Part Ⅳ — Case Studies¶

A case study is not a project description. It is an account of thinking.

Why Case Studies Are the Core Unit of a Portfolio¶

A portfolio is made of case studies — and yet most portfolios do not contain any. They contain project descriptions, screenshot galleries, technology lists, and outcome summaries. These are useful supporting materials. They are not case studies.

A case study is something more specific and more demanding: a structured, honest account of how you engaged with a problem — the decisions made, the difficulties encountered, the thinking that shaped the outcome.

It is the difference between what you built and how you thought while building it.

That difference is what makes a portfolio argument rather than a collection.

Most readers — employers, collaborators, supervisors, clients — can evaluate a project description in thirty seconds. A genuine case study requires engagement. It rewards the reader with a specific, convincing account of professional capability. It cannot be skimmed and dismissed.

Part Ⅳ teaches you how to write one.

What This Part Contains¶

What a Case Study Is
A direct account of what case studies are, what distinguishes them from project descriptions, and why the distinction matters to the reader.

The Universal Structure
A framework for structuring case studies that applies across disciplines — not a template to fill in, but an organising logic that ensures the most important elements are present and connected.

Weak, Mid-Level, and Strong
Annotated examples showing the difference between a weak case study, a serviceable one, and a strong one — using the same underlying project at three levels of documentation quality. The contrast makes the standard visible in a way that description alone cannot.

Documenting Different Project Types
How the universal structure adapts across different types of project work — technical implementation, design and UX, research-led, education and intervention, and business and strategy projects.