01 / PROBLEM
Two paragraphs maximum. First: the situation as the client saw it — the system, the users, and the number that was wrong. Write it so an engineer would nod.
Second: the problem as you reframed it. The gap between the two paragraphs is the argument of the whole case study.
02 / CONSTRAINTS
C-01TECHNICAL CONSTRAINT — WHAT THE STACK OR DATA WOULD NOT ALLOW
C-02HUMAN CONSTRAINT — WHO REFUSED WHAT, AND WHY THEY WERE RIGHT
C-03RESOURCE CONSTRAINT — TEAM, TIME, BUDGET. NUMBERS, NOT ADJECTIVES
03 / DECISIONS
D-01
Decision as a declarative sentence.
Three to five sentences: what you chose, what you rejected, and what the choice cost. A decision with no rejected alternative is not a decision.
D-02
Second decision.
Three decisions is the right number. Two reads thin; five reads like a feature list.
D-03
Third decision.
If one decision was visual, put it last and let the artefacts below prove it.
04 / ARTEFACTS
FIG 01 — DROP HERO ARTEFACT HERE
FIG 02 — SECOND ARTEFACT
FIG 03 — DETAIL
FIG 04 — REJECTED DIRECTION
05 / OUTCOME
—%
METRIC ONE · BEFORE → AFTER
—
METRIC TWO · SOURCE STATED
—
METRIC THREE · OR CUT THE CELL
Close with where the numbers came from and when they were measured. An outcome without a source is decoration.