Foundations
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Working through the analysis
Use each exhibit to confirm or reject your hypothesis. After every number, say what it means for the client — a number without an implication earns little credit.
- Read the title, units and period of an exhibit before the numbers.
- Find the line that changed most, then ask for detail on exactly that line.
- Check whether the problem is the company's own or the whole market's.
- Sanity-check results against something you know.
Elements:
Opening a case: the first minutes
Before structuring, make sure you are solving the right problem. Interviewers judge the opening on whether you understood the question, not on how fast you started.
- Restate the question in one sentence, in your own words.
- Confirm the objective: what, how much, by when — and ask whether there are other goals or constraints.
- Ask a few clarifying questions about how the business works and how success is measured.
- Name the type of case and lay out your structure.
- State a first hypothesis and what you will check first.
Pitfall: Jumping into a framework before the objective is clear — the structure then answers a different question.
Elements:
Delivering the recommendation
The synthesis is judged on clarity and conviction. Lead with the answer, support it with two or three reasons that each carry a number, and close with risks and next steps.
- First sentence = the answer. No recap of what you did.
- Commit to a position; avoid hedging every sentence.
- If the answer is 'no', offer another route to the client's goal.
- Rank risks by how likely and how damaging they are, and pair each with a mitigation.
- Prefer actions that are concrete, affordable and fast to start.
- If challenged, defend your answer with evidence — or update it if the evidence is new.
Pitfall: Walking the interviewer through every step before giving the answer.
Elements: