A feature list tells people what your product does. A case study tells them what changed in someone's life. Those are not the same thing, and only one of them moves people to click buy. You only need one story. One real user. One honest before-and-after. Ship that and you have a sales asset that works for the next twelve months.
Pick the beta user who got the most value. Ask them three questions and write down their exact words.
- What was your day like before this product?
- What changed after you started using it?
- What is one number that captures the difference?
Then write three short paragraphs:
- Problem — what they were stuck on, in their words
- Solution — what they did with your product
- Result — the number, even if small
Hard metrics are best. "From 6 hours to 30 minutes." "From 12 abandoned carts to 2." But soft wins count too. "Stopped dreading Mondays." Real quotes always beat marketing speak. If writing feels heavy, record a 5 minute Loom with the user instead.
Always ask permission before publishing. A simple "Mind if I share this story on our launch page?" works.
Bad: "Our platform delivered measurable productivity gains for the user."
Good: "Sara used to spend 6 hours every Friday on client reports. Now it takes her 30 minutes."
Bad: A feature list with a customer logo at the bottom.
Good: Three paragraphs. One name. One number. One quote.
- Waiting for a perfect outcome. Two hours saved is worth documenting.
- Publishing without explicit permission from the user.
- Marketing-speak rewrites. Their words sell better than yours.
Pick one beta user. Ask the three questions. Write the three paragraphs. Get permission to publish.
A 3-paragraph case study with at least one direct quote and one concrete metric, plus written permission from the user to share it publicly. Two paragraphs of fluff is not the same as three paragraphs of story.
A feature list tells people what your product does. A case study tells them what changed in someone's life. Those are not the same thing, and only one of them moves people to click buy. You only need one story. One real user. One honest before-and-after. Ship that and you have a sales asset that works for the next twelve months.
Pick the beta user who got the most value. Ask them three questions and write down their exact words.
- What was your day like before this product?
- What changed after you started using it?
- What is one number that captures the difference?
Then write three short paragraphs:
- Problem — what they were stuck on, in their words
- Solution — what they did with your product
- Result — the number, even if small
Hard metrics are best. "From 6 hours to 30 minutes." "From 12 abandoned carts to 2." But soft wins count too. "Stopped dreading Mondays." Real quotes always beat marketing speak. If writing feels heavy, record a 5 minute Loom with the user instead.
Always ask permission before publishing. A simple "Mind if I share this story on our launch page?" works.
Bad: "Our platform delivered measurable productivity gains for the user."
Good: "Sara used to spend 6 hours every Friday on client reports. Now it takes her 30 minutes."
Bad: A feature list with a customer logo at the bottom.
Good: Three paragraphs. One name. One number. One quote.
- Waiting for a perfect outcome. Two hours saved is worth documenting.
- Publishing without explicit permission from the user.
- Marketing-speak rewrites. Their words sell better than yours.
Pick one beta user. Ask the three questions. Write the three paragraphs. Get permission to publish.
A 3-paragraph case study with at least one direct quote and one concrete metric, plus written permission from the user to share it publicly. Two paragraphs of fluff is not the same as three paragraphs of story.