, the need they had, and the opportunity they found with a specific product or solution. Writers can also suggest the success the customer experienced with the solution they chose.
• Present the challenge. This should be several paragraphs long and explain the problem the customer faced and the issues they were trying to solve. Details should tie into the company’s products and services naturally. This section needs to be the most relatable to the reader so they can picture themselves in a similar situation.
• Share the solution. Explain which product or service offered was the ideal fit for the customer and why. Feel free to delve into their experience setting up, purchasing, and onboarding the solution.
• Explain the results. Demonstrate the impact of the solution they chose by backing up their positive experience with data. Fill in with customer quotes and tangible, measurable results that show the effect of their choice.
• Ask for action. Include a CTA at the end of the case study that invites readers to reach out for more information, try a demo, or learn more — to nurture them further in the marketing pipeline. What you ask of the reader should tie directly into the goals that were established for the case study in the first place.

Template 2 — Data-driven format

• Start with an engaging title. Be sure to include a statistic or data point in the first 70 characters. Again, it’s best to include the customer’s name as part of the title.
• Create an overview. Share the customer’s background and a short version of the challenge they faced. Present the reason a particular product or service was chosen, and feel free to include quotes from the customer about their selection process.
• Present data point 1. Isolate the first metric that the customer used to define success and explain how the product or solution helped to achieve this goal. Provide data points and quotes to substantiate the claim that success was achieved.
• Present data point 2. Isolate the second metric that the customer used to define success and explain what the product or solution did to achieve this goal. Provide data points and quotes to substantiate the claim that success was achieved.
• Present data point 3. Isolate the final metric that the customer used to define success and explain what the product or solution did to achieve this goal. Provide data points and quotes to substantiate the claim that success was achieved.
• Summarize the results. Reiterate the fact that the customer was able to achieve success thanks to a specific product or service. Include quotes and statements that reflect customer satisfaction and suggest they plan to continue using the solution.
• Ask for action. Include a CTA at the end of the case study that asks readers to reach out for more information, try a demo, or learn more — to further nurture them in the marketing pipeline. Again, remember that this is where marketers can look to convert their content into action with the customer.

While templates are helpful, seeing a case study in action can also be a great way to learn. Here are some examples of how Adobe customers have experienced success.

Juniper Networks

One example is the Adobe and Juniper Networks case study , which puts the reader in the customer’s shoes. The beginning of the story quickly orients the reader so that they know exactly who the article is about and what they were trying to achieve. Solutions are outlined in a way that shows Adobe Experience Manager is the best choice and a natural fit for the customer. Along the way, quotes from the client are incorporated to help add validity to the statements. The results in the case study are conveyed with clear evidence of scale and volume using tangible data.

The story of Lenovo’s journey with Adobe is one that spans years of planning, implementation, and rollout. The Lenovo case study does a great job of consolidating all of this into a relatable journey that other enterprise organizations can see themselves taking, despite the project size. This case study also features descriptive headers and compelling visual elements that engage the reader and strengthen the content.

Tata Consulting

When it comes to using data to show customer results, this case study does an excellent job of conveying details and numbers in an easy-to-digest manner. Bullet points at the start break up the content while also helping the reader understand exactly what the case study will be about. Tata Consulting used Adobe to deliver elevated, engaging content experiences for a large telecommunications client of its own — an objective that’s relatable for a lot of companies.

Case studies are a vital tool for any marketing team as they enable you to demonstrate the value of your company’s products and services to others. They help marketers do their job and add credibility to a brand trying to promote its solutions by using the experiences and stories of real customers.

When you’re ready to get started with a case study:

• Think about a few goals you’d like to accomplish with your content.
• Make a list of successful clients that would be strong candidates for a case study.
• Reach out to the client to get their approval and conduct an interview.
• Gather the data to present an engaging and effective customer story.

Adobe can help

There are several Adobe products that can help you craft compelling case studies. Adobe Experience Platform helps you collect data and deliver great customer experiences across every channel. Once you’ve created your case studies, Experience Platform will help you deliver the right information to the right customer at the right time for maximum impact.

To learn more, watch the Adobe Experience Platform story .

Keep in mind that the best case studies are backed by data. That’s where Adobe Real-Time Customer Data Platform and Adobe Analytics come into play. With Real-Time CDP, you can gather the data you need to build a great case study and target specific customers to deliver the content to the right audience at the perfect moment.

Watch the Real-Time CDP overview video to learn more.

Finally, Adobe Analytics turns real-time data into real-time insights. It helps your business collect and synthesize data from multiple platforms to make more informed decisions and create the best case study possible.

Request a demo to learn more about Adobe Analytics.

https://business.adobe.com/blog/perspectives/b2b-ecommerce-10-case-studies-inspire-you

https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/business-case

https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/what-is-real-time-analytics

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15+ Professional Case Study Examples [Design Tips + Templates]

By Alice Corner , Jan 12, 2023

Let me ask you a question: Have you ever bought something — within the last 10 years or so — without reading its reviews or without a recommendation or prior experience of using it?

If the answer is no — or at least, rarely — you get my point.

For businesses selling consumer goods, having raving reviews is a good way to get more customers. The same thing applies to B2B and/or SaaS businesses — but for this type of business, besides regular, short reviews, having a detailed case study can help tremendously.

Case studies are an incredibly effective form of marketing that you can use to help promote your product and plan your marketing strategy effectively. You can also use it as a form of customer analysis or as a sales tool to inspire potential customers.

So what does a case study look like and how can you create one? In this article, I’m going to list over 15 marketing case study examples, case study tips, and case study templates to help you create a case study that converts.

Click to jump ahead:

• What is a Case Study?
• Marketing Case Study Examples

Sales Case Study Examples

Simple case study examples, business case study examples.

• Case Study FAQs

What is a case study?

A case study is a research method to gain a better understanding of a subject or process. Case studies involve in-depth research into a given subject, in order to understand its functionality and successes.

In the context of a business, however, case studies take customer success stories and explore how they use your product to help them achieve their business goals.

As well as being valuable marketing tools, case studies are a good way to evaluate your product as it allows you to objectively examine how others are using it.

It’s also a good way to interview your customers about why they work with you.

Related: What is a Case Study? [+6 Types of Case Studies]

What is a marketing case study?

A marketing case study is a type of marketing where you use your existing customers as an example of what your product or services can achieve. You can also create case studies of internal, successful marketing projects.

Here’s an example of a marketing case study template:

Return to Table of Contents

Marketing case study examples

Marketing case studies are incredibly useful for showing your marketing successes. Every successful marketing campaign relies on influencing a consumer’s behavior, and a great case study can be a great way to spotlight your biggest wins.

In the marketing case study examples below, a variety of designs and techniques to create impactful and effective case studies.

Show off impressive results with a bold marketing case study

Case studies are meant to show off your successes, so make sure you feature your positive results prominently. Using bold and bright colors as well as contrasting shapes, large bold fonts, and simple icons is a great way to highlight your wins.

In well-written case study examples like the one below, the big wins are highlighted on the second page with a bright orange color and are highlighted in circles.

Making the important data stand out is especially important when attracting a prospective customer with marketing case studies.

Use a simple but clear layout in your case study

Using a simple layout in your case study can be incredibly effective, like in the example of a case study below.

Keeping a clean white background, and using slim lines to help separate the sections is an easy way to format your case study.

Making the information clear helps draw attention to the important results, and it helps improve the  accessibility of the design .

Business case study examples like this would sit nicely within a larger report, with a consistent layout throughout.

Use visuals and icons to create an engaging and branded business case study

Nobody wants to read pages and pages of text — and that’s why Venngage wants to help you communicate your ideas visually.

Using icons, graphics, photos, or patterns helps create a much more engaging design. 

With this Blue Cap case study icons, colors, and impactful pattern designs have been used to create an engaging design that catches your eye.

Use a monochromatic color palette to create a professional and clean case study

Let your research shine by using a monochromatic and minimalistic color palette.

By sticking to one color, and leaving lots of blank space you can ensure your design doesn’t distract a potential customer from your case study content.

In this case study on Polygon Media, the design is simple and professional, and the layout allows the prospective customer to follow the flow of information.

The gradient effect on the left-hand column helps break up the white background and adds an interesting visual effect.

Did you know you can generate an accessible color palette with Venngage? Try our free accessible color palette generator today and create a case study that delivers and looks pleasant to the eye:

Add long term goals in your case study

When creating a case study it’s a great idea to look at both the short term and the long term goals of the company to gain the best understanding possible of the insights they provide.

Short-term goals will be what the company or person hopes to achieve in the next few months, and long-term goals are what the company hopes to achieve in the next few years.

Check out this modern pattern design example of a case study below:

In this case study example, the short and long-term goals are clearly distinguished by light blue boxes and placed side by side so that they are easy to compare.

Use a strong introductory paragraph to outline the overall strategy and goals before outlining the specific short-term and long-term goals to help with clarity.

This strategy can also be handy when creating a consulting case study.

Use data to make concrete points about your sales and successes

When conducting any sort of research stats, facts, and figures are like gold dust (aka, really valuable).

Being able to quantify your findings is important to help understand the information fully. Saying sales increased 10% is much more effective than saying sales increased.

In sales case study examples, like this one, the key data and findings can be presented with icons. This contributes to the potential customer’s better understanding of the report.

They can clearly comprehend the information and it shows that the case study has been well researched.

Use emotive, persuasive, or action based language in your marketing case study

Create a compelling case study by using emotive, persuasive and action-based language when customizing your case study template.

In this well-written case study example, we can see that phrases such as “Results that Speak Volumes” and “Drive Sales” have been used.

Using persuasive language like you would in a blog post. It helps inspire potential customers to take action now.

Keep your potential customers in mind when creating a customer case study for marketing

82% of marketers use case studies in their marketing  because it’s such an effective tool to help quickly gain customers’ trust and to showcase the potential of your product.

Why are case studies such an important tool in content marketing?

By writing a case study you’re telling potential customers that they can trust you because you’re showing them that other people do.

Not only that, but if you have a SaaS product, business case studies are a great way to show how other people are effectively using your product in their company.

In this case study, Network is demonstrating how their product has been used by Vortex Co. with great success; instantly showing other potential customers that their tool works and is worth using.

Related: 10+ Case Study Infographic Templates That Convert

Case studies are particularly effective as a sales technique.

A sales case study is like an extended customer testimonial, not only sharing opinions of your product – but showcasing the results you helped your customer achieve.

Make impactful statistics pop in your sales case study

Writing a case study doesn’t mean using text as the only medium for sharing results.

You should use icons to highlight areas of your research that are particularly interesting or relevant, like in this example of a case study:

Icons are a great way to help summarize information quickly and can act as visual cues to help draw the customer’s attention to certain areas of the page.

In some of the business case study examples above, icons are used to represent the impressive areas of growth and are presented in a way that grabs your attention.

Use high contrast shapes and colors to draw attention to key information in your sales case study

Help the key information stand out within your case study by using high contrast shapes and colors.

Use a complementary or contrasting color, or use a shape such as a rectangle or a circle for maximum impact.

This design has used dark blue rectangles to help separate the information and make it easier to read.

Coupled with icons and strong statistics, this information stands out on the page and is easily digestible and retainable for a potential customer.

Less is often more, and this is especially true when it comes to creating designs. Whilst you want to create a professional-looking, well-written and design case study – there’s no need to overcomplicate things.

These simple case study examples show that smart clean designs and informative content can be an effective way to showcase your successes.

Use colors and fonts to create a professional-looking case study

Business case studies shouldn’t be boring. In fact, they should be beautifully and professionally designed.

This means the normal rules of design apply. Use fonts, colors, and icons to create an interesting and visually appealing case study.

In this case study example, we can see how multiple fonts have been used to help differentiate between the headers and content, as well as complementary colors and eye-catching icons.

Whether you’re a B2B or B2C company, business case studies can be a powerful resource to help with your sales, marketing, and even internal departmental awareness.

Business and business management case studies should encompass strategic insights alongside anecdotal and qualitative findings, like in the business case study examples below.

Conduct a B2B case study by researching the company holistically

When it comes to writing a case study, make sure you approach the company holistically and analyze everything from their social media to their sales.

Think about every avenue your product or service has been of use to your case study company, and ask them about the impact this has had on their wider company goals.

In business case study examples like the one above, we can see that the company has been thought about holistically simply by the use of icons.

By combining social media icons with icons that show in-person communication we know that this is a well-researched and thorough case study.

This case study report example could also be used within an annual or end-of-year report.

Highlight the key takeaway from your marketing case study

To create a compelling case study, identify the key takeaways from your research. Use catchy language to sum up this information in a sentence, and present this sentence at the top of your page.

This is “at a glance” information and it allows people to gain a top-level understanding of the content immediately. 

You can use a large, bold, contrasting font to help this information stand out from the page and provide interest.

Learn  how to choose fonts  effectively with our Venngage guide and once you’ve done that.

Upload your fonts and  brand colors  to Venngage using the  My Brand Kit  tool and see them automatically applied to your designs.

The heading is the ideal place to put the most impactful information, as this is the first thing that people will read.

In this example, the stat of “Increase[d] lead quality by 90%” is used as the header. It makes customers want to read more to find out how exactly lead quality was increased by such a massive amount.

If you’re conducting an in-person interview, you could highlight a direct quote or insight provided by your interview subject.

Pick out a catchy sentence or phrase, or the key piece of information your interview subject provided and use that as a way to draw a potential customer in.

Use charts to visualize data in your business case studies

Charts are an excellent way to visualize data and to bring statistics and information to life. Charts make information easier to understand and to illustrate trends or patterns.

Making charts is even easier with Venngage.

In this consulting case study example, we can see that a chart has been used to demonstrate the difference in lead value within the Lead Elves case study.

Adding a chart here helps break up the information and add visual value to the case study. 

Using charts in your case study can also be useful if you’re creating a project management case study.

