Case Studies
Research applied to real organizational challenges.
Fetter Advisory's work is grounded in a simple principle: meaningful recommendations begin with understanding the people, systems, and evidence surrounding a problem.
The work below demonstrates how structured research can uncover barriers, clarify complex issues, and translate evidence into practical recommendations.
FEATURED CASE STUDY
Water Accountability & Equity in Mobile Home Parks
City of Fort Collins | Housing & Community Vitality
Graduate policy research conducted in partnership with the City of Fort Collins.
This attribution is important. I would not present this as a Fetter Advisory client engagement, because it wasn't. Instead, we're demonstrating that the methodology underlying Fetter Advisory has already been applied in a real organizational setting.
The Challenge
Water billing and accountability in mobile home communities can involve an unusually complex intersection of infrastructure, property ownership, resident communication, affordability, policy, and administrative systems.
The project examined how these systems affect residents and sought to better understand where barriers, information gaps, and opportunities for improvement existed.
The Research Question
I'd make this visually prominent:
How can policy, communication, and administrative systems better support water accountability and equity for residents of mobile home communities?
We may want to modify this to your exact capstone research question if it was formally worded differently.
The Approach
This is where the case study connects beautifully with the Approach page you just built.
01 — DEFINE
Clarified the policy problem, research scope, stakeholder environment, and questions requiring investigation.
02 — INVESTIGATE
Examined the issue through multiple forms of evidence, including policy and document research, existing literature, stakeholder perspectives, and relevant administrative and communication systems.
03 — ANALYZE
Synthesized findings to identify recurring barriers, information gaps, stakeholder experiences, and structural factors affecting water accountability and equity.
04 — RECOMMEND
Translated research findings into practical policy and communication considerations for the partner organization.
What the Research Revealed
This section is important, but I don't want to make up your findings from memory.
This should contain 3–5 of the strongest actual findings from your capstone.
Visually, I'd make them large cards:
01
[Key Finding]
One- or two-sentence explanation.
02
[Key Finding]
One- or two-sentence explanation.
03
[Key Finding]
One- or two-sentence explanation.
Those findings demonstrate something much more powerful than saying “I'm a good researcher.”
They let prospective clients watch you uncover a problem.
From Evidence to Action
Then have a short recommendations section.
Research is only useful when it can inform action.
The project translated findings into practical considerations related to areas such as policy, communication, administrative processes, stakeholder experience, and implementation.
Then show perhaps 3 key recommendations from the actual report.
Again, I want to pull these directly from your capstone rather than creating generic ones.
What This Demonstrates
The methodology extends beyond water.
While this project examined a specific water-policy challenge, the underlying research process applies across organizational settings:
Define the right question. Gather evidence. Understand stakeholder experience. Identify patterns. Translate findings into action.
That research-driven methodology now forms the foundation of the Fetter Advisory approach.
Have a complex question worth investigating?
You don't need to know the solution before beginning an engagement. You need to know the question your organization needs answered.