Have you ever led a project that’s so exciting, with such
tremendous results, that you want to tell everyone about it?
Or maybe as a deployment leader you’re looking for ways to
highlight your program’s success? Whether seeking internal or
external recognition, case studies are an extremely effective
way to spread the good news about your improvement project
or program. When you know the right questions to ask and how
to assemble the information into an attractive format, you can
generate case studies easily and affordably.

The Value of Case Studies

These days, every company claims to care about process improvement and performance. Case studies are
a perfect way to demonstrate how your organization is striving to improve quality, cut costs, stream-line operations, produce innovations and the like. Who are you trying to convince? Your customers and stockholders are always interested
in what your company is doing to make its products and services better, cheaper and faster. A case study doesn’t just tell them, it
shows them what you’re doing by weaving the details into a story.

“The rewards of participating in a case study can be many,”
says Casey Hibbard, whose firm, Compelling Cases, specializes
in writing case studies for business clients. “I've seen featured
customers get significant PR in major media outlets, new
customers and awards.”

If you’re concerned about revealing trade secrets to competitors,
or you’re keeping your process improvement program under wraps
publicly, you can still derive benefits from generating case studies
that are used internally. Case studies are an excellent way to
highlight success stories and help generate positive buzz about
the program – especially if your initiative is young or floundering.

A case study can be a reward for people involved in your improve-
ment program. It’s easy to get lost in the details and lose sight of
the big picture, especially if you have busy practitioners who move
quickly from one project to another. A case study reminds them of
the good work they have accomplished.

Case studies can also be used as sales or training tools for employ-
ees says Hibbard. “One company I work with publishes case studies 
in an internal-only database that sales reps can review, but can't
copy or paste. So, reps can read the information and commit it to
memory, and share it in conversations. But the information isn't
floating in the public domain.”

Elements of a Successful Case Study

A good project-level case study typically features a compelling
story that answers these questions:

• What was the business problem addressed?
• What methodology (DMAIC, DMADV, SCORE, D4, etc.) was
  employed to understand the problem and devise a solution?
• What was the solution, and how did the project team
  arrive at it?
• What was the benefit?

Note that the benefit is not the same as the solution. Benefits
can be financial savings or revenue increases, or other positive
outcomes such as new products or services, enhanced employee
retention, reduced cycle times, increased capacity, etc. Ideally,
at least one benefit will have baseline and post-project metrics
that that can be disclosed as a specific number or as a percentage
(e.g., reduce cycle time from six minutes to three minutes, or
reduce cycle time by 50 percent.)

A program-level case study can feature the same basic
information, but on a larger scope:

• What business problems does the company face
  (e.g., what are its challenges, what is the competitive
  landscape)?
• What does the process improvement program entail
  (which methodologies, how many practitioners, what is
  the scope of the deployment, etc.)?
• What are some of the solutions put in place as a result
  of the program? You can highlight 2-3 project success
  stories and how each addressed a specific challenge.
• What are the benefits of the program? How has the
  program improved the company’s bottom line? If you’re
  not comfortable revealing specific financial benefits, you
  can express the ROI as a percentage. Although financial
  benefits are key, other improvements such as positive
  culture change, increased market share and improved
  customer satisfaction will make the story more compelling.
  

In either case, the project or program you’re featuring needs to
have enough maturity to have reached a critical mass of results.
For projects, this equates to at least one month of validated
financial results (with one month’s worth, you can always
annualize). For business-level case studies, this means that
many projects in different areas have been completed and
validated, and to-date aggregate financial savings or benefits
have been documented.

Formatting the Final Product

Case studies come in all flavors – brief, detailed, text-heavy,
visually engaging, conversational or academic. Your project
case studies can be as succinct or as detailed as you want
them to be. If you limit them to a few paragraphs, you can
still include a high-level description of the business problem,
solution and benefits. Case studies that are 1-2 pages can
include graphs (think before and after metrics), quotes from
key project personnel, lessons learned and a more in-depth
discussion of the specific tools used.

Program case studies are likely to be two pages or more as
you’ll want to provide some background and current state
information about the deployment, as well as a few specific
success story examples. Quotes from company executives,
the deployment leader, champions and key project personnel
put a face on the facts and figures. Graphs are always helpful,
but consider people pictures, too – the before/after of an area
that’s had 5S applied, or a project team hard at work.

As far as the final product, again the options vary. You can
format case studies in a word processing program, such as
Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect, or get fancy with a
desktop publishing program such as Adobe InDesign. Alternatively,
a program like Microsoft PowerPoint can be used to make a less
content-driven case study that uses bullets for key points.
Either way, you should export the case study as a PDF to protect
the formatting and content integrity. (You may want a PDF even
if you include the case study on your Web site so people can
print the file and read it at their leisure.)

A consistent format for every case study – with the same
sections, sidebars, look and feel – is nice, but not required.
As longas the final product looks professional, free of typos
and grammatical errors, the important thing is to get the word
out about your project or program.

Sharing Your Case Study

Before you publish or share your case study, make sure you
have the required approvals. First, provide a copy to anyone
who was quoted in the case study to make sure they are ok
with what they said and the context in which it’s placed.
(Even if the person said it, sometimes they change their mind
when they see it in print!)

Then, depending on your organizational policies, get the
necessary approvals from your manager, the project Champion
or program Deployment Leader, marketing, communications or
public relations, and the legal department. In fact, it’s usually
a good idea to make sure you understand your company’s policies
before you start working on the case study.

Note that if you contract an outside agency to write the case
study, you should have approval rights on the final product.
“The client always has final approval,” Hibbard says. “We respect
their requests for changes and their time throughout the process
until they feel comfortable with the story.”

After all, a case study isn’t “straight” journalism, it’s supposed
to make your company look good. Although it highlights the
positives, it should include coverage of some of the struggles
and issues along the way. If it doesn’t, no reader will believe it.
So, if the case study writer asks about these struggles, you can
be candid knowing that you’ll be able to review and make
adjustments prior to publication.

Once you’re ready to share your case study with the world,
you can post it on your program or company website, include
it in a newsletter, print handouts, even print and frame copies
for those who were quoted or were involved with the initiative.
In addition, many companies send out press releases about their
case studies.
 
You may also consider submitting your case study to a process
improvement publication or Web site that accepts submissions,
such as iSixSigma.com or onesixsigma.com. Keep in mind, each
of these organizations have their own requirements, so you may
have to work with them to edit the case study per their guidelines.

More Information

BMG has written a number of case studies featuring
client success stories, including brief write-ups, longer
case studies with graphics, and Power-Point overviews.

Compelling Cases (http://www.compelling-cases.com)
specializes in writing case studies, and the website includes
helpful information about the topic.