A 17-Point Audit for Case Studies and Customer Feedback

Freeze the case, source record, and every planned reuse

Capture the case brief, subject, selection, permission, interviews, system or document evidence, baseline, intervention, outcome, analysis, draft, quotes, visuals, relationship, disclosure, approvals, landing page, advertisement, partner asset, and follow-up plan. Name the owner who can stop release.

Use pass, revise, specialist review, and stop. Stop when permission, provenance, objective support, privacy control, material relationship, or correction access fails. Escalate consequential health, financial, safety, earnings, scientific, or vulnerable-participant claims. Unknown is unresolved, not a favorable assumption.

Evidence: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Human Research Protections; U.S. Federal Trade Commission; Society of Professional Journalists

Points 1–4: purpose, inference, selection, and relationship

Point 1 states the reader decision and learning purpose. Point 2 defines the strongest conclusion the case design could support and what it cannot establish. Point 3 records eligibility, invitation, response, decline, exclusion, and reason for selecting this subject. Point 4 documents incentive, free access, affiliate, employment, agency, ownership, family, or unusual support relationships.

Do not begin with a result to prove. Do not describe selected success as representative without evidence. Commercial and operational relationships need context where readers weigh the case, and high-performing selection should remain visible.

Evidence: U.S. Federal Trade Commission; Society of Professional Journalists

Points 5–8: permission, privacy, baseline, and intervention

Point 5 confirms appropriate permission for participation, identifiers, media, editing, commercial use, reuse, duration, and withdrawal. Point 6 minimizes personal data, separates private source material, and sets access, retention, and deletion. Point 7 establishes starting state, product version, environment, prior trend, resources, and dates. Point 8 traces actions, support, deviations, external events, and costs or effort.

HHS OHRP guidance applies to regulated human-subject research, not all customer stories; use it only as a high-standard process reference and obtain actual legal or ethics review. Permission to give feedback is not automatically permission to become an advertisement.

Evidence: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Human Research Protections; Society of Professional Journalists

Points 9–12: evidence, outcome, attribution, and typicality

Point 9 labels self-report, direct observation, system record, document, estimate, and interpretation. Point 10 defines outcome, calculation, population, window, missing data, and uncertainty. Point 11 separates chronology and association from causal attribution. Point 12 examines whether the headline, visuals, and selection imply an ordinary result that the evidence cannot support.

Do not report a performed test or measured improvement unless it actually occurred and is documented. A sincere account does not prove scientific causation. Consequential claims require qualified substantiation and legal review. Preserve contradictory or mixed evidence.

Evidence: U.S. Federal Trade Commission; U.S. Office of Management and Budget / Performance.gov

Points 13–15: editing, factual review, and disclosure

Point 13 retains originals and logs shortening, translation, anonymization, composite treatment, synthetic elements, visual changes, and headline edits. Point 14 provides appropriate factual review without granting hidden commercial control over supported criticism. Point 15 places incentives and material relationships where they change interpretation in each format.

Edits must not create outcomes or sentiment the participant did not provide. Label composites and reconstructions. Disclosure cannot cure false evidence or an unsupported claim. Record disagreements and the reason for the editor's decision.

Evidence: U.S. Federal Trade Commission; Society of Professional Journalists

Points 16 and 17: publication inventory, follow-up, and correction

Point 16 inventories article, advertising, email, social, video, partner, translation, structured data, and cached uses with version and owner. Point 17 sets follow-up windows, expiry, withdrawal handling, correction triggers, and propagation. Triggers include consent or permission, relationship, product, evidence, outcome, law, or participant-safety change.

Measure at a transaction, journey, or relationship level appropriate to the claim. OMB Section 280 contributes a U.S. federal customer-experience framework for those levels, not a private-sector mandate. Preserve a minimal accountable history without retaining unnecessary identifiers.

Evidence: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Human Research Protections; Society of Professional Journalists; U.S. Office of Management and Budget / Performance.gov

Approve only a bounded story that can still be corrected

Ask an independent reviewer what population the case represents, what changed, who contributed, what evidence exists, which outcome is claimed, what relationship matters, and what remains unknown. Compare the interpretation with the audit record. A favorable score cannot offset missing permission or unsupported causation.

Recheck by 2027-02-10 and sooner after a point-17 trigger. HHS, FTC, and OMB are official U.S. sources with different scopes; the SPJ code provides independent ethics principles. None certifies research validity, advertising compliance, or privacy legality.

• Pass the frozen scope only.
• Revise claims that exceed the record.
• Escalate specialist and jurisdiction gaps.
• Stop when permission, evidence, privacy, or correction control fails.

Evidence: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Human Research Protections; U.S. Federal Trade Commission; Society of Professional Journalists; U.S. Office of Management and Budget / Performance.gov