When your product or service is technical, you may wonder if an outside partner has the expertise to deliver:
Will an interviewer know what questions are worth asking?
Will a writer know the right language to use?
Will the technical details be both accurate—and compelling?
It’s a valid concern—one that we’ve stared down a few times. It’s true: we’re not software engineers, developers, or data analysts, and we’ll never understand your technical product or service as well as you do.
BUT: we don’t have to be in order to tell technical customer success stories. Even if they *are* in tricky verticals.
In fact, we’d argue that you’d struggle to find a software or data engineer who lives and breathes code—and who also runs amazing interviews and writes compelling stories that captivate, convince and persuade.
So let’s examine why we don’t have to be technical wizards to write your case studies.
- We write for your buyer
- We collaborate
- The more we do, the better we get
- We know more than you think
- There’s no room for a tech deep dive
1. We write for your buyer
Ultimately, your case study should focus on what the buyer cares about.
And most of the time, the buyer is interested in the high-level story—the problem, how you solved it, and what the experience was like—rather than the technical minutiae or complex details of the implementation.
And that’s the kind of information our interviews are designed to uncover.
We ask questions that help customers relay their experience, the benefits they received, and why those benefits are important to them. We’re not trying to create a technical manual. We’re trying to capture the customers’ experience in their own words.
When that’s the focus, there’s usually more than enough of a story to build off of, and clients have no problem tweaking the technical bits as-needed.
2. We collaborate
Having said all that, we acknowledge there are times where a case study may have to briefly wade into technical waters, especially if you’re trying to appeal to technical roles (CTO, engineering, development, etc.)
In these cases, we rely on YOU to bring that technical expertise by providing us with a specific and accurate brief that tells the granular story.
We do our best to make this as fast and easy as possible:
- Internal interviews to capture your insights
- Detailed briefs to help us nail the important bits
- Documented feedback (so we learn from you ongoing)
We may also need to go back and forth with you to make sure that everything is correct during the revisions phase. So if there’s something a bit technically off in the draft phase, you’ll have the opportunity to correct it or flesh it out.
So we CAN tell these technical success stories, absolutely. But it does require you to be a bit more engaged.
Honestly, the hardest part for an interviewer isn’t understanding the technical aspects of a product or service.
The hardest part is sniffing out the most important information that will make your case study do what you want it to do.
The hardest part of creating a case study is sniffing out the most important information.
That’s why we give our clients access to the audio recordings and transcripts of our interviews with their customers. If they identify a gap, we can follow up with the customer to fill it—and we’ll know what to look for during the next interview.
3. The more we do, the better we get
You’ll also find that the more case studies we do for you, the less we’ll require your help with any technical aspects.
As with anything, knowledge comes from repeated exposure to the subject matter. We won’t know it all on day one—but once we’re in a groove, you’ll find that you’re having to edit and adjust far less.
That’s why we strive to keep the same interviewer-writer team working with each client.
And if that’s not possible, the prior team member can coach the new addition to get them up to speed faster.
4. We know more than you think
While we can’t claim to be software or data engineers, some of our team members specialize in different industries or segments, (such as SaaS or marketing agencies) and many have contributed to dozens upon dozens (and in some cases, hundreds!) of case studies in those areas.
So if we have an in-house industry specialist on our team that lines up with your business (and we probably do), we’ll do our best to match you up.
5. There’s no room for a tech deep dive
One more reason why we don’t need to be technical experts: there’s no room for a tech deep dive.
Most case studies top out at around 1,500 words. Any longer than that, and you risk scaring off or losing your audience.
Fifteen hundred words may sound like a lot, but it’s not actually. Our writers need to keep the narrative tight and focused to make the most relevant points.
And when the parameters are that tight, you can’t afford to spend 500 words explaining the ins and outs of your technology.
Don’t get me wrong—there’s a time and place for that explanation for sure.
But it’s not in your case study.
You don’t have to be an engineer to ask smart questions
At the end of the day, a case study is a customer success story that describes the problem your customer had, the solution you put in place to fix it, and the results your customer achieved.
If we know what your KPIs are, what your solution does, and how it benefits your customer, that’s all we need to ask smart questions.
If we know what your KPIs are, what your solution does, and how it benefits your customer, that’s all we need to ask smart questions.
And we don’t have to be engineers to do that.
Give your high-tech product or service the case studies it deserves.
Contact us to start the conversation.