You could use a Gantt chart or a project timeline to show how you have managed the project successfully.

Use direct quotes to build trust in your marketing case study

To add an extra layer of authenticity you can include a direct quote from your customer within your case study.

According to research from Nielsen , 92% of people will trust a recommendation from a peer and 70% trust recommendations even if they’re from somebody they don’t know.

So if you have a customer or client who can’t stop singing your praises, make sure you get a direct quote from them and include it in your case study.

You can either lift part of the conversation or interview, or you can specifically request a quote. Make sure to ask for permission before using the quote.

This design uses a bright contrasting speech bubble to show that it includes a direct quote, and helps the quote stand out from the rest of the text.

This will help draw the customer’s attention directly to the quote, in turn influencing them to use your product or service.

Case Study Examples Summary

Once you have created your case study, it’s best practice to update your examples on a regular basis to include up-to-date statistics, data, and information.

You should update your business case study examples often if you are sharing them on your website.

It’s also important that your case study sits within your brand guidelines – find out how Venngage’s My Brand Kit tool can help you create consistently branded case study templates.

Case studies are important marketing tools – but they shouldn’t be the only tool in your toolbox. Content marketing is also a valuable way to earn consumer trust.

Case Study FAQ

Why should you write a case study.

Case studies are an effective marketing technique to engage potential customers and help build trust.

By producing case studies featuring your current clients or customers, you are showcasing how your tool or product can be used. You’re also showing that other people endorse your product.

In addition to being a good way to gather positive testimonials from existing customers , business case studies are good educational resources and can be shared amongst your company or team, and used as a reference for future projects.

How should you write a case study?

To create a great case study, you should think strategically. The first step, before starting your case study research, is to think about what you aim to learn or what you aim to prove.

You might be aiming to learn how a company makes sales or develops a new product. If this is the case, base your questions around this.

You can learn more about writing a case study  from our extensive guide.

Related: How to Present a Case Study like a Pro (With Examples)

Some good questions you could ask would be:

• Why do you use our tool or service?
• How often do you use our tool or service?
• What does the process of using our product look like to you?
• If our product didn’t exist, what would you be doing instead?
• What is the number one benefit you’ve found from using our tool?

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Want to Make Better Products? Build Better Case Studies With This Method.

Robert Cialdini’s book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion , first released in 1984,  popularized the concept of social proof. This phenomenon consists of individuals copying the actions of others around them in order to acclimate to a system. People are subconsciously influenced by the behavior of other people within a given environment. Although this idea is simple, Cialdini’s book radically changed my mind with respect to how I interacted with the content that my product team and I produced.

Why was this theory so profound? Well, the book helped me understand why people were ignoring almost everything that we gave them. As it turned out, everything that we wrote was focused on ourselves and not on our customers. 

We weren’t influencing. Instead, we were just talking. 

Cialdini’s work gave a conceptual framework to something that the best marketers already subconsciously knew: Nothing sells better than reflecting the customer’s own actions back at them. 

For example, say you want to buy a shirt.  Which of these pitches is more likely to make you buy?

Option A: This shirt is made of polyester, washes well and makes you look professional.

Option B: This shirt is built for the product manager on the go. When you’re sweating the details and pacifying the battle between sales and engineering, you’ll want a shirt that stays tucked in as you rush from meeting to meeting. 

Option B draws on social proof to reflect actions that you’ve experienced back at you. 

Product management (PdM) is about helping the team improve decision fitness. That includes how we influence our customers to use our products, especially if we’re confident that our product is the right one for them. Social proof helps us accomplish this goal. 

Before we can use social proof, however, we need a way to get the information that we want to reflect back to the customer.  In other words, how do we come to see the world as our customers see it? How might we put ourselves in their headspace?

Sure, you can scan different websites, browse social media, or even look at your competitors to see what they’re doing. With any of these strategies, however, you’re only getting part of the picture. Like almost anything dealing with product development, talking to your customer directly is going to get the best results.  

So, for PdMs to get the data they need to gather social proof and understand how customers see the world, we can rely on case studies. Let’s talk about what exactly these are and how you can use them to help you influence your customers and help other teams, like product marketing and sales, make better decisions.

3 Key Steps To Building a Product Case Study

• Make an outline.
• Ask the right questions.
• Analyze carefully.

More Product Advice From Adam Thomas How To Improve Your Product Research

What Is a Case Study?

For our purposes, a case study is an in-depth conversation aimed at understanding how a customer uses our product. We want to get to know who they are, why they use our product, and the context in which they use it.

This technique is how you get inside of your customer’s head. When you have multiple, deep customer conversations over a period of time, you’ll get a better understanding of what drives them. You’ll also be able to target your marketing so that it makes sense to them.

How Do You Build Case Studies?

Building case studies is no different than doing any other interview .  When conducting a proactive conversion with customers, you need to understand what you want, use open-ended questions, and analyze everything carefully.

Make an Outline

You can go in a bunch of different directions when you talk to your customers. In fact, if you’re like most PdMs, this is an easy trap to fall into. Everything that the customer says may seem like gold, and it’s easy to follow any string in hopes of chasing down an insight. 

So, how do you avoid that trap? You’ll need to write an outline to keep yourself on track. A case study outline is simple and has three components. 

Hypothesis. You need a clear hypothesis whenever you talk to a customer. What question are you trying to answer by talking to the customer? Why are they important? Note this information upfront, and derive the questions from the hypothesis. Consider it your anchor.

Goal. What type of assets are you planning to create from this interview? Who wants this information? Having this in the form of an aligning statement, something that helps the team know what you are looking for and what you want to build, will help with analysis. Do it now so you won’t have to think about it later.

Questions. These are based on both the hypothesis and the goal. 

Those three components will help you avoid the trap of letting the interviews meander. Now, let’s talk a little bit more about those questions. 

Ask the Right Questions

Your question set should be short, with no more than five max.

You want to follow up on your initial questions to get as many stories as possible. If you have more than five, you risk letting the interview get rigid since you’ll feel pressured to get to as many questions as possible. Further, asking fewer questions will make sure you have some uniformity to the answers.

Even though you’re just asking a few questions, you’ll want to keep them open-ended.  An open-ended question like “Walk me through your shirt purchase. What drove this decision?” is better than “Did you like our service?” The latter could too easily elicit just a yes or no response while the former invites the customer to provide more detail.

You want to have a free-flowing conversation, which means focusing on the customer. Conversations are going to give you the information you need to build that social proof. Once you’ve acquired that information, you can analyze the material and create the case study. 

Analyze Carefully

Before conducting an analysis, make sure you sit with these conversations for a while. 

Take the time to find good quotations that are interesting and align with your values by transcribing the interviews. Check to see if the language in your marketing materials matches how your customers talk. The closer your work matches their worldview, the more they will trust the product.

This process may seem simple at first. As you start to put this plan into action, however, you’ll see how much data you can collect and how closely you can tailor your product to match the mental model of your customers.

You’ll eventually be able to see if the plan is working when you make changes and hear from the customer again. The next time you talk to them, you want to hear something along the lines of, “Your [page/feature/tool] described my issue exactly, and that’s why I bought the product.”

Build Artifacts To Put Case Studies to Work

When you have the data from the interviews, you’ll be able to build artifacts that match your customer’s mental model.

What are some artifacts that can come from doing a case study?

Testimonials. These are short-form statements, usually a paragraph or less, that come directly from the customer and attest to the value of your product or service. During the interview, the customer may offer a bite-sized anecdote that sums up a feature or your product in a helpful way. These statements are great to use on a sales or product page to give your work more credibility.

Articles. These interviews create the kernel of an article for your writers. If your team has a blog, use it to underscore the high points that customers report or spotlight a particularly well-liked feature. Writing an article based on the case study conversation can help customers see, in a more relaxed context, how your product will work for them.

White Papers. A white paper is a one-page selling document highlighting the technical side of a product. For more technical products, you must give potential custoemrs a look at how the product functions in a more structured, quasi-academic format. Your case studies will allow your team to write a white paper by giving you anchor points led by the customer. 

Customers want to tell their stories. When your product is great, rest assured they are doing it anyway. Most of the time, they are happy to spend time with you and your team and give you good feedback. More importantly, you’ll get the social proof you need to stand above the rest of the marketplace.

Built In’s expert contributor network publishes thoughtful, solutions-oriented stories written by innovative tech professionals. It is the tech industry’s definitive destination for sharing compelling, first-person accounts of problem-solving on the road to innovation.

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Top 10 Product Case Study Examples with Templates and Samples

Well-crafted case studies can have an immense influence over clients and showcase the success of your products - but how do you create the ones that standout? Are you an aspiring professional, looking to leave a lasting impression through your product case studies? Look no further! Here is your solution ! 

Prepare to be amazed as you uncover startling statistics: companies using case studies effectively in their marketing strategy may experience up to 70% more conversions. Here we present the Top 10 Product Case Study Templates , with examples and samples to inspire and assist your journey.

If you are looking for project business case studies , read our blog to learn more!

Embark The Ladder of Success with Our High-End Product Case Study Templates

With SlideTeam's carefully curated templates designed to maximize engagement and visual appeal, you have everything you need to craft captivating case studies that captivate your target audience. Keep reading to learn about the leading case study templates in detail!

Template 1: Product Case Study Analyst Performing Research Business Automobile Electronic

Professionals in the automobile sector will benefit significantly from this comprehensive template, offering a systematic framework for analyzing goods in the automotive electronics market.

Anyone from product analysts to market researchers to business consultants to those curious about the automotive electronics market might benefit from this template. This template can help you communicate your results clearly, whether you're doing an internal study for your company or making a presentation for customers or stakeholders.

Download now and improve your knowledge of product case study analysis in the automotive electronics industry. 

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Template 2: Case Study Analysis for a Soft Drink Product

Have you ever wondered what goes into a comprehensive soft drink case study analysis? This template reveals the secrets of successful soft drink brands.

The problem statement outlines the soft drink product's issues. It discusses measures to overcome them. Improve your soft drink offering using the template's intelligent ideas. "About Us" gives context for the case study.

Marketing specialists may analyze their soft drink product's market performance and critical initiatives and create expansion ideas. Discover the secrets of successful soft drink products by downloading them now!

Template 3: New Product Management Techniques Strategy Case Study Product Development Strategy

This template inspires and educates professionals and amateurs by fostering product management and development. It helps you discover new product development methods within your industry. It includes a detailed case study of the problems, methods, and results of product development plan execution. It shows how companies can manage brand and customer management.

This template is helpful in engaging customers. It has three phases for strategy, product development, and portfolio management, offering effective results. Why wait?

Template 4: A business case study for automobile product

If you are a business owner in the automobile segment, there is no doubt you may face difficulties in developing innovative and cost-efficient products. NOT ANYMORE! Our next-gen template provides a compelling narrative to address these hurdles. 

By engaging in this case study template, you'll gain insight into the problem-solving process, understand implemented solutions, and evaluate remarkable results achieved. With topics including challenge , solution, outcomes, technology, problem, and client, this template makes an invaluable resource available for instant download. 

Template 5: A case study for financial market product

Are you ready to decipher a successful automobile product company case study? This template unlocks the secrets of auto product success. This template covers the issue, solution, results , and technology. It analyzes the issue and shows how the solution helped the customer.

The template helps marketing teams, and sales professionals identify problems and solutions that produce results. Don't waste this resource! Get this template to amaze your audience with stunning images and powerful outcomes. 

Head to our blog and discover the power of financial case study templates for remarkable impact.

Template 6: Case Study For Production Services One Pager Sample Example Document

You are a production services company that has found itself with an obstacle. Your achievements and success stories are great to showcase but are having difficulty being effectively presented to their target audience. That was until you came up with this AMAZING template.

The template covers a financial market case study in one step. The framework helps marketing teams assess how life events and vacations affect financial market items, allowing tailored advertisements.

Template 7: Stakeholder Product Delivery Case Study

Jeff Bezos once said, "We see our customers as guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our daily job to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better." 

This philosophy becomes even more significant during this Product Delivery Case Study template. The template includes a detailed case study of three delivery phases. It shows how product owners overcome their obstacles in terms of customer service. The case study examines how delivery practices affect stakeholders, presenting lessons and recommended practices.

Product developers, shippers, and managers may learn about delivery methods and issues. The template helps project teams meet stakeholder expectations and deliver products smoothly.  Download to captivate users. 

Template 8: Product Development Plan Case Study Product Development Strategy

Are you a successful business looking to navigate the complexities of product development? This template highlights the brand's issues, strategy, and results. The case study shows how the brand satisfied customers and grew their product.

Product managers may improve their practices by studying effective product development techniques. The template may help them identify brand difficulties and create market-positioning strategies. Don't delay! Download to unlock success through strategic innovation.

Template 9: A case study for product launch advertising services ppt powerpoint topics

Launching a product successfully requires more than just a great product; it also demands strategic advertising services. In that case, our template is best. Each case study portion breaks out the issues, solution, focused approach, and successful pricing methods.

It lets you exhibit real-world events, problem-solving, and customer success. It works for startups, existing enterprises, and advertising agencies. It helps you demonstrate the value and effectiveness of your product launch advertising services to customers, stakeholders, and internal teams. Download and implement a practical approach that makes all the difference.

Template 10: New Product Development Proposal For Case Study One Pager Sample Example Document

Walt Disney once said, "If you can dream it, you can do it." This statement perfectly aligns with this template case study details . It covers project description, budget and outcomes, and timeframe. The project description describes the new product's goal, characteristics, and market. 

The budget and results section covers project finances and expected outcomes and benefits. Finally, the timeline shows project milestones and deadlines. Internal stakeholders, decision-makers, and investors who need a brief but complete knowledge of the proposed new product should use this form. Download to present your new product development idea clearly and aesthetically. 

