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What Questions Should I Ask During The Case Interview?
1 Comment · Posted by Robert in Case Interview
A lot of people get stuck when it comes to the case because they have no idea what questions to ask in order to gather data and crack the case. Once you’ve set up your structure, you move onto “data gathering and analysis”. But what exactly does “analysis” mean? If you have a well-formed structure, the ambiguous problem should be segmented into pretty clean buckets such as customers and competitors, but then what? What questions should you ask about customers? Here’s how you should go about thinking about it:
Analysis = Breaking the problem apart to identify the specific source of the problem
For example, when you think about customers, you should not just ask about the total number of customers and the revenue they generate. That only keeps your thinking on the surface level. You should break down customers and ask for the different segments of customers, and then gather information on each segment. (How much revenue does each segment bring in? What percent is that of total revenue? What is the growth rate of each segment? How does purchase behavior differ across segments? What is the profit margin on the products that each segment buys?)
This concept of drilling down is also good to keep in mind when you get stuck
If you get stuck, ask yourself:
- Have I found the source of the problem? If no, then…
- Can this problem be broken down further? If we are trying to understand revenue decline, break down revenue into product groups. If we are trying to understand loss of customers, break down customers into each segment and gather data for each one. If a product has very low margins, what is the breakdown of costs causing low margin (materials, labor, sales, etc.)?
- Repeat until you find the source of the problem.
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Consulting Case Interview Demystified: Questions, Answers, & Tips | SIMPLY THE CASE · January 18, 2010 at 12:36 am
[...] For example, when you investigate an area like revenue, you should ask to understand revenue more deeply. How exactly does the company make money? What are the different revenue streams and products? What are the prices for each product? What percentage of overall revenues does each product make up? Learn how to ask the right questions that will reveal the answer to the case for you. [...]