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— Inside Ueno's Case Study Process

A slightly different newsletter for you today, <<First Name>>. Mixing things up a bit. Because, you know, different is good (sometimes)...

Last weekend I came across an AMA with Halli from Ueno, while browsing Designer News for my weekly case study hunt.

If you don't know Ueno, they're sort of big in the design world, sporting clients like Google, Slack, Airbnb and Uber (just to name a few).

Anyhow, in the AMA Halli was asked about their case study process, and his reply blew me away. He linked to their entire internal case study process.

Holy shit, it's like striking gold. I immediately thought about sharing it with you (links below.)

In essence, here's what the document says:

  • Their process is divided into six phases: Kickoff, Building, Wrap-up, Project launch, Follow-up, Awards (optional)
  • They have an entire case study team (budget ~66 hours/~$16.100)
  • The majority of their budget (~44hrs) goes to their content strategist
  • Case studies are a vital part of Ueno's new client wins
  • They emphasize storytelling
I was so intrigued that I reached out to Halli for some followup questions. He immediately replied and put me in touch with one of the writers at Ueno.

Here's a short Q&A:

Do you implement the case study process for all your projects?
We try to. We rely on case studies to tell Ueno's story, and our policy has always been to only take on projects that are interesting enough to merit a case study. Having said that, we do a lot of work these days that we're not allowed to discuss, which is kind of a shame.

Is your case study process something that gets initiated at the start of a project or after the project is finished?
We used to do the case study at the end of a project, but we're trying to change that. We want to make the case study more of an integral part of the project.

Do you involve your clients in your case studies?
We want our case studies to be as much about our clients as they are about us. Their purpose is not to show off our fancy visual designs (ok, maybe just a little bit) but to put the work as a whole in the context of the problems our clients were trying to solve and the opportunities they were trying to seize. But we don't involve our clients directly in the making of case studies, other than to ask for quotes and sometimes feedback.

Does your client pay for any of the case study costs?
No. We're happy if clients get something out of our case studies, but we do them for our own benefit, frankly. They help clients find us, they help recruit great people, and they're good for our culture and Ueno's institutional memory, reminding ourselves about what we do and how we do it.

Anything to add?
Well, I don't want your readers to think that we've got this all figured out. The way we do case studies is a work in progress that we're still tweaking, trying to improve and adjusting to the messy everyday reality. It's still more of an art than a science.

Ok, so most of us don't have Ueno's budget or trained content strategists, but there's a lot of cool takeaways here.

For one, I think it's a good idea to document on the fly. I know it's not always possible, and in that case, outline it as quickly as possible after the project is done. At least that way you won't forget.

Also, while writing, think about your story. You need to show AND tell how you got from point A to point B in your project.

Lastly, think about promotion. How are people going to find your case study? In my opinion, try to focus on one promotional strategy to start with (my personal favorite: outreach).

With that, I hope you enjoyed this week's experimental summer issue.

As promised, here are the links to their case study doc and the AMA on DN.

Ueno's Internal Case Study Process Document (PDF) →

AMA with Halli from Ueno on DN →


And to top everything up, they even released a new case study last week that utilize their new and improved process.

Dorsia — a Travel Discovery and Planning App for Un-tourists →

Thanks for reading! Have a great week and go make something amazing.

If you enjoyed this issue, please consider forwarding it to a friend :)

All the best,
Jan from Case Study Club

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