Unleash Innovation with Us

The availability of top 10 product case study examples with templates and samples provides invaluable resources for businesses and professionals. These SlideTeam templates stand out as excellent options for showing success stories. 

Don't miss the chance to enhance client case studies by reading our blog on must-have templates .

Use these slideshow-quality presentation pieces to captivate audiences through compelling case studies using SlideTeam templates!

FAQs on Product Case Studies

What is a product case study.

Product case studies provide an in-depth examination and examination of a particular product's development, marketing, and performance. They give insight into how a product was conceptualized, its challenges during production, strategies implemented for its success, and outcomes realized, often including details regarding the target market, competition, features of the product offered for marketing campaigns, and customer feedback. They serve as invaluable resources for businesses and professionals seeking insight into effective product strategies while learning from real-life examples.

What should be included in a product case study?

Product case studies provide an in-depth examination and analysis of one specific product's development, marketing, and performance from its initial concept to market launch and beyond. They examine every stage in its lifecycle from conceptualization through market launch. Product case studies provide valuable insights into the development process, the challenges encountered, and strategies implemented to overcome them. Businesses and professionals can benefit from studying successful product case studies to gain valuable knowledge about target markets, competition, features of products or features of effective marketing campaigns, customer feedback, and more. 

How can product case studies benefit businesses and professionals?

Product case studies offer numerous benefits to businesses and professionals. First, they are real-life examples of successful product strategies so others may gain insights from proven approaches. Case studies give businesses an in-depth view of market trends, customer preferences, and competitive landscapes. They also showcase challenges faced during the product development process that were overcome, serving as valuable lessons for future endeavors. Product case studies increase credibility and trust by showcasing past achievements and drawing in potential customers and stakeholders.

What role do templates and samples play in creating impactful product case studies?

Templates and samples play a crucial part in crafting influential product case studies. By providing a structured framework and format that guides the presentation of information, ensuring consistency and clarity, templates can help save both time and effort by offering pre-designed layouts, graphics, and placeholders that allow users to focus on content creation without spending hours making drafts from scratch. Samples serve as references showing successful case studies that can serve as sources for inspiration in storytelling techniques that work - businesses and professionals can utilize these to streamline the creation process.

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Product Management

6 Product Management Case Studies You Can't Miss

Mahima Arora

Associate Product Marketer at Zeda.io.

January 23, 2023

8 mins read

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Product management case studies are detailed analyses of how a product was conceptualized, developed, and marketed. A typical product management case study contains the following:

• The pain points and expectations of the user
• Competing products in the market
• Development , delivery, and iteration methods
• Marketing strategies implemented to relay the product’s value proposition
• How the product was received
• Lessons for the product team

So, why should you learn about the development of a product in so much detail? The answer lies in the sixth bullet.

Let’s look at how reading case studies related to product management can help you.

How product management case studies help you

Here’s why reading product management case studies is a worthwhile investment of your time. A well-written case study:

• Gives you an in-depth understanding of real product problems : Meeting or exceeding the expectations of the customers is always challenging. Whether it is technical complexities, budget limitations, or organizational miscommunication, a case study helps you recognize the source of the problem which led to the development of a less-desirable product.
• Contains practical insights outside of the theory : Even a layman can learn the steps of SaaS product management . However, seasoned product managers know that developing a successful product takes more than learning the development steps. These case studies contain tons of real-life scenarios and the lessons that come with them.
• Educates you and makes you a better product manager: Product management case study examples take you through the journey of developing a product, which helps you improve your existing approach toward product development. You will also learn better ways to manage your team and resources.

In simple terms, a product management case study helps teams learn lessons that they can emulate to develop a more profitable product.

In this article, let’s look at six product management case studies that are a must-read for every product manager.

1. Slack: Initial product launch strategy

Stewart Butterfield started a gaming company called Tiny Speck to change the world of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG). Him and his team created Glitch which was quite different from other games in that genre such as World of Warcraft.

Glitch was a 2D game that did not have the violent aspects that typical MMORPG games had at the time. It allowed extensive character personalization and Butterfield described it as “Monty Python crossed with Dr. Seuss on acid”.

While building Glitch, Butterfield and his team used the Internet Relay Chat (IRC), an online chat tool popular in the 80s and 90s. However, it fell short as the team found it difficult to keep track of past conversations, which motivated them to build their own communication tool.

As they developed Glitch, their internal chat tool gained more features based on their needs.

Despite lots of support from investors, Glitch was unable to attract enough players to keep running profitably and Butterfield eventually shut it down in 2012 .

After six months, in early 2013, Butterfield renamed their internal communication tool Slack - acronym for Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge and requested his friends and colleagues to try it out and give feedback — they all loved it.

By May 2013, Slack was ready for the big reveal which posed a new challenge — executing the perfect launch strategy to drive demand.

Slack’s Challenge: Nailing the initial product launch

While launching an app that can have such an impact on how organizations work, it is crucial to get it right. At the time, there weren’t many team messaging apps and most teams had conversations via email.

Slack needed a significant number of early adopters to validate their hypotheses about team collaboration and collect data that will help them improve its services further. Consequently, this increased the stakes for the first launch.

How did Slack do it

CEO Stewart Butterfield revealed that on the first day of the launch, Slack welcomed 8000 new users which rose to 15000 at the end of the second week. The credit for this initial success, he explains, went primarily to social media.

Social media helped Slack deliver its PR pieces through its genuine users. This led to a snowballing effect because people interacted with people.

Slack recorded over 18 million active users in 2020.

Although the impact of social media-based word-of-mouth marketing will have different levels of success as it depends on factors such as the type of product and its use cases, you should have a social media marketing strategy to spread the word.

2. Superhuman: Finding product-market fit

‍ Superhuman is a premium email service for busy teams and professionals who need more of everything; speed, usability, and personalization. Apart from superb design, Superhuman processes and executes any request within 100ms.

Rahul Vohra built Rapportive in 2010 — a plugin that adds social profiles to Gmail which was later acquired by LinkedIn . This gave Vohra an intimate view of email and quickly realized that things will progressively get worse.

In his words, “I could see Gmail getting worse every single year, becoming more cluttered, using more memory, consuming more CPU, slowing down your machine, and still not working properly offline.” 

He also brought attention to the number of plugins people used, “And on top of that, people were installing plugins like ours, Rapportive, but also Boomerang, Mixmax, Clearbit, you name it, they had it. And each plugin took those problems of clutter, memory, CPU, performance offline, and made all of them dramatically worse.”

Vohra had one question in his mind — how different would the email experience be if it was designed today instead of 12 years ago?

‍ Superhuman was born to give professionals the email experience that they have been long waiting for. Smooth, easy on the eyes, and most importantly, blazingly fast.

But, there was one elephant in the room.

The idea of building a better email service than the existing players sounded great. However, going against some of the biggest brands of Silicon Valley required more than a bad personal experience with Gmail. 

The Superhuman team needed evidence that such a product is actually desirable.

Superhuman’s Challenge: Establishing product-market fit

The team at Superhuman was competing against the email services of Apple, Google, and Microsoft which made the product-market fit quite crucial.

But how do you know whether you have achieved product-market fit?

How did Superhuman do it

Vohra and his team came up with an innovative idea to measure product-market fit by testing crucial hypotheses and focusing on the right target audience.

Superhuman had two hypotheses :

• People are dissatisfied with Gmail and how slow it is.
• People are also dissatisfied with third-party email clients and how buggy they were.

In a product management case study , Vohra explained how to find the right audience — the users who would be ‘very disappointed’ if they could no longer use your product. After identifying them, all you have to do is build the product as they want it.

3. Medium: “Highlights” feature

Evan Williams co-founded Blogger and Twitter which has helped millions of people share their thoughts with the world. Although both platforms became quite popular, they still couldn’t deliver the best reading experience to their users. Blogger allowed readers to browse topics by authors only and Twitter made it difficult for authors to aptly describe themselves.

He quickly recognized the need for a publishing platform that delivers a diverse experience for the readers and allows the authors to speak their hearts.

That’s how Medium was born. It enabled readers to browse articles by topics and authors, helping them to gain different perspectives on any particular subject. It also allowed everyone from professional programmers to amateur chefs to share their insights with the world as they wanted it.

The developers slowly added more features to Medium such as tags, linked images, social cards, and sharing drafts as it evolved through the years.

One of the many notable features of the platform is the “Highlight” feature — where you can select any particular post section and treat it as a mini-post. You can comment on the Highlight or tweet it, which is handy for both personal revision and sharing interesting snippets with others.

Suggested Read: Want to become a Product Coach?

Medium’s Challenge: Determining whether “Highlights” added value

Medium faced a challenge while determining a metric that can give them an accurate assessment of the desirability of this feature. In other words, they needed a metric that would tell them whether the “Highlights” feature made user interactions better and more rewarding.

How did Medium do it

The team at Medium solved the challenge by shifting their focus to one crucial metric rather than multiple vanity metrics such as organic visits and retention time which signifies how much value your users are getting out of your product based on retention rate. 

For Medium, it was Total Time Reading (TTR) . It is calculated by estimating the average read time which is the number of words divided by the average reading speed (about 265 WPM) and adding the time spent by the reader lingering over good paragraphs by tracking scrolling speed.

4. Ipsy: Managing distribution 

Michelle Phan started her journey as a YouTuber who recognized the importance of makeup in someone’s self-expression. She has been sharing beauty tips and makeup tutorials with her audience since 2007. 

While on a trip to Thailand, she observed how little girls scrambled to pay for makeup samples in front of vending machines. Five years later, she launched a subscription-based Glam Bag program — where the customers will receive 4-5 deluxe-sized samples of makeup products.

MyGlam, as it was known back then, quickly gained over half-a-million monthly subscribers which created one of the biggest online beauty communities.

Phan quickly realized what she wanted to do — to build a brand for women who wanted to share their perspectives on beauty and meet like-minded people with similar interests and styles.

Ipsy , which comes from the Latin root “ipse” meaning “self”, was created by Phan, Marcelo Camberos, Jennifer Goldfarb, and Richard Frias to expand the user experience.

Although Phan knew how to convert viewers into paying customers, executing a marketing strategy by scaling it up was challenging.

Ipsy’s Challenge: Managing a content distribution strategy

The first makeup tutorial by Michelle Phan has now over 12 million views. Videos like that helped Phan get her first subscribers on her MyGlam program.

This shows the importance and impact of influencer-led content on revenue for businesses in the beauty industry.

However, running an influencer content distribution strategy involves collaborating with multiple passionate influencers. It was challenging to find like-minded influencers who will promote only one brand.

Phan and her team had a simple solution for this.

How did Ipsy do it

Phan and Spencer McClung, EVP of Media and Partnerships at Ipsy, partnered with beauty influencers like Bethany Mota, Promise Phan, Jessica Harlow, and Andrea Brooks who were already subscribed to MyGlam to create content exclusively for Ipsy.

In a case study analysis, McClung revealed that it put Ipsy on a content-based growth loop where the content was created by both the influencers and customers for the beauty community.

Sponsored content for products by influencers helped them increase their reach and helped Ipsy get more loyal customers. This growth loop gained Ipsy over 3 million monthly subscribers .

5. Stitch Fix: Mastering personalization

Katrina Lake, the founder of Stitch Fix , realized back in 2011 that apparel shopping needed an upgrade. eCommerce failed to meet the expectations of the shoppers and retail shops were falling short in terms of options.

In an interview with The Cut , she revealed "Searching online for jeans is a ridiculously bad experience. And I realized that if I imagined a different future, I could create it."

After realizing that no one has merged data and fashion shopping, she set out to make a difference. She started a personal styling service out of her apartment in 2011 when she was pursuing her MBA from Harvard.

Lake relied on SurveyMonkey to keep track of her customer’s preferences and charged $20 as a styling fee. In late 2012 Eric Colson, then the VP of data science and engineering at Netflix, joined Lake on her journey of crafting the future of retail.

Lake and Colson wanted to give their customers much more than just personalized recommendations.

Stitch Fix’s Challenge: Building a personalized store

Stitch Fix wanted to give their customers more than just personalized recommendations — they wanted to build a personalized store for them where everything they look at, from clothes to accessories, matches their flavor.

But everyone’s body dimensions, preferences, budgets, and past choices are unique which can make building a personalized store difficult.

The team at Stitch Fix found a simple yet effective solution for this challenge.

How did Stitch Fix do it

Katrina Lake, CEO of Stitch Fix, revealed in a case study that personalization is crucial for the onboarding, retention, and monetization of customers.

When signing up, Stitch Fix asks you a few questions about your fashion choices and picks clothes that look the best on you. Furthermore, the collections in your personal store will keep improving as it continuously learns more about your personal preferences.

Also, there is no subscription fee which makes Stitch Fix a great option for occasional shoppers. Suggested Read: Canva’s Success Tale in the World of Design

6. Pinterest: User retention

Ben Silbermann started his tech career at Google’s customer support department. Although he loved the company and believed in its vision, he quickly became frustrated as he wasn’t allowed to build products.

With support from his girlfriend (now wife) Divya and a college friend Paul Sciarra (co-founder), Ben created an app called “Tote” in 2009 which was described as a “catalog for the phone”. Tote allowed users to catalog their favorite items and will be alerted whenever they were on sale so they can make a purchase.

However, the users used it to share their collections with each other instead. Ben recalled how he collected insects as a kid and loved sharing his collection with others. He recognized how people, in general, love to do that.

And, just like that, Pinterest was born where users can “pin” whatever they are interested in and add it to their personal collections.

Pinterest quickly became a hit and entered the global market.

Despite huge success within the US, Pinterest struggled to retain users globally. The team realized that the primary reason users churned is that something stopped them from getting the product’s core value — building personal collections.

Pinterest’s Challenge: Helping customers quickly realize the core value

There are many things that can prevent a user from accessing a product’s core value and one of them is internal friction within the product.

