How to Write an Executive Summary for a Case Study

You’re not going to invest your time and energy in reading a case study unless you know it is relevant to your situation. How do you know if it’s relevant? By reading the executive summary. This is why it is so important for you to learn how to write an executive summary for a case study.

In this post, we show you what makes a compelling executive summary for case studies, and provide you with 4 examples from leading B2B SaaS companies.

• Every word counts when writing an executive summary for a case study
• Executive summaries can be short and sweet
• Or executive summaries might need to be longer
• Sometimes executive summaries miss the mark entirely
• You can do better with your executive summary

This post is part of a series on how to write a case study.

Every word counts when writing an executive summary for a case study

When thinking about how to write an executive summary for a case study, you need to create 2 or 3 crucial sentences that provide a concise overview of the case study. It must be informative and:

• summarize the story by introducing the customer and their pain points
• explain what your organization did
• highlight the key case study results, including 1 or 2 statistics that drive home the takeaway message

Write the executive summary first to help you focus the rest of the case study. But don’t be too rigid: in the process of reviewing the interview transcript or writing the main copy, another point or statistic may emerge as having more impact than what you’ve chosen to highlight. Revisit your executive summary after writing the case study to make sure it’s as strong and accurate as possible.

If you need a hand with your SaaS case studies, have a look at our case study writing service.

Executive summaries can be short and sweet

This executive summary example from Segment is just a headline followed by a glorified subhead—but it does the trick!

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Here’s another great example of a quick, yet helpful executive summary for Plaid’s case study:

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And here’s one more example of a quick executive summary for G2’s case study:

_{Source: G2}

Sometimes you may need a longer executive summary

For complex case studies, you may need a more in-depth executive summary to give readers an overview of the case study.

Here’s a more fleshed-out executive summary from Feathr:

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It effectively introduces the challenge and solution, and the results are impossible to miss.

Here’s another great example from Gong. Notice they just use “Challenge” and “Outcome”.

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Sometimes executive summaries miss the mark entirely

_{Source: Bullhorn}

This is not an executive summary. It is merely an introduction. We have no idea what the problem or solution is, and there’s nothing to motivate us to read further.

You can do better with your executive summaries

Be precise. Impress the reader with key results. Let them see that you offer solutions that matter.

If you need a hand with your SaaS case studies, have a look at our case study writing service.

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