‘if It Worked For Them...’ – Case Studies
Prepare Your Questions
As if you were researching a press release, prepare a detailed questionnaire before your visit. It keeps the interview on track and helps it to go smoothly, and it can avoid embarrassment later. Your friends won’t be too happy if. after they’ve given you an hour or two of their valuable time, you phone several times in the next few days with ‘I’m afraid I forgot to ask you’ type questions. Don’t forget to include ‘pics’ as one of your prompts.
List your questions using the sections outlined above as a prompt, and with luck you’ll cover everything in one hit.
On The Day
Your hosts are doing you a favour, so do what you can to fit in with them and minimise any problems your presence might cause. Here are some helpful hints for the day:
Check That You’ve Got Everything
Before you go: Questionnaire? Notebook or clipboard with plenty of paper? At least two pens? Your business cards? The directions and the map? Your mobile? Your host’s telephone number?
Look Smart
Maybe you are going there as a writer, but a business executive or civil servant really won’t appreciate the Bohemian sweat shirt, jeans and sandals one little bit. Dress smartly as you would for the office.
Try To Arrive On Time
They will have allocated a time-slot for you. So, if your train’s running late or you are stuck in a jam on the M6, use your mobile to give them reasonable warning that sorry, you may be delayed, and hopefully this won’t be a problem for them.
Be A Document Collector
If you have to sit in a waiting room for a while on arrival, there will sometimes be a display of documentation such as corporate and product brochures, copies of company newsletters or magazines. Pop a few into your briefcase because they may fill an information gap, or provide
something eye-catching about the company when you come to write your piece, or reveal the existence of a good pic you could use to illustrate the case study.
Concentrate On The Job
Some case study interviewers start by trying to make polite conversation, hoping that it will put the victim (or themselves!) at their ease: ‘What a pleasant view you have from this window, Mrs Jones’ type of thing. It may actually have the opposite effect. Mrs Jones is being charming as always, but is secretly keen to get this done and move on to something more productive. So, when the usual did-you-have-a-good-journey and would-you-like-tea-or-coffee exchanges are over, take out your pen and questionnaire briskly, and get stuck in.
Fish For Quotable Quotes
Case studies always benefit from positive user quotations, so fish for some. When the interviewee is describing how the solution was implemented, for example, casually ask ‘Did our people and yours work well together?’ When she is talking about a particular benefit they’ve gained: ‘That sounds like a better result than you expected, Mrs Jones.’
Dig For Facts And Figures
In case studies, readers like to have detailed figures wherever possible. If your interviewee tells you that ‘it was taking staff a long time to answer incoming phone calls’, ask: ‘About how long, do you know?’ ‘Production increased dramatically’: ask, ‘What sort of percentage?’
Case studies can be quite fun to do; believe us, we’ve written dozens of them! You get to visit those faraway places with strange-sounding names, you meet some interesting people, and the factual ‘reporting’ style of the case study can make writing it easier and less taxing than an article calling for opinions and new thinking (articles, by the way, are sometimes called ‘think pieces’).