Learning the exercises without the basics is like building a house without a foundation. My poor neighbor`s house has developed a huge crack right in the middle because of its flimsy foundation, so be sure to prepare for your case interview by knowing the basics first. As an interviewee, you should never make assumptions. Your interlocutor will inevitably omit elements of the case that will be presented to you. (For example, if an apple juice manufacturer`s expenses have increased significantly, your interviewer probably won`t mention tree rot, which limits the supply of apples.) You should adopt the character of a real consultant trying to learn more about an assignment. You should also ask if the company has encountered a similar problem or what other companies have done in this area when they have faced similar situations. Your interviewer may not disclose this information, but they will be impressed that you asked these reasonable questions. Some good basic „professional“ questions that apply to most cases: Here`s how a good case study question hands the reins to the client – an open-ended question that allows them to talk about the excellence of your organization and the service you provide. If you want to create an effective business case, it needs to be credible, authentic, and clear that your product or service is better than your competitors. It should explain why some customers are a good fit for your business and how your business can help meet their specific needs. This way, someone in a similar situation can use your case study as a testimonial on why they should choose your business. There are four basic steps to answering case interview questions: When the interviewer asks you to identify factors that contribute to a problem or break down an entity (such as a company`s revenue), they ask you to draw a problem tree. Do you need more insightful advice on how to approach your case interview in management consulting? Read our complete case interview guide, which gives you tips for preparing for your case interview, step-by-step explanations on how to resolve the case, and finally 13 valuable tips for your interview day.
It should be a light process – [I, a product marketer] will ask you about [10, 15, 20] via email or phone about your experiences and results. This case study includes a blurb about your business and a link to your homepage (which hopefully makes your SEO team happy!) Ask specific questions to clarify goals. „Our goal is therefore to increase the net result. Are there any other destinations I should know about? If there is more than one goal, don`t try to solve them all at once, but break the problem into pieces and solve them one piece at a time. So you can stay focused. If useful, also use advanced business concepts and frameworks, such as Porter`s five forces or value chain analysis (see chapter on case frameworks) to organize your thoughts and impress your interviewer. You can also work with a professional coach if you want truly realistic practice and feedback. At Skillful Communications, we`ve helped many clients prepare for their case interviews and land jobs at leading consulting firms. Readers of the case study will be interested in what influenced the decision-making process for the client.
If they can relate to this process, they are more likely to buy your product. Reading is a good start, but you should also spend time on mock case interviews. You can practice with a friend or colleague. This is most effective if your practice partner learns the basics of case discussion so that the role play is realistic. Value proposition questions are not only about correctly identifying customer preferences, but also about analyzing and providing the answer in a structured way. The former relies heavily on business knowledge and intuition, but the latter can be formed methodically and quickly. Personally, I use a „dual thematic tree“ – essentially a table of customer segments on one axis and suggested values on the other: pause, paraphrase the problem and clarify questions In some cases, the point is the product. In these cases, you want to know: If you study these nine types of questions, you can be sure that you have covered the majority of the questions in the case interviews. The foundation for a successful case is laid at the beginning, so religiously follow these steps during your interview practice: Your future employer will try to see if you can critically analyze and logically break down complex problems.
Do you consider all critical aspects? Do you avoid jumping to conclusions? Do you ask insightful questions? Do you have strong critical thinking skills? This type of question is so common that we devote an entire article to it, and our end-to-end case interview secrets program has a separate package on these issues. Check out our complete guide to market size and rate issues for more details! You can adjust these considerations based on how your customers use your product and the specific responses or offers you want to receive. Each case question will describe a business problem. The problem may be general („Determine the market for a drug that prevents baldness.“) or very specific and detailed (see example below). The difference between a case study and a customer review lies in the data that supports them. Customer reviews are usually based on the customer`s opinion of your brand. While they may write a glowing review, it is completely subjective and there is rarely empirical evidence to support their claim. Use these questions to get general information about the company and its business goals. This information can be used to introduce the company at the beginning of the case study. My team is building our library of case studies, and I`d like to add your story.
Feel free to provide more details if you are potentially interested. During a case interview, the candidate receives a detailed situation, problem or challenge and is asked to analyze it and find a solution. A case interview question may be based on a creative business situation your interviewer experienced in real life, or a situation that was fabricated to infer your skills. Questions can range from simple (How do you know the lights go out when you close the refrigerator door?) to sweaty (estimating the percentage volume of disposable diapers in all U.S. household waste). Most questions in case interviews fall into one of these 9 types: Most major consulting firms offer advice on online case interviews. This approach allows you to decipher any type of case study. Solving a case in a case interview is not much different from the approach a consultant uses in real life to solve client problems. You must: Make sure you focus on the relevant and important data to solve the case problem. This will show your interlocutor that you are not writing everything down blindly. So, before analyzing anything, it would make sense to paraphrase in your head and write only relevant information.
Be sure to take structured notes. This will allow you to remember relevant information about the case and be able to access it quickly, even during a stressful interview. In summary, before writing the information and sharing it with the interviewer, analyze it and determine its relevance. In a case interview, your only source of data is the interviewer. Therefore, it is important that you establish open two-way communication and, obviously, your relationship with the interviewer is very important. Use the following questions to get customer feedback on the product. If you arrive or approach the „right“ answer, you will receive a gold star. However, it is not always possible to get the „right“ answer – either because there are several correct answers or because important information is not provided. Candidate-led cases, on the other hand, have a big problem that the candidate must break down into small pieces in order to identify causes and provide solutions.
The valuation questions are all about estimating the monetary value of a business, and they are also very popular in case interviews! Case interviews at management consulting firms are among the most difficult job interviews, but they are also quite predictable. Once you know what kind of questions they are asking, preparation is easy. First, ask your interviewer for a minute to prepare your structure, as this part is extremely important and will determine if you can successfully resolve the case.