Pinterest’s product folks zeroed in on the one feature that was the gateway to the product’s core value — the “Pin It” feature.

Users outside the US simply couldn’t relate to the term, even though all it did was save the item they like to their personal collection.

How did Pinterest do it

The “Pin It” feature of Pinterest is linked directly to its brand identity. Casey Winters, former growth product lead at Pinterest, suggested changing it to “Save”, particularly in areas outside of the US.

As of the third quarter of 2022, it has over 445 million monthly users all over the world exploring various “ideas” to build collections for sharing with their friends.

Casey concludes in the product management case study that checking whether the users are getting your product’s core value is pivotal in solving most of your growth challenges.

Key Takeaways

Case studies for product management contain in-depth insights that help product teams improve their approach toward their product’s ideation, analysis , development, and commercialization.

The six product management case study examples we reviewed above give these crucial insights:

• Slack : Don’t forget to use social media for marketing your product before its launch.
• Superhuman : Focus on the users that will be “very disappointed” if they can’t use your product anymore to achieve product-market fit.
• Medium : Track the one metric that tells you whether your users are getting value from your product rather than vanity metrics such as organic traffic.
• Ipsy : Partner with influencers to educate your target audience on how to get the most out of your product.
• Stitch Fix : Learn about what your users want and recommend them just that.
• Pinterest : Continuously experiment by changing multiple variables to uncover new growth opportunities.

To put these lessons into practice, you need to provide your team with the right tools that help them interact with your users, learn about their preferences, monitor their usage data, plan the next steps, and manage product development effectively.

Zeda.io is a product management super-app that allows you to do just that. You can run your entire product management process , from ideation to delivery, in one place. Zeda.io comes with over 5000 integrations with Zapier, enabling you to hit the ground running in no time.

Start your free trial today . Also, looking for the latest trends in AI, UX, product management, and startups? Join our biweekly newsletter now! We distill complex topics into actionable insights just for you. Hit the 'Subscribe' button and never miss out on these valuable updates. Act now – because in the fast-paced world of tech, staying ahead matters! Subscribe here.

• What is a product management case study?

Answer: A product management case study is a detailed analysis of how a product was developed and iterated over time for maximum success. These studies help product managers learn from others and improve their own approach toward product management.

• How do you prepare a product management case?

Answer: You can prepare a product management case study in four steps — understand customer needs, monitor the stages of development, identify the factors that affected the course of product development, and extract takeaways.

• What are the 3 major areas of product management?

Answer: Discovery — recognizing the need for a product, planning — creating a roadmap to plan the product’s development, and development — the various sprints through which a product is developed are three major areas of product management.

• What are the 7 steps of product planning?

Answer: Concept development, competitive analysis, market research, MVP development, introduction, product lifecycle, and sunset are the seven steps of product planning.

• What are the 5 dimensions of product management?

Answer: Reliability, usability, functionality, maintainability, and efficiency are the five dimensions of product management.

• What are the 4 P's of product management?

Answer: Product, price, place, and promotion are the 4Ps of product management which represent four crucial aspects product teams should simultaneously focus on while developing a product. 

• What are the 5 phases of the product management process?

Answer: Idea generation, screening, concept development, product development, and commercialization are the five phases of the product management process .

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50 Product Management Case Studies

We often wonder what kind of process other product teams have created, planned, and most importantly, how they have implemented it. That is why we at Producter have compiled 50 different case studies for you.

a year ago   •   4 min read

We often wonder what kind of process other product teams have created, planned, and most importantly, how they have implemented it.

That is why we at Producter have compiled 50 different case studies for you.

Brought to you by Roadmape

1- Rules of Flow for Product Management: an AirBnB Case Study

“Engagement” is a term that is so overused in product management that it has almost lost its meaning. So often I’ve heard from teams, “We’ll measure the success of this test with engagement,” which could mean anything from feature click-through to bounce to we-aren’t-really-sure-this-will-drive-conversion-so-we’re-hedging-our-bet. Underneath, the reason this term has been co-opted and jargonized is that genuine, productive engagement can be ramped toward long-term customer loyalty. And loyalty pays off: a loyalty increase of 7% can boost lifetime profits per customer by as much as 85%, and a loyalty increase of 3% can correlate to a 10% cost reduction ( Brand Keys ).

2- The Psychology of Clubhouse’s User Retention (...and churn)

3- Netflix Q1 ’21 Subscriber Growth Miss: Can We Avoid Another One?

As a data analyst supporting a mobile subscription business , Netflix’s Q1 ’21 subscriber growth miss is a classic example of when I would get called for recommendations to prevent a miss in the future. I thought this would make an interesting case study to discuss my approach to finding insights to drive subscriber growth. Sadly I’m not a Netflix employee and will be limited to publicly available data but the wealth of information on the Internet about Netflix is sufficient to generate insights for this case study.

4- Amazon Go Green

As part of the Design Challenge from productdesign.tips, our team came together to find ways for Amazon to encourage more sustainability on their e-commerce platform. As with any unsolicited design project, the challenge comes with a lack of access to application analytics and technical feasibilities. Nonetheless, the question remains: How might we design checkout screens for an e-commerce app to help people recycle the goods they buy?

5- Quora Case Study – The Wonderful World of Quora

Quora has become a substantive resource for millions of entrepreneurs and one of the best sources for Business to Business market. Majorly used by writers, scholars, bloggers, investors, consultants, students this Q/A site has much to offer in terms of knowledge sharing, connection building and information gathering.

6- Building a product without any full-time product managers

Jambb is an emerging social platform where creators grow their communities by recognizing and rewarding fans for their support. Currently, creators monetize fan engagement through advertisements, merchandise, and subscriptions, to name a few. However, this only represents 1% of fans, leaving the other 99% (who contribute in non-monetary ways) without the same content, access, and recognition that they deserve.

8- What if you can create Listening Sessions on Spotify

Summary: The project was done as a part of a user experience design challenge given to me by a company. I was given the brief by them to work on a feature of Spotify and I spent around 25–30 hours on the challenge in which I went through the entire process, from the research to testing.

9- Redesigned Apple Maps and replicated an Apple product launch for it

Quick-fire question; what is the single most important and widely used feature in a phone — asides from texting and instant messaging friends, coworkers and family? Maybe you guessed right, perhaps this feature is so integrated into your life that you didn’t even think about it — either way, it is your phone’s GPS. It is reasonable to say that GPS technology has changed society’s lives in ways we never could’ve imagined. Gone are the days of using physically printed maps and almanacks, when we now have smartphones with navigation apps. Since the launch of the iPhone and the App Store, consumers have been able to use different apps for their personal navigation needs. Everyone has a preference, and apps have come out to try and address every need.

10- Intuitive design and product-led growth

In 2018, Miro was hardly a blip on the radar in the Design world. Fast forward two years, and suddenly Miro is solidly the number one tool for brainstorming and ideation.

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• 21 Apr 2023
• Research & Ideas

The $15 Billion Question: Have Loot Boxes Turned Video Gaming into Gambling?

Critics say loot boxes—major revenue streams for video game companies—entice young players to overspend. Can regulators protect consumers without dampening the thrill of the game? Research by Tomomichi Amano and colleague.

• 28 Mar 2023

The FDA’s Speedy Drug Approvals Are Safe: A Win-Win for Patients and Pharma Innovation

Expediting so-called breakthrough therapies has saved millions of dollars in research time without compromising drug safety or efficacy, says research by Ariel Stern, Amitabh Chandra, and colleagues. Could policymakers harness the approach to bring life-saving treatments to the market faster?

• 31 Jan 2023
• Cold Call Podcast

Addressing Racial Discrimination on Airbnb

For years, Airbnb gave hosts extensive discretion to accept or reject a guest after seeing little more than a name and a picture, believing that eliminating anonymity was the best way for the company to build trust. However, the apartment rental platform failed to track or account for the possibility that this could facilitate discrimination. After research published by Professor Michael Luca and others provided evidence that Black hosts received less in rent than hosts of other races and showed signs of discrimination against guests with African American sounding names, the company had to decide what to do. In the case, “Racial Discrimination on Airbnb,” Luca discusses his research and explores the implication for Airbnb and other platform companies. Should they change the design of the platform to reduce discrimination? And what’s the best way to measure the success of any changes?

• 12 Oct 2022

When Design Enables Discrimination: Learning from Anti-Asian Bias on Airbnb

Airbnb bookings dropped 12 percent more for hosts with Asian names than other hosts during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, says research by Michael Luca. Could better design deter bias, particularly during times of crisis?

• 05 May 2022

Why Companies Raise Their Prices: Because They Can

Markups on household items started climbing years before the COVID-19 pandemic. Companies have realized just how much consumers will pay for the brands they love, says research by Alexander MacKay. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

• 19 Oct 2021

Should Global Beer Company Molson Coors Dive into the Cannabis Beverages Business?

In March 2019, Molson Coors CEO Mark Hunter considered a request to pull forward $65 million to build a facility in Canada to produce cannabis beverages. This request was not part of the original plan to test the waters with a few products in a small geography to see if there was a viable market opportunity, given that there was no legal market yet. It's this change in direction that gives Hunter pause. Should he approve the request, or push the team back to the original, more conservative plan? Senior Lecturer Derek van Bever and Steve Kaufman discuss balancing exploitation versus exploration inside this global brewing company in the case, "Beyond Beer: Brewing Innovation at Molson Coors." Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 29 Sep 2021

For Entrepreneurs, Blown Deadlines Can Crush Big Ideas

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• 02 Aug 2020
• What Do You Think?

Is the 'Experimentation Organization' Becoming the Competitive Gold Standard?

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• 28 Jul 2020

Racism and Digital Design: How Online Platforms Can Thwart Discrimination

Poor design decisions contribute to racial discrimination on many online platforms. Michael Luca and colleagues offer tips for reducing the risk, used by Airbnb and other companies. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 23 Mar 2020
• Working Paper Summaries

The Effects of Hierarchy on Learning and Performance in Business Experimentation

Do senior managers help or hurt business experiments? Analyzing a dataset of more than 6,300 experiments on the A/B/n testing platform Optimizely, this study suggests that involving senior executives in experimentation teams can have surprising consequences.

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• 16 Sep 2019

Crowdsourcing Is Helping Hollywood Reduce the Risk of Movie-Making

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• 19 Dec 2018

Find and Replace: R&D Investment Following the Erosion of Existing Products

This study sheds light on how product outcomes shape the direction of innovation and markets for technology. In the drug development industry in particular, negative product shocks appear to spur investment changes both within the directly affected firm and in competing firms in the same R&D markets.

• 10 Dec 2018

Platform Competition: Betfair and the U.K. Market for Sports Betting

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• 06 Aug 2018

Supersmart Manufacturing Tools are Lowering Prices on TVs, Bulbs, and Solar Panels

Electronics manufacturers are finding it increasingly difficult to stay ahead of low-cost competitors, says Willy Shih. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 21 Feb 2018

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• 20 Dec 2017
• Lessons from the Classroom

How to Design a Better Customer Experience

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• 06 Dec 2017

Trials and Terminations: Learning from Competitors' R&D Failures

When companies terminate R&D projects, it has ripple effects on the project selection decisions of rival firms and the broader competitive environment. Examining firm responses to others’ failures, this paper introduces a new model of R&D investment decisions, and empirically investigates when knowledge generated by rivals directly enters specific project investment decisions.

• 29 Mar 2017

The Story of Why Humans Are So Careless With Their Phones

Consumers act more recklessly with the products they own when better versions become available, according to research by Silvia Bellezza, Joshua M. Ackerman and Francesca Gino. This comic by Josh Neufeld explains. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 20 Jul 2016

Airplane Design Brings Out the Class Warfare in Us All

Air rage is often blamed on overcrowded flights and postage stamp-size seats, but researchers Michael Norton and Katherine A. DeCelles find another culprit: resentment toward passengers in first class. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

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7 Product Management Case Studies To Live and Learn By

Product strategy case study

Product manager interview case study examples, bonus: two more resources you didn’t know you needed.

You will have some successes and make some mistakes. That is ok. The point is to learn from your mistakes, adapt and continuously improve.

For any product manager working in an Agile environment, this philosophy works pretty well with the iterative approach that Scrum and its related methodologies encourage. But, it is also worth learning from others who have been ‘doing’ in environments similar to yours. 

Why make avoidable mistakes when you can learn from what’s worked well for other product managers?

To help out with that, we’ve put together a collection of product management case studies. 

Want to learn from other product managers with remote teams? Looking for tips on the best way to prioritize ? Then we have you covered.

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.css-uphcpb{position:absolute;left:0;top:-87px;} 7 product management case studies and examples of product management in action

Roadmaps and prioritization case studies.

Where better place to start than the holy grail of product management excellence, roadmaps and prioritization techniques?

Prioritization and roadmapping may be interdependent, but they still serve very different functions. Your roadmap is ‘when you will build’ and your prioritization list tends to be ‘what you will build’ within that time frame. These two product management case studies focus on how teams used airfocus to improve their processes and productivity.

Aligning your roadmap and agreeing to your prioritizations is a mission-critical component of successful product teams. Our client, Mirrorweb , is an archiving solution provider that assists its clients with compliance requirements — and is a fantastic case study of how roadmapping and prioritization can make a product team more effective. 

Jamie Hoyle, the VP of Product needed to achieve two key objectives:

Visualize project management trade-offs and effort.

Make quantitative product decisions collectively and collaboratively.

Jamie chose airfocus based on a few stand-out features:

Easy to update and share roadmaps . This was an improvement from their previous situation, where their roadmap was updated monthly. 

Scoring matrix. This ranks features by relative effort and customer value. Bonus: It works in real-time, and you can customize your settings based on feedback loops.

New features, technical debt and client requests can be attributed to the roadmap to easily measure impact.

With airfocus, the Mirrorweb team was able to work with greater clarity and communication, despite moving into a fully remote set-up.

