2 weeks ago • Visible to anyone on or off LinkedIn
If you were presented with these two options:
Option A: Save your company 13%. Option B: Save your company 11% and you’ll be recognized as a leader in your industry and promoted.
Which would you choose? Be honest.
Most people would choose Option B, yet somehow, we write case studies as if everyone would pick Option A. They highlight firm-level outcomes, efficiency gains, cost reductions, revenue growth, while ignoring the fact that individuals don’t experience decisions as “the company.” They experience them as personal risks and personal incentives.
Behavioral economics and decision theory make this clear:
Prospect Theory (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979) shows that people are more sensitive to avoiding personal losses than capturing abstract gains.
Principal–Agent Theory (Jensen & Meckling, 1976) demonstrates that individuals optimize for their own incentives, which may diverge from shareholder value.
Status Quo Bias (Samuelson & Zeckhauser, 1988) explains why many stick with existing solutions, the personal downside of being “the one who got it wrong” often outweighs the potential upside for the firm.
But look at how we write case studies:
“Costs reduced 20%.” “Processes streamlined.” “Revenue up 30%.”
The Operations Manager sees “20% cost savings,” but they feel the relief of getting home for dinner instead of fighting fires all night. The Marketing Director hears “pipeline growth,” but they’re really thinking about walking into the board meeting with confidence. The IT leader hears “improved uptime,” but they actually want to sleep through the night without fearing a career-ending outage.
So how do you improve case studies?
1. Frame benefits at both organization and individual levels.
2. Translate corporate outcomes into human outcomes: stress reduced, credibility gained, career advanced.
3. Highlight avoided losses like the risks and fears that weigh most heavily on the decision-maker.
4. Tell parallel stories, one for the company, one for the person who made the call.
Why humanizing your case studies matters:
– It reflects how decisions are actually made, by people, not abstract entities.
– Every company has case studies; showing individual benefits makes yours more distinctive.
– Speaking to personal incentives builds relatability and emotional connection with future prospects.
At the end of the day, companies don’t make decisions. People do. Case studies that reflect this reality will resonate more deeply and be far more persuasive.
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