Case Interview - How to Open Any Case, Perfectly

it's rumored that the result of a case interview is already determined during the first three minutes all the time remaining is there just for the purpose of procedure and this is no tale it's very real I don't know about you but I consider this as great news [Music] hi my name is Kim Tran a former McKinsey consultant and the founder of the management consulting prep platform now you may wonder for the last 30 seconds why the three-minute fact is great news doesn't that just vastly increase the pressure of the first three minutes and isn't the beginning always the hardest part we haven't got any proper warm-up yet and bam the crucial decision period many people feel this way and most of them fail to me the three-minute fact is great news because a most people won't perform well right off the bat this is a great chance for me to stand out be it's much easier to be great for three minutes than to be great for 30 minutes and see during the first three minutes usually the case is not yet gone to the tricky part there's almost a set of textbook methods and scripts that if you know just enough you can kill the opening of every freaking single case this is a wonderful 8020 spot for you to stand out now you want to start the case super strong let's get started with an overview about the structure of the opening then deep dive into each part and finally provide you with the perfect opening script okay so let's say the interviewer has just given you the case context and the key question here are literally seven textbook steps you should take steps three four and five are the most important ones but to stand out you need them all step one show appreciation step to announce your case introduction basically tell the interviewer that you're about to do steps three four and five step three play back the case context sometimes you'll hear me refer to this step as the recap step four clarifications step 5 announce the overall case approach then step six align with the interviewer and lastly step 7 timeout seven steps sounds like something complicated but besides steps three four and five all the other steps are fairly short and straightforward now let me clearly explain each and turn to you step one show appreciation it's a widely known fact that everyone loves being complimented on their work and the nice word costs nothing besides happiness so why not so thank the interviewer and compliment him or her for the interesting case naturally and sincerely with a big smile if you can't say you like case interviews you shouldn't have been here from the beginning step to announce your case introduction map habit one of the crucial tips you'll hear over and over in the end-to-end program is the map habit generally it means to pause to explicitly reflect where you have been and where you're going next here right from the beginning of the case you should apply the map habit in a very simple way and win a plus point because this is the very beginning of the case just state what you're going to do next with the interviewer which is step three recap step for clarification and Step five announcement of the case approach we'll discuss the specific script for saying these items in the case interviews later in this video now let's find out what's next step three recap the purpose of this step is to make sure you understand what has just been given to you there are multiple ways to do this but in my opinion the best is to play it back with your own words and loosely follow a mini structure after all our goal here is to win the heart of the interviewer right off the bat so every detail should be carefully formed the mini structure always includes the following three buckets a who is the client be the facts regarding the client and the situation and see the key question and the objective of the case on recapping the case you may realize new areas of focus with some possible confusions and have the urge to ask for the answer immediately no matter what don't mix clarification into this step don't let the interviewer get confused between playing the case versus asking clarification questions this habit probably doesn't change the outcome of how the case goes that much but it certainly significantly changes the impression that the interviewer has a view step 4 clarify this part is for you to clarify any confusions and unclear details about the case naturally you'll always have questions however if you find yourself having no questions to ask then chances are that you're missing something in these situations I recommend you quickly run through your mind with these checks definitions time frame and measurement for definitions is there any word that you don't fully understand is there any term that can be interpreted with multiple meanings are there any open-ended words that asking about will clarify and open up important insights about the case if any of the above yields a yes answer then clarify it for the time frame let's say the context describes a company aspire to be the best in the market then you should definitely ask for the time frame top one in ten years is completely different story from top one in two years any goal without a clear timeline should definitely be clarified the measurement is also an area where misunderstanding may occur and therefore need clarifications in the above example does the firm want to be the best in terms of revenue in terms of profit or in terms of assets it's a little bit technical but this is necessary at least asking this shows the interviewer that you have a specific driven mindset which is a typical trait of all consultants lastly remember to always use number tracking for questions and even if you're not sure how many questions are going to ask you still need to number your questions it's again shows your structure and systemic habits interviewers will love it Step five announced the overall case approach following the clarification part we need to show the map habit again this is the time to announce ahead at the overall plan not just for the case opening but for the whole case specifically we summarize the overall logical flow of the case that