Then there’s NAMOA Digital , an end-to-end process management software solutions provider. NAMOA Digital’s team faced similar challenges related to roadmaps and prioritization. André Cardoso and the rest of his business solutions team knew that they had to solve a few key issues, including:

Lack of a strategically structured and prioritized request list.

No process for deciding where to invest the team’s resources. 

Missing an efficient and collaborative prioritization process.

No easy method to share roadmap decisions or align the whole organization with an agreed product strategy .

Andre was using excel formulas to create his prioritization criteria and kanban boards for workflows. By switching to airfocus , he was able to simplify and optimize the product management process with these key features:

Consolidated roadmap and prioritization list in an easy-to-access tool.

Customizable prioritization. Set your own total priority calculation with adjustable criteria, making deciding what to build next a breeze. Teams can contribute to the business goals or criteria.

Ask any world-class PM , and they’ll tell you that product strategies are a framework , not a ‘vision’. Frameworks are more useful when they are tangible and that’s why your product strategy should work to inform your roadmap, objectives, key results ( OKR ) and ultimately your backlog too.

Tech travel company, Almundo, transformed into a product-driven company with product-led growth by defining its strategy first. Their Head of Product, Franco Fagioli, approached setting the product strategy in a pragmatic way by asking the right questions: 

What is our organization’s purpose?

Where is our playground? Think segment, vertical, and channels.

How will we succeed? Define your approach by picking your Porter strategy . Will lower cost, differentiation, or focus be more valuable for your product, for example?

What capabilities do we need now? What skills will be required to deliver against the strategy and who do you know you can provide them?

What systems do we need? Are you going with Slack or Teams? What will be your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system?

An insight for Almundo’s team was to recognize that the answers to these questions existed at different levels within their organization. Almundo's three levels needed to be merged into one framework. 

Corporate level

Strategic Group level

Individual Business level

Your team can tweak this approach according to the complexity of your set-up. In Almundo’s case, the team chose an iterative approach that combined the inputs into one roadmap. The roadmap covered their objectives, key results (OKR) and backlog.

So what does this product management case study teach us about product strategy?

Define your North Star . Start at the top and go through each level.

Prioritize and define . Keep OKRs minimal. A good guide is to stick to three objectives for the next quarter. Don’t add any KRs that you don't really need. Think like Mari Kondo.

Quarterly planning meetings . To start, these will cover future plans. Once you have the first quarter behind you, you can include learnings and results.

When you have a clear strategy in place, take a look at the elements related to delivering on that strategy . As you probably noticed, having good tools can make or break the creation and implementation of your strategic goals.

Cut through the clutter of PM Content with our bi-weekly digest

Remote product management case study.

Oriflame is a long-standing airfocus client . They are a remote-working beauty brand with a presence in 60 countries. Although this global spread can add value in some ways, Product Managing Director, Joakim Wissing, was struggling to communicate his product strategy across a business that was divided into silos.

By implementing airfocus, he solved his two key issues:

A lack of cohesion and inconsistent understanding of the product strategy .

A reactive approach to project prioritization.

airfocus offered Joakim and his team solutions they couldn't get from their existing software.

Setting business values. Leaders can compare the value and costs of projects.

Strategic remote collaboration. Teams can think ahead by planning the year’s priorities with remote games of Priority Poker . The results are integrated into one system that makes them easy to share, access and update.

Integration. airfocus has two-way Azure DevOps integration. This means that features, epics and stories are continuously synced and remotely accessible.

Increased transparency. Agile methodologies tend to function best in organizations that have a culture of transparency and good communication. Great tools will help your organization increase these critical components.

Product prototyping case study

Whether you are doing your first prototype to test market fit or using prototypes to test out new features, it is worth checking in on how other teams approach this phase.

For Agile teams, one of the best product management case studies is the prototyping method used by the team working on a prototype for the Barbican, a highly-regarded arts and culture center in London.

The team worked over one sprint of two weeks to produce a prototype that combined the Barbican’s scattered ecosystem of various event advertising apps and a booking website . Their objective was to solve existing problems by creating one native app/website with all event information and ticket booking.

While the team had no distinct role definitions, Emily Peta, a UX designer , managed the workflow and the process stages. With one sprint to work with, the team still made sure to follow a comprehensive process that covered a number of crucial stages:

Competitor analysis

First, Emily’s team explored existing solutions that they could adapt for quick wins.

Keep your product strategy in mind, however, and remember what your brand stands for.

Remember Instagram trying to be TikTok? That was not a good look (and it wasn’t well received).

Product and user definition

The team then conducted ten user interviews and screening surveys to get an understanding of what people wanted from an exhibition app. Their affinity diagram highlighted three distinct phases:

Before: Users want to look for interesting exhibitions and book to see them.

During: Everything users want to do once they arrive at the exhibition.

After: Users want to share photos and leave reviews.

Considering their time constraints, they wisely focused on the ‘during’ phase and chose to answer one question: ‘How can we improve the experience of the user during an exhibition?’

To start finding solutions to this question, Emily and her team created:

One user persona (and while this is a good start, depending on your audience, you will likely need more than one).

Outcome statement. A good outcome statement should provide answers to these loose categories:

Next up, the team mapped out the user flow for the persona. This is an important high-level flow, so don’t skip it out. This user flow was used to plan the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) features along with a few other inputs and prioritization games like Crazy Eights. The outcome here was a focused list of features to start prototyping.

Technical requirements

Before moving into prototyping, it helps to consider the technical requirements that might affect your product. In this case, to meet the Barbican’s ‘during’ requirements, the solution needed to use Bluetooth and GPS for people on the go, so the decision was made to build an app and not a website.

Speeding through this stage — or worse, not doing it at all — can quickly send the development process off course.

Prototyping and testing

Finally, Emily and her team were ready to create low-fidelity mockups, testing them with users and then iterating based on the feedback. This is not a purely linear process, so look at it as a feedback loop: iterate, iterate, iterate but know when to stop.

Once the team was satisfied that the lo-fi prototype was good to go as an MVP, they mocked it up in InVision as a high-fidelity, interactive prototype that could be used for further testing and briefing build teams.

This is probably one of the best times to embrace the ‘fail fast’ philosophy. Being precious about prototypes defeats the purpose. Be ready to make mistakes and improve based on your learnings.

Customer/user feedback case study

It’s never too early to start listening to customers and/or users, and there are a whole bunch of ways to do this at different stages. For any team that has a product in the market already, real-time user analytics is super important to feedback into your decision-making processes.

Gumtree, an established trading website, has a wide range of products and customers. They needed a robust, real-time reporting tool to help them understand the requirements of so many different user types.

Sax Cucvara, Gumtree’s analytics manager chose Qualaroo based on the tool's ability to provide:

Segmentation . Gumtree was able to segment users by category, location and interest.

Easy implementation. The team could set up granular surveys in no time, getting real-time results to feedback back into feature iterations.

Customer feedback is important, so make sure you are getting quality feedback regularly. Tools like airfocus Portal and AI Assist , can make collecting and analyzing feedback much easier and less time-consuming.

Backlog prioritization case study

Rounding off our list of product management case studies, we’re back to the story of an airfocus client and what other teams can learn from them.

As any product manager knows, prioritizing your backlog is just as important as prioritizing your roadmap. Getting these aligned and in an easy-to-share format can save your team time and effort.

Our client, Flowe, is a digital bank subsidiary of Italy’s Banca Mediolanum. Marco Santoni is the data product manager on their Data Platform team and manages the internal product from features to analytics.

One of Flowe’s key challenges came from the Azure DevOps system's inability to prioritize their backlog. They frequently had over 150 ‘new’ items at any given time and no objective way to prioritize the tickets. After looking into a few tools, Marco went with airfocus because it offered:

Seamless integration with Azure DevOps. You can import existing roadmaps.

Priority Poker . Teams and stakeholders can collaboratively prioritize their backlog against three KPIs: development effort, business value, and productivity.

Real-Time results for ‘quick wins’ and ‘don't dos’ are based on prioritized scoring.

By implementing airfocus, the Flowe team can present their roadmap to the entire company weekly. This aligns everyone against a common goal and ensures increased transparency.

Product management is a team game. Having a transparent and collaborative approach is even more important in the current remote working era. airfocus facilitates easy and open collaboration across teams and geographies.

Interested in streamlining your processes and turning objective prioritization into a company-wide goal? Chat to our team for a demo.

When interviewing for a product manager position , you'll often be asked about various case studies you were involved in. Of course, it's good to have a few stories on hand and to know what kinds of questions to anticipate during these interviews. 

Here are a few product manager interview case study questions you might get.

How would you prioritize these features for this product?

You may be asked how you would prioritize certain features for an imagined or real product. For example, say a new smartphone is coming out, and the goal is to launch with three new features. 

How do you determine which feature to complete first, second, and third, and which can be sacrificed to finish the others? 

If you run into this sort of question, it's important to ensure you have all of the relevant information, such as the target demographic, what has made the product successful in the past, etc. So ask questions, or imply that you would collect the answers to these questions and then work from there. 

How would you suggest we launch this product in a new region?

Another question you might be asked during a product management case study for PM interview is how you would launch a product in a new region . Again, this question pertains to a real-world example, so it's important to have a solid answer prepared. 

It can be helpful to start by collecting more information from the interviewer or explaining what information you would collect. Then, formulate a strategy . That strategy could include specific features you would introduce, marketing campaigns you would engage in, and more. 

How would you improve our in-app messenger?

Sometimes, you may be asked something very specific, like how you would improve an in-app feature that already exists. As you may have guessed, you want to glean as much information from the interviewer as possible or state which information you would collect. 

Then, list some potential strategies based on your experience. What kinds of features would you launch or remove ? Would you prioritize performance, response times, etc.? How would you manage a budget? Lean on your past knowledge and experience to help you answer the specific question at hand.

Want to know about solutions to future problems that you didn’t even know exist yet? We can help you out with even more product management case studies for that. Dig in here.

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How to Write a Product Case Study: A Complete Guide

If you’re in business, chances are you’ve been asked to write a product case study. And if you haven’t, well, maybe now is the time! A product case study can be an extremely effective marketing tool. This blog post will teach you how to write a product case study that will grab attention and help boost your business.

A case study i s a  story that shows how a customer used y our product or service to overcome their problem.

At the end of case studies, readers should feel like they can relate to the client featur ed in the case study . They should also be able to see how using your product can help them achieve their goals.

Learn how to write a product case study by following these steps:

1. Use Case Study Templates

It would help if you told customer success stories in a way that highlights their successes while subtly weaving in the fact that you helped them achieve those results.

If you’re looking to craft a compelling case study highlighting your client’s success, download case study templates. This will ensure your client’s success story is professional and that it’s as engaging as possible.

2. Figure out the objectives for y our case study

Businesses often use case study reports to prove their value to potential customers. These can vary in purpose, however.

The first step to writing an effective case study is to figure out what your client wants to accomplish by its end. This should help you determine how you can best demonstrate how your services or products can help achieve that goal.

The objectives you will focus on for your client’s case studies depend on what you’d like to achieve.

The objective of this case is to study how a company was able to either comply with government regulations, lower their business cost, become more profitable, generate more sales, close on more clients, generate higher revenues, expand into a new marketplace, or become more eco-friendly.

3. Establish a medium.

Now, you’ll determine how you’ll tell the story. Will you write it, record it, or film it?

You don’t have to limit your case studies to a simple, single page. Use multiple forms of media, and your piece can be promoted on many different channels and platforms.

Posting your business case studies on different platforms is a great way to reach out to different people. For instance, you could post your written case study on your blog but make an infographic or video version to post to Pinterest or YouTube.

Here are some different ways that you can format your case study.

Writing a Case Study

Write this ebook and turn it into a PDF file.

Consider gating your case studies behind landing pages and forms. By collecting information from your lead, you can better tailor your pitch to them and increase your chances of converting them into a customer.

Video Case Study

Schedule an interview with your client. This will allow potential clients to see the service you provided to your subject and how it impacted them.

Infographic Case Study

Use an infographic to show a client’s success from bottom to top. As you move down the page, highlight your key performance indicators (KPIs) with larger text and charts that are more detailed.

Podcast Case Study

Podcasts allow you to connect with your audience members more personally. By sharing stories, tips, and advice, you can show that you’re more than just a company — you’re a person who cares.

4. Look for a case study can didate who is a good fit

Telling a story about your past work requires you to get permission from your client and get quotes from them. It would help if you also had a plan for the story.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when hiring a receptionist.

Product Knowledge

When hiring someone to make sales for you, make sure they know your product. This way, they can speak more intelligently to potential customers.

Impressive Results

Your best case study candidates have experienced the most success from using your service. If their businesses have experienced a lot of growth, they are more likely to be enthusiastic about telling others about it.

The next step is to find clients who experienced an unexpected benefit from your product.

By highlighting how you’ve helped customers from various industries, you can show your prospects that you can provide the same great results for them.

Recognizable Names

While smaller companies can have compelling stories to tell, larger or more well-known companies tend to have more credibility and help your business attract more customers.

89% of customers are more likely to purchase from a brand that they follow on social media than one they don’t.

5. C ontact the c andidate you’re writing about for permission

The most important thing is to ensure clear communication with your subjects when conducting case studies. This means that you should outline expectations, timelines, and deliverables from the start of the relationship.

Most importantly, you need to get your subject’s approval before moving forward. This is the key to ensuring a successful case study.

When contacting your prospect, let them know about the objectives of your business case studies and their format of them.

What benefits would your prospect get from participating in your study? Remember that your subjects are likely more interested in what they can gain than your company.

Here are 4 benefits you can offer a case study candidate.

Brand Exposure

Explain how you will promote this customer’s success story to their target market and how it can help their business gain recognition.

In the business-to-business (B2B) world, it can be hard for companies to build their brand outside of their markets, so using client testimonials and success stories can be a great way to build your brand.

