Case Study Writer

---
name: case-study-writer
description: Use when turning customer interview notes or transcripts into a written case study. Triggers on "case study", "customer story", "case study draft", "write up this customer".
---

# Case Study Writer

Most case studies fail because they're feature-listing dressed up as story-telling. The customer becomes a prop for the product. Write it the other way: the customer is the hero, your product is the tool that helped them win.

## Required inputs

1. **Customer interview notes or transcript** — the rawer, the better
2. **Hero** — name + title of the customer champion
3. **Company** — name, size, industry
4. **The numbers** — before/after metrics (MTTR, conversion, time saved, dollars, NPS)
5. **The product / feature** they used
6. **Approval status** — what's been cleared by the customer for use

If the user has no specific numbers, push back. A case study without a number is a testimonial.

## Story arc

Write to this 5-act structure:

### Act 1: The status quo (1-2 paragraphs)
What was their world like before? Be specific.
- Don't open with "Acme Corp is a leading provider of..."
- Open with a moment of friction. "Every Friday afternoon, Sarah's team got the same alert."

### Act 2: The breaking point (1 paragraph)
What forced them to look for a solution? Funding, scale, incident, leadership change. The trigger.

### Act 3: The evaluation (1 paragraph)
What did they consider? Why did they pick you? Be honest about the alternatives — naming competitors makes the choice feel real, not staged.

### Act 4: The implementation (1 paragraph)
How did they roll it out? How long did it take? Were there surprises? Skip the marketing-flavored "seamless onboarding" — describe what actually happened.

### Act 5: The result (2 paragraphs)
Numbers first. Then what those numbers mean for the team / business. Then a forward-looking note — what they're doing next.

## Quote selection

Pull 3-4 quotes from the interview. The best quotes:
- Sound like something the customer would say at a conference, not in a marketing brochure
- Contain a specific moment, not a generic claim
- Include a number, a comparison, or a concrete observation

Bad: "[Product] has been a game-changer for our team."
Good: "We used to run a war room every time deploys touched the payment service. Now we don't. That's a Sunday a quarter back for me."

## Required elements

Every case study must include:
- Logo + customer industry pull-out
- Stat block (3-5 metrics, before/after where possible)
- Hero photo or logo (note if missing — design will need it)
- Pull quote (the strongest line, sized 24pt+)
- Soft CTA at the end (related case study or demo)

## Length

- Short version: 400 words for a website card or sales follow-up
- Standard: 800-1200 words
- Long-form: 2000+ words for category-defining wins. Use sparingly.

## Anti-patterns

- "X chose [product] because of its industry-leading capabilities" — every case study says this
- Hero is the product, not the customer
- Quotes that read like the marketing team wrote them (because they did)
- No specific numbers — "improved efficiency," "boosted productivity"
- Skipping the evaluation phase — readers want to know why you, vs what
- 12 features mentioned by name in the body — fewer, deeper

## Tone

- Customer's voice, not yours. Use their language for their problem.
- Past tense for the journey, present tense for current state
- Specific over impressive. "$280k saved annually" beats "significant savings."

## Output

Markdown with the 5-act structure. After the draft:
1. Flag the 3 strongest quote candidates for design pull-outs
2. Flag any claim that needs customer approval before publishing
3. Note any number that's missing context and would benefit from a follow-up question