creates a strong sense of direction and authority there are different types of cases and each has their own logical approach but the three most popular are one problem solution - should we do a or B and 3 how to do C the most popular type is problem solution speaking of the logical flow in this type of case we look for the root cause to completely wipe out the problem in order to do it systematically we break down the problems into pieces using an issue tree and a top-down and mici way then we set up hypotheses and ask for data to test each branch of the issue tree lastly once the root cause has been found come up with solutions I explained this type of the case in depth in this video check it out for how to logically approach should we do a or B and how to do C I am editing an article right on this topic when it's ready the link will be right here step 6 alignment together with the map habit alignment is an important habit in consulting in real projects nobody wants to spend weeks of passion building a model that the team can't use every consulting manager loves young consultants to align early and often therefore interviewers would love to see this habit often in case interviews as well technically by aligning the overall approach the interviewer may suggest you a better approach to solve the problem but even in situations you strongly feel like the interviewer would agree with you you still need to align any way to align simply ask does this sound like a reasonable approach to you step 7 ask for time out you should do all the above steps continuously and without pause and then now that it's time to finally take a timeout and specifically go into the first part of the approach you just lay out and in most cases it's the issue tree so done theory session is done now comes the fun part scripting the case opening is where scripting has its most benefit we all should have our own set of well written well practiced and well rehearsed scripts for all seven steps above so that in the stressful environment of a case interview we can focus our brainpower on other important areas each person should have his/her own specific wording reflecting different personalities as long as the principles mentioned above are met I'll provide you with my own script in just a bit but before I do that I strongly suggest you write your own version with your own style it's important that you're comfortable saying your own wording so if you're serious enough about case interviews please pause the video and start writing feel free to re-listen to the above part of this video as well we'll create a thread in our forum on this topic so please find the link in the description if you go there and post your own scripts I personally will have a check and help you make sure they are good I'll do this for everybody not just the people subscribe to the end-to-end program everything is there for you all you need is commitment you may go on to your my version too but I really hope that eventually you'll try to write your own ok my scripts for illustration purposes assume this is the most popular logic type of case the problem solution thank you for a very interesting case I'm happy to get the chance to solve it the first step in solving any business problem is to make sure we solve the right one so before getting deep into the problem I'd like to first recap the case and then second ask a few clarification questions to make sure that we're both on the same page so here's my understanding of the case the client is ABC here are some de F facts about the situation we just talked about and the key case question is XYZ does that correctly and adequately summarize the case once the interviewer confirm I would move to the clarification part as follows okay great now I would like to ask a few clarification questions question number one question number two question number three then announce the plan for the whole case and aligned with the interviewer this way okay for the overall approach in order to completely wipe out the problem and leave a long lasting impact we'll need to find the root cause of the problem for that I will try different ways to break down the problem into small pieces using issue trees hopefully to quickly isolate the root cause and one or more branches and then drill down accordingly until we gather enough information to draw actionable solutions for the client so before going on to my first issue tree does this sound like a reasonable approach to you once the interviewer and I confirm the approach I will ask for a time out this way it's great that we're on the same page as to the key case question and the overall approach may I take a short time out now to gather my thoughts after this you can have peace of mind that you've just created a strong impression with the interviewer he or she already likes you a lot and the later part of the case will be made so much easier go forth to rock the case and win the interview well congratulations on making it to the end of this video it's normal to feel distracted here and there so you're absolutely welcome to go back and watch this video again to really grasp the content on how to open any case cases are harder towards the end so you may want to take this opportunity to make a great first impression the majority of wait in the hiring decision is actually made around the beginning so a real focus point in a case interview lies in the opening just by mastering this you're already better than many candidates out there don't forget to subscribe to our channel for a lot more coming up on case interviews and consulting prep also please go to our forum and write your own script there again I'll personally review every script and give you feedback everything needed is just your commitment to excel in case interviews at management consulting prep we believe everybody can perfectly open any case and go on to win the world championship are you a believer [Music]

Channel: MConsulting Prep

Views: 76,254

Rating: 4.9716311 out of 5

Keywords: case interview, management consulting, case opening

Id: JRTsCAGt6Dk

Length: 14min 6sec (846 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 19 2019