Employee Exposure

Allowing your employees to be quoted with credit is a great way to get their names. This can also help your company’s brand expand.

Networking events can be a great way to expand your professional network. This is especially the case if you’ve never been to the event before.

Product Discount

Offering a tangible incentive to your interviewee is a great way to get them on board.

If the interviewee agrees to be your study’s subject matter, offer them a discount or a free trial of one of your other products as a thank you. This will show how much you appreciate their help in providing you with the information necessary to create an interesting and informative case study.

Website Traffic and backlinks

By publishing your business case studies and including a link back to the subject’s website, you can increase traffic to their website. This, in turn, helps them to rank more highly in search results and makes it easier for customers to find their business.

Backlinks from other websites increase your subject’s domain authority and improve their search engine rankings. This drives more organic traffic to their website and helps them collect more qualified visitors.

6. Make sure you have the materials you need for the next step once you get a response

Now that you’re ready to send your case study make sure you have the release form and the success story letter. Having these prepared ahead of time will ensure the Process goes smoothly if your prospect agrees.

Now, let’s break down these two.

Case Study Release Form

A Case Study Release Form is a document that gives a company or person permission to use your likeness and story in a case study. In return, you may receive compensation for your participation. The form should explain: -Why you are creating this -What you hope to achieve -What you will include -What you will ask the participant to do -What you will provide for compensation.

Success Story Letter

Other than explaining to the customer how participating in a case study will benefit them, you’ll also want to outline your steps in the success story letter.

7. Download an email template for the case study

While preparing your resources, your prospective client had time to read over your case studies. When your client agreed to your terms, it was time for you to send your final agreement.

A case study release form allows your subject to sign off on using their image and any brand names or products in your project.

Please start the process by sending your prospects an introductory email that outlines what you will be offering them and what they need to provide.

8. Explain the processes you’ll follow with the c lient throughout the project

Before starting the marketing case studies, you need an outline of the steps you’ll take with the client, including what information they’ll provide, what case study questions you’ll be asking, and what data you’ll need.

The Acceptance

You’ll need to get approval from your company’s marketing department before you can start making outbound sales. Once that’s done, you’ll need to sign and return a release form.

Both parties must agree on a timeframe that works best for them. This will ensure the project is completed in an efficient and timely manner.

The Questionnaire

To ensure that your interviewee provides useful information for the study, it’s helpful if they complete a pre-interview questionnaire.

That will give your sales team a solid foundation for organizing and conducting an interview.

The Interview

Once the interview is complete, you should reach out to the customer and schedule a 30- to 60-minute conversation with them. This discussion should address any questions about their overall experience with your company.

Draft Review

After writing your case study, could you send it to the customer for feedback? This gives them a chance to review the story and make necessary changes.

The Last Approval of Your Case Study

Please send it to them for approval once you have finished editing the first draft of the customer’s success story. This will ensure they are happy with the product and that no further revisions are needed.

Once the video is uploaded, it’s good to contact the customer with a link to the page.

Don’t forget to ask the participant to share the results with their networks, as it demonstrates your ability to produce outstanding outcomes and generate leads.

9. Make sure to ask the right case study questions

Before conducting an interview, make sure you prepare by drafting a list of questions. This will help you gather the information you need to write a strong, compelling case study.

Here are a few examples of how those might come across:

What are your goals? What challenges were you experiencing before purchasing our product or service? What made our product or service stand out against our competitors? What did your decision-making process look like? How have you benefited from using our product or service? (Where applicable, always ask for data.)

The Success Story Questionnaire is designed to help you better understand the type of questions to ask in an interview. When you reach the interview stage of your sales process , it’s important to ask open-ended questions that give the person you’re interviewing the opportunity to share as much detail as possible.

Asking open-ended questions is a simple way to start a conversation.

Start With the Client’s Business

What are the challenges the company is facing? How do they fit into their industry and market?

What are some of your latest achievements? What are your plans for the future? The company has employed a large number of people for many years. The goals of the marketing department are to increase productivity and increase efficiency. The company has enjoyed some success in the last few months but hopes to gain more in the next couple of years.

Mention the pain points

To sell effectively, you need to tell a story. That requires context, such as understanding your customer’s problem and how your Solution is the Solution.

Here are some sample questions to ask a prospect:

I was looking for a way to improve my productivity and organization. I had tried other methods, but they didn’t work out. I needed something to help me keep track of my tasks and priorities.

Explore the Decision making Process

Learning how your customers decided to work with you can help you better understand how to guide other potential customers through their decision-making processes.

What concerns or hesitations did you have, and how were they addressed? What other options did you consider? What made you ultimately choose to work with us? A few key factors guided the Decision to work with our company. First, we were referred by a trusted friend. Second, we were impressed by the professionalism of your team. And finally, we felt confident in your ability to deliver on your promises.

How was the Solution implemented?

This article focuses on the customer experience during the onboarding process. Questions to ask include:

Getting started is quick and easy. Just give us your name and an email address, and we’ll create an account for you. We’ll then send you an email with a link that you’ll need to click to activate it.

How does the Solution work?

This section is designed to help you better understand your customer’s experience with your product.

What specific tasks and processes are you using the product for? What features do you like the most?

Close With the Results

Here, you want to highlight the most impressive metrics you’ve achieved. Questions could include:

The Call Logic product has saved me time and increased my productivity. This has enabled me to increase my market share. I have improved my performance metrics by X.

10. Plan your format for the  case study

When you’ve finished collecting all of your information, it can be easy to feel like you have too much. Where do you start?

What should you talk about? How do you go about structuring your call?

There is no single way to write a case study. Instead, it would help if you focused on presenting the information to make the most sense for your audience.

Images and videos are a huge part of social media marketing, and you’ll see that in some of the examples below.

While visual case studies are an effective way to present your findings, they should also include all of the relevant information that you’d find in a standard written report.

Whether it’s primarily a written or a visual case, we always recommend focusing on the following 7-step Process.​​​​​​​

Thanks for reading! We hope this case study has given you some insights into how to write a product case study that will grab attention and achieve great sales results. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below.

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• That spend money on Adwords
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How to solve a product manager case study in 4 simple steps.

• August 12, 2020

Richard Chen

We cannot emphasize the importance of Product Manager case studies in interviews enough. Companies rely heavily on this step to assess your critical thinking and problem-solving skills as it closely mirrors the day-to-day activities. However, you don’t have to be a Product Manager with years of experience to come up with impressive case studies that will get you hired. Like the job itself, a Product Manager case study should be situational and contextual—getting it right is about tailoring your answer to the company you are interviewing for and the context behind the question. 

So, how do you make sure you hit the nail on the head? There are four steps to solving the Product Manager case study. Our case study instructors recommend the following: 

• Evaluate the need 
• Validate the need 
• Set a goal for the feature
• Decision making

From startup case studies to whiteboarding questions, this guide will take you through everything you need to know about tackling the notorious product management case study using these simple steps. Practice this approach with the various examples we provide and you should be ready to ace your next Product Manager case study interview .

How to Approach the Product Manager Case Study 

Let’s say that an e-commerce furniture company wants to implement a feature: free returns. Take a minute to think about this case study question . How would you go about implementing this? What is your first step?

If there’s one thing we know from working with thousands of aspiring Product Managers, it’s that more than 90% of the candidates fail the product manager case study interview one way or another. And not because the candidates lacked the required skills! Like we mentioned above, a successful case study is tailored to the situation and context. 

Before we dive in, here are some pointers you should remember to get you into the right frame of mind as you tackle the case study assignment you are given. 

Ask Questions 

This is where to start: Always approach a case study assignment with the assumption that you know nothing. Never dive into solving the problem with little to no information on it. Don’t be afraid to ask your interviewer everything you need to: 

• Determine the user of the product 
• Narrow down and identify which problem to solve 
• Find out the specifics of the question to establish your edge cases 

Making assumptions could lead you down the wrong path, but on the other hand, remember that being a Product Manager involves solving ambiguous real-life issues. Keep calm and creatively and strategically acquire more information for clarity of the situation. You’ll be one step ahead of fellow candidates.

Prepare for Anything 

Many novice candidates believe that the case study round always involves a take-home assignment, which would allow them to do extensive research on the question at hand. But while take-home assignments do come up often enough, unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Prepare for your case study interview to involve on-the-go questions. You should also expect to whiteboard and solve problems on the fly during the interview. When that’s the case you’ll have only seconds — or minutes if you’re lucky — instead of days to tackle the problem.

There Is More Than One Correct Answer

The Product Manager case study interview is a way for companies to evaluate your problem-solving skills. They want to see how you identify product users, measure product performance, navigate technical aspects, and so on. You can demonstrate these competencies with a variety of answers.

Don’t Spend More Time Than You Need To

The take-home Product Manager case study can be especially time-consuming and you might spend all your time working on these assignments if you don’t have support . Remember that job hunting is a numbers game and allocate your time and effort accordingly.

Need more time to prepare for your next case study interview? Take your prep to the next level with this video by Product Gym co-founder Cody Chang:

How to Solve Any Product Manager Case Study in 4 Simple Steps

Without further ado, here are the four steps you need to follow to solve your Product Manager case study:

Step 1: Evaluate the Need

To understand the need in the Product Manager case study, you need to ask a series of questions. Here are a few of them to get you started:

• How did the company come up with this feature?
• Was it suggested by executives, or by customers?
• Is the goal of this feature to drive revenue or increase loyalty?
• Are we assuming that leadership has already signed on board to this feature?
• Or are we assuming that this is just a small product that we have been given to test?

Essentially, you need to figure out the bounds and constraints of this question.

You may not be an industry expert on the business that your interviewer is in, or you may lack that domain knowledge. So in order to create an informed answer, you have to know what your answer is not .

Step 2: Validate the Need

You have to start on the pre-question. Let’s take the example of a furniture e-commerce company.

Some of the questions you would ask yourself are: 

• What are your assumptions, knowns and unknowns, and where is the data? 
• Do we have data on this, and is the data right? 
• On free returns, do we know how many people already trying to return?
• Are there specific types of products that we know customers return? 
• Are there some parts of the world where customers expect free returns? Do we have data on that? (The company isn’t going to necessarily know that from the data because customers might not provide that feedback.)
• What do we not know? 

When you focus on these unknowns, what you’re really focusing on is time and resources. This gets into the business side of asking questions. If you are not a domain expert in furniture e-commerce or are not familiar with their business model to give a nuanced response, what are these Product Managers looking for in your answer?

The company you are interviewing with is likely operating in another domain that you are not familiar with. That’s okay. As long as you can lay out the roadmap for your product with sound reasoning, you’ll be good to go.

Step 3: Set a Goal for the Feature

In this specific example, you want to focus on time and resources, which is money. This means explicitly profitability . What are all the areas that might factor into profitability? Here are some questions to consider:

• How much is it going to cost, and how do you evaluate that cost?
• Will priorities in regards to other features change?
• Would we have to focus on other resources?
• Would we have to deal with interstate laws based on shipping?
• How about shipping internationally or shipping interstate? Will it be taxed?

Check out these guides to help you determine the essential metrics for your company’s business and the product you are developing:

• 16 Startup Metrics by Adresseen Horowitz
• Startup Metrics You Need to Monitor
• Facebook Metrics: Key Benchmarks for PM Interviews

Step 4: Decision-Making

Based on the business requirements, how do you want to evaluate these unknowns? The rabbit hole of questions can go on and on. You may need to spend these resources and push back the engineering deadline. Is the company okay with that?

It also depends on how you communicate “Yes” or “No” answers. If you say, “Yes, I want to prioritize this feature,” then know your reasons:

• The manager has signed off on the strategy .
• I know who the customers are.
• I have the data to back it up.
• I have the stakeholder consensus to do it.
• I have a timeline that I feel confident executing on.

Or, if you say “No,” have your reasons why to address the same areas:

• No, I don’t have a clear strategy from management.
• No, the manager wants me to validate this before we spend extra resources on it.
• No, we don’t have enough engineers or resources for this.
• No, we have to use the sales cycle for another feature — if we try to implement this now, we will lose the seasonal sales cycle.

These are all moving parts that you want to evaluate and then communicate to the PM interviewing you in the Product Manager case study. The best thing to do when you ask these questions is to get specific. Use examples of times when you had to make these decisions yourself based on these factors.

Remember to communicate competency on how you evaluate whether or not you implement a feature. Ask questions to create constraints and boundaries to the case study, and control its scope. Once you have this information, you will know how to best approach the questions based on the Product Management knowledge you possess.

BONUS Step: Get Your Case Study Presentation Reviewed by a Professional

You’ve worked through the case study and put your solution into a slide deck to present to a panel of interviewers: congratulations! But if you want to go above and beyond to impress the hiring team, take some time to get your case study solution reviewed by a professional.

A fresh set of eyes may catch typos and grammar errors, but will also be able to point out the areas where you can improve the solution overall. A Product Manager who’s gone through multiple case study interview rounds is going to be able to assess your solution from the perspective of the interviewer and use their experience to help you polish it.

At Product Gym, our interview coaches routinely check over members’ case study presentations, offering insight, constructive criticism, and tips on how to make their technical interview round a success. Solving case studies isn’t just a good practice for acing your interview — it’s also an excellent way to develop applicable Product Manager skills. That’s why we include classes on case studies in our program. Our case study curriculum was developed and continues to be taught by Senior Product Manager for Atlassian, Roman Kolosovskiy .

Because we’ve been working with Product Manager job hunters for the past five years, we’ve had ample opportunity to test and perfect the case study strategy we teach our members. We’ve even compiled a bank of case study prompts that aspiring Product Managers have received in their interviews so that members can exclusively access to hone their problem-solving and storytelling skills.

What to Expect from a Product Manager Case Study at a Startup 

The type of company you are interviewing for is a key consideration when determining the context for your case study. It’s highly likely that you will interview for a Product Manager position at a startup—there were 30.7 million startups in the US in 2019, and the numbers will only keep growing.

