Why it’s important to build Case Studies into your project plan

Building Case Studies into your project plan

How soon in your project process do you think about Case Studies? Do they appear in your project plan from the beginning?

Or are Case Studies a marketing afterthought?

Typically businesses think about putting together Case Studies after the fact. That is, once the project has been delivered and (they hope) the benefits are being realised.

As with every project activity if it isn’t included in your overall schedule it’s difficult to remember them. Perhaps there has been a turnover of staff. Or your implementation has become so well-integrated that the problem it amply solved is no longer top of mind. Maybe you delivered so successfully for your client that they have moved on to bigger and better strategic projects.

That’s why it’s important to build the production of Case Studies into your delivery plan, not least to make sure they get done.

Not just about time and resource allocation

But there are more significant benefits of including Case Study planning as early in the project process as possible.

Case Study Writer client Martin Zeman of Data Driven Era says:

Writing the story of your success

Every good story, like a project, has a beginning, middle and end. It also has a clear message arc revealed to the reader through showing rather than telling.

For example. if you decide that you want your Case Study to demonstrate your value of ‘flexibility’ then you must include something in your project that demonstrates this. What in the project story gives you an opportunity to deliver flexibility? And how do you want your client to experience that?

If you want the Case Study to reveal tangible benefits then include a detailed benefits realisation piece in your project schedule. And if you want your customer to feel their requirements have been fully understood and met, then this dictates how you manage the relationship and communication.

So having a Case Study story arc and plot line in mind as you embark on the project means that you can define your project schedule with your customer’s satisfaction as your priority.

A Case Study mindset

A Case Study mindset is really about holding your client’s success and delight paramount during the whole engagement. A Case Study is therefore your checklist of success criteria to deliver upon in order to delight your client – and produce a good story about your partnership.

Building Case Studies into your project plan and making them a key deliverable helps write the story of success for both you and your client.