/prd-v10-case-study-builder

name: prd-v10-case-study-builder
description: >
  Build customer case studies as marketing and chasm-crossing reference assets during PRD v1.0
  Market Adoption. Triggers on requests to build case studies, produce customer stories, create
  reference content, or when user asks "build a case study", "customer story", "reference
  account", "case study interview", "before/after story", "social proof page", "logo wall".
  Outputs CFD-CASE-* evidence entries, GTM-CASE-* marketing assets, and updates ADO-REF-* with
  story status.
context: fork
allowed-tools:
  - Read
  - Write
  - Edit
  - Glob
  - Grep

execution_modes:
  default: standard
  supports: [quick, standard, deep]

Case Study Builder

Position in workflow: v1.0 Mom Test Interview → **v1.0 Case Study Builder** → v1.0 Testimonial Collector, GTM channels

Execution Mode

Default is **standard**. See [`.claude/rules/08-skill-execution-modes.md`](../../rules/08-skill-execution-modes.md) for selection logic.

| Mode | What this skill produces | |------|--------------------------| | **quick** | Short-format case (testimonial + 1-paragraph story + logo); single placement | | **standard** | Full case study (1,500 words) + short and medium derivatives + customer-approved + 3 channel placements | | **deep** | Long-form case (2,500–4,000 words) + multi-format derivatives (PDF, blog, video, conference talk) + measurable outcome quantified + outcome-attribution interview |

What This Does

Turns customer success — already documented as CFD-* evidence and ADO-REF-* candidates — into structured **case studies**. Case studies are the pragmatist buyer's #1 reference signal: they need to see a customer in their segment achieving the outcome they want, with enough detail to make it credible.

This is an **operational** "doing" skill, not a strategy skill. The strategic question (which segment, what story angle, what outcome to highlight) was answered by [prd-v10-chasm-adoption-moore](../prd-v10-chasm-adoption-moore/SKILL.md). This skill produces the artifact.

How It Works

1. **Identify candidate customers** — Pull from ADO-REF-* candidates and CFD-* entries with strong outcome quantification. Must satisfy:

• In-beachhead (or in an adjacent segment where the story would still resonate)
• Has a quantifiable outcome to talk about
• Willing to be public (consent path is clear)

2. **Run the case-study interview** — Extended Mom Test interview (45–60 min), focused on:

• Before-state (specific past: what life was like, what tools, what cost)
• Trigger (what changed; why they evaluated alternatives)
• Evaluation (who they considered; how they chose)
• Implementation (what happened in onboarding; what was hard)
• After-state (specific present: quantified outcome, time/money saved, what they can do now they couldn't)

3. **Structure the story** — Situation → Complication → Question → Resolution (the McKinsey SCQR pattern):

• **Situation**: where they were before
• **Complication**: what broke / changed / hit a wall
• **Question**: what they needed to figure out
• **Resolution**: how they solved it (your product as one part of the answer, ideally credibly)

4. **Quantify outcome** — Specific numbers beat vague claims:

• "Cut tier-selection time from 3 days to 30 minutes" beats "much faster"
• "Saved $12k/year on tool consolidation" beats "saves money"
• "85% activation rate (industry average 35%)" beats "great activation"

5. **Get customer review** — Send draft to customer for accuracy + tone + legal. Iterate until approved. 6. **Produce in 3 formats**:

• **Short** (testimonial — 1–2 sentences + name + role + logo): for landing pages, pricing page, ad creative
• **Medium** (1-paragraph + 3 bullet outcomes + logo + linked deeper): for "Customers" page, social, email
• **Long** (1,500–2,500 word case study): for blog, sales enablement, sales call followup

Example

Customer: Acme Logistics (beachhead segment: freight forwarders, 50-200 employees, US PNW). ADO-REF-002.

**Interview**: 50 minutes with Acme's VP Operations.

**Quantified outcome**:

• Tier-selection time: 3 days → 30 min (90% reduction)
• Annual savings from tool consolidation: $14k
• Onboarding time per new hire: 2 weeks → 3 days (after migrating to product)

**SCQR**:

• **Situation**: Acme used 4 disjointed tools to track shipments, with manual export every Friday for ops reporting
• **Complication**: Two new hires + a Q3 customer surge meant the manual export bottlenecked the team; ops director was working Saturdays to keep the dashboards current
• **Question**: How could Acme consolidate tooling without disrupting an in-flight Q4 customer onboarding?
• **Resolution**: Acme migrated to [product] over 3 weeks; consolidated 4 tools to 1; automated the Friday export. VP Operations reclaimed 6 hours/week. New hires onboard in 3 days instead of 2 weeks.

**Three formats produced**:

• **Short**: *"We replaced 4 tools with [product] and cut new-hire onboarding from 2 weeks to 3 days." — [Name], VP Ops, Acme Logistics*
• **Medium**: 1-paragraph + 3 bullet outcomes + Acme logo + "Read the full story →"
• **Long**: 1,800-word blog case study with screenshots, quotes, before/after metrics, and an embedded testimonial video.

What You Get Back

• **CFD-CASE-\* entries** — One per case-study interview; the durable evidence record
• **GTM-CASE-\* entries** (one per produced format) — Marketing assets with placement plan
• **Updates to ADO-REF-\* entries** — Reference status: "draft pending" → "approved" → "published"
• **Customer approval record** — Signed approval + version-controlled draft history

When to Use It

| Trigger | Mode | |---------|------| | First reference customer in beachhead is ready to talk | standard | | Chasm-crossing push needs 3+ in-segment case studies | deep | | Pricing-page logo wall expansion | quick (short format only) | | Sales enablement asset for new segment | standard | | Investor / partner update