No doubt, the expectations, and responsibilities differ immensely in a startup role as compared to being an enterprise PM.

Here’s what you should keep in mind when interviewing for a PM position with a startup: 

• Product Managers are expected to wear multiple hats : Startups, especially early-stage ones, don’t have all the resources they need. Because of this, your responsibilities may include roles away from the standard PM job description. It’s also likely that you will be responsible for more than one product.
• Be ready for some confusion : Many of these companies don’t have a recruiting team or a full-fledged HR strategy, and therefore chances are they are also exploring interviewing as they go. 
• Prepare for niche markets : If the startup operates in a niche market, you might have little to no knowledge and resources for understanding the competitive landscape and creating a useful product. Our case study prep guide can help you sound like a seasoned expert no matter your background in such cases. 

So how do you show your interviewer that you are ready to take on the challenge?

1. Demonstrate Fast Execution

First and foremost, you should show that you are quick when making decisions and taking action. Unlike established companies, you will not have many tools or practices to help you make decisions and organize your and your team’s tasks. You should be comfortable with communicating decisions and last-minute action items with the rest of your team.

2. Be Ready to Take Risks

Executing decisions takes a sense of responsibility and ownership, which brings us to our second point. As a Product Manager, you should be a leader who isn’t afraid of taking risks. When needed, you should be ready to take the driver’s seat. There is no doubt that your responsibility will exceed a single product, and you will soon be expected to come up with ideas that will impact the whole company.

3. Prove You Can Multitask

Limited resources mean you may find yourself wearing different hats. For example, you might not have a UX designer and end up designing the wireframes yourself. Regardless of the situation, get ready to prove to them that you can multitask. How do you show this skill in your Product Manager case study? 

• By thinking about how this company can make money — or in Product Gym terms, by becoming a wartime Product Manager. Think about how the product in question will contribute to the company’s short-term and long-term goals. 
• Many startups are still in the funding stage, so any work you design should generate revenue with minimal costs. 
• Think about all the ways you can create a product that the market currently needs and lacks. 
• Include wireframes in your case study presentation to show them that you already thought about how the product should look. 
• In your documentation and presentation, describe the resources you will need and how you budget this product.

4. Learn About the Company

A case study assignment is a simulation of the real job, especially in startup interviews. Leverage it to learn as much about the company as possible. Assess how they treat you and try to figure out how the company culture is.

Are they ignoring your emails and acting like you don’t exist? Or are they making a genuine effort to make the interview work for you despite the lack of resources? Are you expected to solve a complex case study on the go during an interview?

Answering these questions can give you a good feel of your possible future employer.

5. Prioritize, Prioritize, and Prioritize

As we mentioned, startup companies operate with minimal resources and are under a lot of stress. So, remember to focus on the essential features needed to create a fully functional MVP ready for the market in the least amount of time.

Make some realistic estimations and come up with numbers to help your interviewers with the budget, resources, and time you need to create this product. Roadmap the steps required to get to the MVP and clearly define everybody’s responsibilities to build it.

How to Solve Whiteboarding Case Study Questions in 4 Steps

Along with the commonly assigned take-home assignment and the presentation that follows, the product management case study is notorious for its technical and whiteboarding interview questions. Here are four simple steps our instructors developed to help you master the dreaded whiteboarding interview questions in your case study round.

Step 1: Keep Calm and Embrace the Fact that You Know Nothing

Most aspiring PMs fail the Product Manager case study not because they do not have experience, but because they panic over a lack of information. 

In practice, Product Managers rarely have enough information about the problem they were asked to solve. Having seen many candidates interview, we can confirm that interviewees often disqualify themselves by showing the interviewer that they are not ready to tackle ambiguous real-life issues.

So, remember to keep calm and accept the fact that you have insufficient information about the problem that’s thrown at you.

Step 2: Try to Understand What the Question Wants You to Achieve

Companies ask whiteboarding interview questions to see if you can create or improve a product that can accomplish a specific goal. When you take on any product management case study question, start by taking a step back. Think about what the question wants you to accomplish.

In most cases, you should be able to divine the purpose of the question from how the interviewer forms it. Our case study instructors have identified four specific purposes: 

• Prioritization
• Product Design
• Target Market Identification
• Product Launch 

Determining the purpose behind vague questions and finding the right approach to address them requires a lot of focused practice with real case study questions.

Step 3: Nar row Down the Question as Much as Possible

You need to narrow down the case study questions as much as possible to come up with some real and data-driven conclusions. Given that you have little to no resources available to you, you have to make some realistic estimations. Accurate estimations are only possible if you get to the heart of the question.

Think it through and ask as many questions as you need.

Step 4: Keep the Conversation Alive

Communication is an essential part of the case study interview: you should keep your interviewer informed about every aspect of your thought process. After you identify the whiteboarding question’s purpose, clearly inform your interviewer what direction you want to take and your reasoning.

Check your reasoning with your interviewer by asking them if this is something on their mind or if this is something they would consider. In most cases, they would either have an answer key or a direction on their mind and would be able to help you.

Once you agree on the direction you take, ask more specific questions to extract as much information as possible and get a confidence vote from the interviewer that you are on the right track.

Last but not least, make your interviewer’s life easier by suggesting options and giving details while asking questions. See how we used these four steps to work through a Facebook Product Manager Case Study question: Should Facebook enter the dating market?

Product Manager Case Study Presentation Best Practices

You have worked hard and finally finished your Product Manager case study assignment, but that doesn’t mean you can sit back and relax—your case study presentation is as vital as solving the question.

Not only is it the time to demonstrate your excellent communication skills, but a good presentation shows your interviewers how you collaborate. Here’s a breakdown of how to give a winning presentation:

• Design and Brand Your Presentation Materials: The best way to prove that you are a big fan of the company and have the spirit to join the team is to use company colors, logos, and any media related to them. A good design always draws attention, and you want to grab as much attention as you can.
• Have the Right Amount of Content: Have just enough content to ensure that people know enough about your product to be convinced that it has potential. Include all the relevant details about the fundamental aspects of the product. But, leave them curious about the finer details. This will keep them engaged throughout the presentation.
• Include Visuals and Media to Spark Feedback from the Audience: Activating the brain’s visual cortex will keep your interviewers engaged throughout your presentation. The best way to ensure that everybody understands your product is to include wireframes and preliminary designs in your presentation.
• Make Sure Everyone Has a Positive Experience With Your Presentation: A good rule of thumb is to make sure you can explain your product to a five-year-old and a Ph.D. simultaneously. Start simple and allow the audience to ask questions as you progress. Allocate a considerable amount of time to go over your designs and ask the interviewer for feedback: Ask them questions, see what they think, and learn about the things they would have done differently. 
• Paint a Clear Picture of the Product With Your Wireframes: When you are sketching wireframes for your product management case study, be sure to include anything you can explain in terms of functionality. Given that many of the products are digital, it’s crucial to explain the transitions between one screen to another. For example, you should explain what happens when a user clicks on something and which screen comes next. If the next screen is an integral part of the feature, you should include it in your case study deliverables.

List of Product Manager Case Study Question Examples

Before we dive into the most common examples of Product Manager case study interview questions , let’s solve one together. Check out how our Case Study Instructor, Roman Kolosovski, tackles the popular FAANG case study question “How would you build a product for pet owners?”:

1. Product Design Case Study Questions

These are the most common types of questions. They range from designing a product from scratch to improving an existing product. Some questions will explicitly tell you to focus on a specific OKR, while others will leave everything ambiguous to challenge you to think more.

Product Design Question Examples

• Design a product to help users find doctors on Facebook . 
• How would you improve Google Maps? 
• You’re a part of the Google Search webspam team: How would you detect duplicate websites? 
• Name any product you love and any product you despise and explain your reasoning for both cases. ( Amazon )
• You’re the Product Manager of a team that focuses on financial products for our Uber drivers. You’re tasked with designing a financial product (or suite of products) that addresses our drivers’ needs in Brazil.

2. Product Strategy Questions 

Unlike product design questions, strategy questions require you to think about the bigger picture. You’ll either be asked to find ways to make a product better—and hence define success for the product, or to complete the overall organization more successfully. 

To solve these questions, you need to be well informed about the company and its products or services. Consider the company’s business model, competitors, and the recent developments in that industry. The essential skill you need to demonstrate here is analytical thinking.

Product Strategy Question Examples

• If you were Google’s CEO, would you be concerned about Microsoft? 
• How would you improve Google Maps? (Google)
• How would you set goals and measure success for Facebook notifications? 
• How would you monetize Facebook messenger? 
• How would you determine the right price and method to promote product XYZ, and why? (Amazon)

3. Estimation and Analysis Questions 

These are used by interviewers to measure how comfortable you are making decisions with limited data, so show them how you use data to derive the KPIs you need for your product. These questions are mostly asked during the interview. To solve them without internet access is only possible by learning the fundamental values of the company beforehand. This includes the revenue it makes or the approximate number of users it has. You should also be able to calculate their critical KPIs.

Estimation and Analysis Case Study Question Examples

• How many queries per second does Gmail get? 
• As the Product Manager for Google Glass ‘Enterprise Edition’, which metrics would you track? How do you know if the product is successful? 
• How much revenue does YouTube make per day?
• How would you go about estimating the number of gas stations in the USA? 
• How would you track user engagement in an app, and what KPIs would you use to improve it?

4. Scheduling/Operational Questions 

These types of case study interview questions are few and far between. Interviewers ask these questions to assess the candidates’ ability to turn ideas into deliverable tasks. Note that for most operational Product Manager case study questions, the interviewer will require you to write a detailed delivery schedule and write user stories and tasks.

Scheduling/Operational Case Study Question Examples

• Write the Jira ticket(s) for engineering for the idea you want to execute. (Upwork)
• Outline a brief (1-2 page) launch plan that would cover the activities and tasks needed to launch the feature successfully. Be sure to touch on both internal and external stakeholders, and include potential launch goals. (Stitch Data)

Product Manager Case Study FAQs

The short answer is yes. You should always have a couple of screen designs ready for your case study interview. Why? It’s probably the best way to spark any reaction from the interviewing committee. Plus, it’s also way more comfortable for your audience to understand what your product looks like with a solid prototype. 

Given that it’s not your job to develop the actual design, low fidelity seems more appropriate. That being said, the bar for low fidelity designs has been relatively high over the past couple of years. So, low fidelity designs are more than pen and paper sketches: they are expected to be digital.

Detail the solution you came up with a presentation that states:  Here is what the solution is. Here is what the solution looks like. Here is how a user would go through the process within this solution.

There are four common types of Product Manager case study questions:  Product design questions  Product strategy questions  Estimation and analysis questions Scheduling/operational questions

Unlike larger companies, startups do not have as many tools and resources at their disposal. This means that not many will have a recruiting team or a full-fledged HR strategy and are interviewing as they go. Many Product Gym members that have taken the startup route have noted how disorganized the Product Manager interview process can get at a startup, so prepare for some confusion. No matter the size of the company, be sure to assess how they treat you and try to figure out how the company culture is in the process.

Put Your Product Manager Case Study Skills to the Test

Put your case study skills to the test with our free online training course. Access to instructor-led whiteboarding sessions with real FAANG interview qu estions to take your prep to the next level.

Don’t forget to call us for free career coaching to learn more about how Product Gym can help you land the Product Manager job of your dreams!

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What Are Product Management Case Study Interviews?

Author: Product School

Updated: August 2, 2023 - 10 min read

What is a product management case study interview?

A case study interview, also known as a case interview, is a tool used by many companies to assess a candidate’s analytical, creative, and problem-solving skills. Similar to coding interviews for engineers, they allow the interviewers to simulate a situation that allows your skills to be put into practice.

Quite simply, you’ll be given a situation, and asked to make suggestions or come up with a hypothetical solution or improvement.

In product management, this can be about any number of things. The realm of product managers is vast, and covers many different aspects of product development. As product managers sit at the intersection of business, technology, and design, you could be asked case questions under these umbrellas.

This means that you could be given a case question based on product design, monetization, market research, user segmentation, trends, data, technical development, go-to-market , prioritization…pretty much anything product managers are into!

Example case study interview questions

What’s your favorite product? How would you improve its design?

Which company do you think we should acquire next?

How would you go about launching our product in an emerging market, say, India?

What new feature would you build for Instagram?

How to ace a case study interview

The product design case interview

No, the interview isn't going to hand you a Wacom tablet and ask you to mock up an entire product on the spot! Instead, you’ll be asked to think through some solutions to pretty common design problems. Things like:

How would you improve our in-app messenger?

If we tasked you with making our user interface more inclusive of those with disabilities, how would you approach that?

How would you redesign our homepage to make it more appealing for X demographic?

We’re finding that X number of users don’t make it through the entire onboarding process. What would you do/design to fix that?

The key when being asked a question about how you’d improve the company’s product is not to insult it too heavily. Remember, the people who built it are in the room with you, so if you come in hot with “well, for starters, your homescreen is absolutely hideous and needs a complete do-over”, you’re not going to endear yourself to them. A product manager is a diplomat, so be as diplomatic as possible.

Instead of focusing on how you’d fix what you see as glaring problems, try to come up with something that adds to the product. “I think a chatbot in your user onboarding process would help people to navigate through the process. Here’s where I’d implement it…”

How to ace it

Give your hypothesis: Because everything in product starts with why .

Lay out your approach : Briefly summarize what your approach would be, given your hypothesis. Include things like the research you would need to do, and the preparation the team would need to make.

Identify the user: Companies want user-driven product managers, so definitely make sure you know which user you’re building for.

Describe the solution : How would you actually build the solution? No need to get too technical if that’s not where your skills lie. If that’s the case, talk about how you’d lead the engineering teams to build the solution.

