Newsletter issue: #150
Read time: 1m 38s

Sometimes, reading a case study is like watching paint dry.

“I did research.”
“I made wireframes.”
“I tested them.”
“The end.”

YAWN 🥱

Going through 1000+ portfolios (literally), I can confidently say…

90% are structured like this.

That’s not a good thing. I’m tired of saying… (but I feel like I have to)

Your case study needs a STORY.

1. A HERO (the user, not you)
2. A PROBLEM (the actual villain)
3. A JOURNEY (with real struggles)
4. A VICTORY (with results that matter)

Picture this:

Hiring Manager: “So what’s this project about?”

Boring Designer: “I created a responsive dashboard with a modern UI.”

Interesting Designer: “Sarah, a busy mom, was constantly in her overdrafts with her bank. She didn’t realise this for months. We fixed that, saving her $200 per month, here’s how…”

One makes you go “so what” and the other makes you INVESTED.

When I was hiring, I spent about 30 seconds on each portfolio.

The ones that hooked me?

They made me feel something immediately.

I’ll admit it—my early case studies were TERRIBLE.

Pretty pictures first.
Then glorified process docs.

The turning point was when an interviewer asked me: “Why should I care about this project?”

I had no answer.

Kinda embarrassed.

But they were right.

I needed to start with the WHY, not the WHAT.

The structure I now use:

1. Start with a relatable human problem
2. Briefly explain project context
3. Highlight key moments of insight
4. Show impact with real evidence (ideally data)
5. Connect back to how it helped real people

If all the above is included, you can have fun with the structure.

And please include visuals.
Not just screenshots—but annotations too.

Messy whiteboard, cool. Failed concept, fine. Crappy ideation, great.

As long as it’s not evidence for evidence sake.

Connect this back to the story.

You’re not turning your case study into a fairy tale.

You’re making people INVESTED in the problem you solved.

So next time you write a case study, ask yourself: “If I deleted 80% of the text and images, would this still be interesting?”

If not, you don’t have a story.

You have documentation.

And nobody gets excited about documentation (shoutout to my technical writers though)

PS. Here’s a storytelling framework you can steal (with detailed steps and real examples)

Get my storytelling framework