Giving Cases

Introduction

In order to become better at solving cases you'll need to receive and give cases to a range of people. In order to effectively learn from others, and also maintain the option of doing cases with others, you'll have to be fairly decent at giving cases as well. This is tougher than it sounds, because there are many ways of solving a case, which differ dramatically from the way in which you might have. Bad case givers will force interviewees to go down the same path, whereas good case givers will guide the interviewee while allowing them to take different paths and learn in the process. Some of the key steps involved in giving cases effectively are:

Preparation

Before giving the case to the next person, there are a few steps of preparation that you need to get through. This won't take very long, and the steps which are time consuming are more value adding for you than for anyone else:

- Re-solve the case -

If this is a case that you have received earlier from someone else, make sure that soon after the case you review it and identify how you would now solve it retrospect. While resolving the case, try to neatly (or clearly at least) mark out each of the bullet points which follow.

- Key insights -

There are some insights which are key for solving the case and others which aren't. For example, in a case a key insight might have been that the company started producing the product only in packs of 10, and not in smaller quantities, and that led to lower volumes of purchase. You might have also found out that the product comes in 3 variants or flavours, but that might not have been useful in finally solving the case. Separate in your notes what the key insights are and what are some additional details you will keep handy to paint a whole picture.

- Brownie points -

There are some insights which are additionally useful, but not absolutely critical. For example, maybe variant 1 of the product actually started selling marginally better in packs of 10, than it was in single packs. Whereas variant 2, which makes up the bulk of the sales, had a massive dip in volume. Now, this split of the product isn't absolutely necessary, because the bulk of the problem can be solved assuming that variant 2 is the only product. However, identifying this insight allows you to recommend different strategies by variant, which is a brownie point. In addition to key insights and other details, separately mark out what the brownie points of the case are.

- Structures and buckets -

Write out the structures that you think are the smartest way to navigate the case (assuming you don't know what the final insights are going to be). Most importantly, mark out the buckets within each structure which are critical to finding the insights.

Administering the Case

Now that you have mapped out all the important information and structures in the case, you are ready to administer the case. While giving the interviewee the case, try to follow the below steps:

- Leniency with clarifying questions -

Everyone asks their clarifying questions a little differently. Some people aim to get all the information up front, while others get the bare minimum and try to get the rest on a need-to-know basis. As long as they aren't taking 10 odd minutes just on clarifying questions, give them the benefit of the doubt, and answer the questions, if they seem fair.

- Key insights -

You want to make sure that the interviewee isn't skipping past key insights. If they miss a key insight, you might want to give them a hint, or ask them to re-think what they might be missing. For example, if they structure revenue as = volume x price, and you inform them that the volumes are down, they might then automatically try to understand why the # customers has reduced. Here they have missed the key idea that volume = # customers x avg #units per customer. This is a key insight that you might want to nudge them towards. However, here even though they missed that the price of each variant, and each variants volume is different, we might not bother correcting their structure, because it has little to no bearing on the final case. It is still a good practice to take a note of this point, so that you can share it during feedback, since this might be a key insight in another case.

- Nudge & then share -

If the interviewee misses something start of by nudging them in the right direction. For example "While the volume is down, are there any possibilities other than the number of customers reducing?". If they take a guess or two and still don't arrive at the right insight, you might want to help them along, by informing them that the number of customers is more or less the same, but the units per customer has declined.

- Hint at brownie points -

For brownie points, don't stop and guide them, but do hint at them, if they seem to have missed it. For example, they might have structured revenue = volume x price, and then asked if we know if either has changed. Your response might be "For the largest selling variant, making up 80% of our sales, the price remains, constant, but the volume has fallen". This is a hint that this might not hold true for other variants, and they might want to refine their structure to look at them. But if they move forward to structuring volume, don't bother stopping them, but instead make a note to share feedback.

- Structure -

Never force your structure into their answer. Their structure might look very different from yours, but that's okay. Only make sure that their structure captures the key buckets mapped out, and is at least close to MECE. If a key bucket is missed out, an insight will be too, so push them to rework it. If the structure isn't MECE, or just isn't great, but captures the key buckets/insights for this case, let them move forward, but make a note of it. To this end, when they lay out structure, you might often have to ask them what they mean by some of the buckets to decide whether their structure will work or not.

- Allow to synthesise -

Some cases might take a longer time than planned. Even so, do make sure that you guide them till the final recommendation, and ask them to synthesise, instead of wrapping up early. This is an easy part of the case to master, so allow them to get that easy win in.

Taking Notes

While the case is being solved, draw out the structure that they are describing to you, so that you can easily compare and contrast it. Keep also highlighting the insights, details and brownie points that they're getting vs missing. Even if communication or method of arriving at an insight is good or bad, make a note of it. Now highlight all of the points which are either very well done, or were problematic. Anything on point, but expected (like profits = revenues - costs) need not be called out in your notes.

Discussion

At the end of the case, the discussion or feedback provided is probably the most useful portion for both parties. Some general rules to keep in mind while doing so are:

- Flow of the case -

Go through the flow of the case to give feedback, rather than positives and then negatives. This makes it easier to ensure that any points of difference are comprehensively captured. Further, it acts as a reminder for the interviewee of why they said what they did, and more fruitful discussion can be had.

- Call out highlights -

In your notes, whatever you have highlighted as matching your 'best solution' as well as those points which were missed problematic. This gives a running commentary of what was going well and not so well during the case. Quickly skim past all of the not so crucial points, for speed.

- Points of difference -

Once the overall case has been discussed, mention also what structures were different in your solution vs theirs, even if it wasn't a major differentiator. This allows you to arrive through discussion at the merits and demerits of each approach.

- Refine solution -

Basis this case, refine your solution to the case further, incorporating the nice practises that you just saw.