Gmkt Portfolio Case Study

---
name: gmkt-portfolio-case-study
description: Writes a marketing portfolio case study from your finished project, with the brief, the insight, the idea, what you made, what you would measure and how, and what you learned, as a one-page version and a slide outline. Use for "run gmkt-portfolio-case-study", "write up my marketing project", "portfolio case study", "turn my project into a portfolio piece", "case study for my interview", "make my spec campaign readable", "portfolio slides", part of the Claude for Marketing Graduates Pack by Polar Bear.
---

# Marketing Portfolio Case Study

## When To Use
You did the project and need it in a form an interviewer can read in two minutes. This turns your research notes, briefs and pieces into one page and a short slide version that show how you think, not just what you made.

## When Not To Use
If the project is not finished yet, run the Proof Project Plan first; a case study written ahead of the work fills gaps with guesses. If you only want to share one moment publicly, the Portfolio LinkedIn Post is shorter and fits better.

## Inputs
- Your project outputs: persona, research notes, brief, plan, the pieces you made (links or images)
- Your source list, and anything you changed after feedback
- Real results only if the work actually ran and you hold the data
If you have none of this, I start from your campaign question and three lines on what you made, and mark the output as a first draft.

## Approach
Problem, process, outcome is a practitioner convention for portfolio pieces, with no single originator. The Chartered Institute of Marketing's advice in FE News and TARGETjobs both point juniors to portfolios of real work. The judgment is in the outcome: a self-initiated project did not run, so the honest outcome is a measurement plan. The failure mode is the case study that says "increased engagement by [a number]" for a campaign nobody saw; one question from the interviewer ends it.

## Workflow
1. Ask three questions: what was the question you set yourself; which single finding changed your idea; did any of the work actually run anywhere (and do you hold the data).
2. Brief: the campaign question in one line, and a plain statement that it was self-initiated, with no client and no affiliation with the brand.
3. Insight: the one finding that changed the idea, with its source from your list (for example a theme across public reviews). If you have three insights, choose the one the idea depends on; the others go in the appendix.
4. Idea and what you made: the proposition in one line, then each piece with a link or image and one sentence on the choice behind it.
5. Outcome: if the work did not run, write "what I would measure and how" as metric, where it would come from, who would set the target. If it ran, only results you hold, with source and period. Never both blurred together.
6. What you learned and what you would do differently: one honest line each, in your words. One line on AI use links to the How I Used AI Note.
7. Cut to one page (about a two-minute read), then outline 5 to 8 slides: question, insight, idea, the work, measurement, learning.

## Output Format
```markdown
# Marketing Portfolio Case Study
## The brief
[Campaign question] | Self-initiated project, no affiliation with [brand]
## The insight
[One finding] | Source: [source from your list]
## The idea and what I made
| Piece | Link or image | The choice behind it |
|---|---|---|
| [piece] | [link] | [one sentence] |
## What I would measure and how
| Metric | Where it comes from | Target set by |
|---|---|---|
| [metric] | [tool or report] | [the brand's team / [number: source needed]] |
## What I learned
[One line learned] | [One line I would do differently] | AI use: [one line, see the How I Used AI Note]
## Slide outline
1. [Question] 2. [Insight] 3. [Idea] 4. [The work] 5. [Measurement] 6. [Learning]
## Decision
[You decide which version goes into applications and who reviews it (a tutor, a mentor, a careers adviser) by [date].]
```

## Done When
- The brief says self-initiated, with no client named
- The insight cites a source from the project's list
- The outcome is a measurement plan, or real results with source and period, never a mix
- One page reads in about two minutes and the slide outline has 5 to 8 slides

## Quality Bar
- Your words for the learning lines; anything Claude bridged is marked [bridge].
- No customer names, usernames or quotes; public evidence is paraphrased.
- No brand logo used in a way that suggests endorsement.
- The slide version can be built in Claude Slides (beta) or any slide tool; Claude never claims to read a .pptx template.
- No invented results or affiliation; Claude arranges your work and words, it never adds experience you do not have.

## Next
Run gmkt-how-i-used-ai (How I Used AI Note) to document the AI part honestly.

## About the makers

This pack is made by Polar Bear, a consultancy built by ex-McKinsey founders with a dream to make AI work for People, not instead of them. We help our clients build people systems and AI-first ways of working, and we run our own company on Claude. If your team has outgrown the self-serve version, message Pauline (linkedin.com/in/paulinebertry).