Suggest testing: If you’ve got 2 ideas and you’re not sure which one is better, describe both and talk about the test you’d run to discover which one to roll with.

Prioritize features : Show off your prioritization skills if you’re suggesting more than one feature.

Suggest features for an MVP and plans for a V1 launch:

Finish off by helping the interviewers to visualize what the finished MVP would be like, as well as the plans you’d have for a full release later down the line.

The business-thinking case interview

Business thinking is vital for product managers, as you’re the person that ties what’s being built to the needs of the business. This is why you may be presented with a business problem, so that the interviewer can assess your thought process, and how you approach product strategy.

Business case questions may include things like:

Management wants to build X because a competitor has launched something similar. How would you respond?

If we wanted to move more into the B2B market by launching X, what would you do first?

How would you increase customer adoption for the feature we released last month?

We want to become more product-led in our growth strategy. What recommendations would you make in terms of pricing structure/increasing customer adoption?

Establish market characteristics : This is especially important if your case question is a go-to-market question. If you’re not sure what the market characteristics are, talk about what you would find out before starting the work.

Layout your approach: Briefly summarize what your approach would be.

Prioritize your actions: If you’ve been asked for a step-by-step approach, talk about why you’re doing things in that order.

Provide analysis : Business decisions require a heavy amount of analysis, so be sure to include some competitor/customer/market analysis.

Make recommendations: Talk about the end result in a business sense. Instead of getting into the weeds of feature building etc, give a step-by-step approach of how you’d take a new feature to market, or make business-oriented improvements to a product.

Remember that a business-thinking case question requires an answer that would make C-suite happy. Try to think through your answer for the eyes of management. Think about what brings most business value, and tailor your answer around that.

The technical interview

Here, by technical interview, we don’t necessarily mean the tech interviews that engineers can expect to go through. It’s very rare for product managers to be asked technical questions in an interview, unless they’re specifically applying for a technical product manager role. You’ll usually get some warning in advance that your technical prowess will be tested, either by the recruiter or a hiring manager.

The chances of being given an in-depth technical case interview (aka, a coding interview) are rare, so you’re more likely to be asked a few general questions to gauge your technical ability.

Things like:

What’s your experience with X or Y technology?

Do you feel comfortable managing a team of engineers?

Can you explain the most technical project you’ve worked on?

These are questions that you should be able to answer in the room, because they’re based on your direct experience. So you don’t need to put any special level of preparation into their answers.

You may also be asked some technical questions that allow you to show off your technical knowledge, but are open-ended enough that you can still answer even if you’re not very techy. The goal is to gauge how much technical know-how you already have, not to embarrass you and put you on the spot for not having a computer science degree.

These questions might include:

What feature do you think we should build next? How should we approach building it?

Would you build X solution in-house, or would you outsource development elsewhere?

What partners do you think we should integrate with next? (eg. Slack, Trello)

These are questions that you can approach in your own way, from a technical perspective if you come from that background, or from a people-management/design/business perspective if you don’t.

Product managers and tech skills…what’s the deal?

It’s highly unlikely that you’ll be asked to go through a technical interview, as product managers aren’t the ones who physically build the product. They provide the direction and the insights, and the engineers provide the solutions and the finished product. So what’s gained by seeing how well you can code?

Well, some roles are more technical than others, so obviously in these roles you’d need either a computer science degree or a proven record of technical work, like an engineering background.

But for a regular product manager, you’re less likely to be given a technical case interview, and more likely to just be asked a few very general questions to gauge your knowledge.

1. Give yourself time to think

The worst thing you can do is panic, and rush in with an answer. It’s OK to give yourself time to think. An interview is not a first date, and silences don’t have to be awkward! So pause, and give yourself time to consider your answer before you start.

That’s much better than giving a sub-standard answer that you can’t take back. The interviewer will expect you to need a moment to gather your thoughts, so don’t stress.

2. Hack: The McKinsey case study

Now, you’re bound to go off and do plenty more research on case study interviews, wanting to find out everything you can. So let us give you this secret hack: check out materials for McKinsey case interviews .

“But I want to work at Facebook/Google/Amazon!” we hear you say. “Why would I prep for McKinsey?”

McKinsey is one of the most difficult interviewers out there. Reviews by some previous interviewees makes it seem like the process was designed to help choose the next ruler of Westeros. Their standards are incredibly high, and their case interviews are something that people prep weeks, even months in advance for.

This has a double result for you. One, there are swathes of resources out there specifically to prep for this behemoth of a case interview. Two, if you can give a McKinsey-standard answer to a case interview, you’ll outshine the competition easily!

3. Practice ahead of time

While you can’t be totally sure what you’ll be asked in a case interview, you can still prepare.

The smart thing to do is to practice case interview questions ahead of time. The way to do this is to pick apart the job posting you’re interviewing for, and identify what the main responsibilities are.

Case interview preparation is absolutely essential for acing product manager interviews, as you’re bound to be asked a hypothetical question sooner or later in the interview process.

4. Don’t feel pressured to give a perfect answer

Companies know how much time, research, and information goes into making informed product decisions. So if they’ve asked you to propose a new feature for their product as part of your interview, they’re not looking for something they can actually implement from you. They just want to see how you think, and what your analytical and problem-solving skills are. It’s also a test of your communication skills, seeing how you present yourself and your ideas.

So don’t pressure yourself into giving an answer that’s on par with the work their existing product managers do. That’s like beating yourself up for not running as fast a Usain Bolt when you do your first ever 5K.

Prepping for product manager interviews?

We’ve got you covered! Check out these great resources:

Master The Product Manager Interview Playlist : We’ve collected together our best talks on acing the Product Management interview, from a look behind the scenes of recruitment, to how to break into the industry. Check out the entire playlist here , or enjoy this sample from Google’s Product Manager…

The Ultimate List of Product Manager Interview Questions: Prepare yourself for every kind of question you could ever hope to be asked in a product manager interview!

Product School resources: If you really want to deep-dive into the best interview techniques, and become the master of any interview you walk into, you should check out the resources we have in our community. We’ve got cheat sheets, templates, and more!

Hired — How to Get a Great Product Job: Tailored guide-to-go for product manager positions in top tech companies. As this book will show you,  some of the most successful product transitions originated from people in music production or finance, with full-time jobs or with no prior experience. The collection of stories of Product Management transition will show you how it’s done.

Updated: August 2, 2023

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A case study: How our own product discovery made us pivot Reveall towards product discovery

In this post, startup CEO Ferdinand Goetzen relates how product discovery led him and his team to adjust their thinking, pivot and change their product 

We started Reveall in 2021 as a platform to empower UX teams to do more with their customer research insights. As we sought to navigate some of the most volatile market conditions startups have ever faced, we realized that we really couldn’t afford to make any wrong decisions about we would build next.

We were very aware that many companies spend a lot of time and resources building products and features that don’t create enough customer value. We knew we couldn’t afford to do that, so in the summer of 2022, we set out to understand why this occurred and how we could make product decisions that consistently delivered value for customers.

Throughout our exploration, we kept coming back to product discovery – the process of deeply understanding your customers’ problems, needs and desires so that you can create compelling features for them. We felt that product discovery perfectly matched our company mission of empowering teams to build products their customers really need.

Through our own product discovery, we learned that every product team we spoke to was dealing with similar issues. The opportunity to support teams in their product discovery was huge, so we decided to pivot and turn Reveall into the first product management platform dedicated to product discovery.

As a startup with limited runway, we were pressed for time and we needed to work efficiently to ensure the new version of our platform actually solved the core problems we’d identified. We rallied the whole company around our own discovery process, led by our very own ‘product trio’ consisting of our CPO, our CTO and our product designer.

Our goal? To relaunch Reveall as a product discovery platform in January 2023.

Our Approach

For clarity, I’ve broken down our approach into four phases, though please note that these weren’t clear-cut chronological phases – there was a lot of overlap and the process was continuous and iterative. Often we did things in parallel, going back and forth between phases as needed.

Phase 1: Research

In June 2022 we started to focus on our own product discovery. Our first goal was to truly understand the problems and needs of product teams. To gain this deeper understanding, we relied on four approaches:

• Interviewing with our existing customers – a mix of UX and product teams
• Interviews with over 50 product teams that didn’t use Reveall
• An extensive survey run with over 150 product teams
• A year’s worth of insights we had already gathered in our own ‘Reveall repository’

We ended up drawing insights from over 250 different product teams, learning that product discovery was both a priority and a challenge for them.

Doing our own product discovery about product discovery was an interesting experience. We not only learned from product teams how they struggled with doing discovery well, but experienced first-hand what the challenges were.

One takeaway was that the tools available were not designed to really facilitate the discovery process. Most focused on adding ideas to already unmanageable backlogs and building roadmaps that rarely get met – essentially, they encourage  the natural tendency to jump straight to solutions, whereas product discovery is all about focusing instead on the core customer problems that can be effectively solved.

Once it became clear to us that we wanted to turn Reveall into a platform that helped simplify the entire process of  product discovery, we needed to figure out what exactly that would entail.

Phase 2: Mapping our opportunity tree

Like every product team, we had lots of ideas. And with all the research we had done, we had lots of insights. Fully aware that this is a recipe for confirmation bias, we decided to clearly map out and break down our main opportunities.

The idea for mapping opportunities in the form of a tree came from Teresa Torres ’ opportunity solution tree. The high-level problems we had identified were huge and impossible to solve head-on, so we needed to break them down into problems that were solvable, especially given our timeline.

At the  highest level, the single, big problem we aimed to solve was that teams spend too much time and resources building things that don’t have the desired impact.

We broke this down into three sub-problems (which in turn were broken down into further sub-problems, and so on):

• Teams don’t understand their customers’ problems and needs
• Teams prioritize based on solutions and not on opportunities
• Teams and stakeholders lack alignment

We worked on this tree as a team, pulling in ideas and suggestions from different departments.

Once the tree was mapped, we began validating and prioritizing the problems with the insights from our research, continuously collecting data as needed to further validate and prioritize.

We had the insights, we had the opportunities and we had lots of ideas. It was finally time to start thinking about solutions. But where to get started?

Phase 3: Reverse Discovery

One thing we realized was that getting started with proper discovery isn’t easy and isn’t always a top-down process. As humans, we naturally gravitate to details which leads us to focus on solutions – but a premature focus on solutions is what we’re trying to avoid. So instead of fighting that instinct by railroading people into a single way of working, we wanted our process to work with that tendency and turn it into a positive, while still connecting to the validated opportunities that we identified would lead to business outcomes.

With this in mind, we used our existing backlog as a source of inspiration and, staying true to doing discovery properly, our CPO Marcel Hagedoorn proposed what he called ‘reverse discovery’. The idea was to essentially start with products or features (i.e. solutions) we had already defined and reverse-engineer the connecting points in the discovery process from there – going back and linking them to opportunities and outcomes along the way.

Essentially, we took the ideas we had already come up with and attempted to map them where relevant to our opportunity tree. The process also inspired the idea for a new onboarding flow, where we help new customers do their own reverse engineering of the discovery process using existing items from their backlog or roadmap.  Working both top-down and bottom-up in this way, we found an increased flow of ideas and information, helping us more quickly and easily fill out our opportunity tree.

Of course, where existing ideas did not solve our main opportunities, we discarded or changed them. This also helped reduce our endlessly growing backlog of ideas.

Phase 4: Delivery

Our rigorous focus on discovery made delivery a lot easier for us. With clear ideas on what problem we needed to solve, we could easily adjust scope based on the core user stories we identified for each problem and the resources we had available.

At the end of December, we essentially released our product discovery feature set. This included three new features we added to the platform:

• Outcomes  – identify goals and OKRs
• Opportunities – list customer problems, needs and desires, validate with insights from the Reveall Repository, prioritize based on ‘impact’ and ‘confidence’
• Solutions – define features and product ideas, validate with insights, and prioritize based on effort.

We also spent a lot of time understanding how to link these all together.  In one click, users  can list the range of opportunities that exist to impact a specific business outcome AND dive deeper into the set of possible solutions for any specific opportunity.

We had previously found that product discovery and insights management really go hand-in-hand and have plenty of overlap. Therefore, many of our previous features such as our insights repository and journey mapping functionality made perfect sense in a product discovery process, providing context for the customer problems we identified. This did present a challenge though as we had to work around the existing platform as we made changes.

To better manage the insight management and product discovery use cases we serve, we split the platform into two feature sets that are seamlessly interconnected:

• Reveall Discovery  (outcomes, opportunities, solutions, journeys)
• Reveall Repository  (themes, data, findings, insights)

Within just a couple of months we managed to revamp Reveall completely. We started as a platform that helped teams do more with their UX research insights and successfully shifted to a platform dedicated to product discovery.

Most importantly, we managed to establish features that fundamentally address some of the biggest problems product teams face. That said, there’s a lot more work that needs doing. Our goal is to make product discovery simple and effective, but every team does product discovery differently. We’re still learning, but we’re excited to rework our opportunity tree based on the feedback we get and identify the next set of problems that we can focus on.

If you want to see what the end result (although there never really is an ‘end’) you can check it out yourself at Reveall.co . One thing we can guarantee is that if you share feedback, it will end up in our own Reveall workspace and become a part of our ongoing product discovery.

Product discovery is a fundamental process for teams wanting to reduce risk in their product decisions. Through our own discovery process we realized that there is an opportunity for us to support product teams in their discovery efforts. Using our own product to scratch our own itch was incredibly helpful in guiding us through our research.

Our main learning is that the product discovery really helped to rally the whole company behind the same priorities. Knowing what our desired outcomes are and what opportunities lay within them made it easier to research, plan, scope and deliver features that have impact.

The full extent of the results remains to be seen, but the process in itself was hugely valuable.

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About the author

Ferdinand Goetzen

Ferdinand Goetzen is the CEO and Co-Founder of Reveall - a product discovery platform that empowers teams to build products that customers really...

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