Advanced comments

Hi there,

I would be happy to share my thoughts on your question:

• First of all, don't worry if casebooks and other resources provide different answers. It is perfectly normal, and much of the preparation material is inadequate.
• Moreover, if you want to know where you truly stand regarding exhibit analysis and quantitative questions, I would strongly advise you to work with an experienced coach like me to determine your actual level of readiness.

You can find more on this topic here: How to succeed in the final interview round.

If you would like a more detailed discussion on how to best prepare for your upcoming interviews, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Best,

Hagen

Hello there,

A little bit hard to give you a specific answer without knowing your approach and these cases better. 

3 generic ways to come up with more advanced insights: (1) think about second order effects. If the insights you have got are accurate, to where would they lead the case to? E.g.: you discovered that your client has prices above the competition and in order to gain market share, it seems that lowering them is the main insight. At first glance, reducing the price could boost sales volume (first-order effect). But one also needs to consider second-order effects. If the volume increases sharply, current operations might not be able to handle the load efficiently. That could damage customer experience. Also, competitors might respond with similar price cuts, leading to a race to the bottom that hurts long-term profitability. If competitors have lower costs, they may even lower it on purpose and bleed until the clients out of the game. So before recommending a price drop after coming up with the first insight, it is key to explore client’s operational capacity and the likely market reaction.
 (2) relate your insights to the market. That requires you to learn more about different industries, so you can make more connections. It is a good way to gain more business sense and hence come up with good insights. You can read articles at McKinsey website and search in YouTube about the industries per se. 
(3) try to reverse engineer the answers from the casebook. Think about what data point allowed that answer? What’s the logic link? 
You’ll find some patterns as you do more and more cases, so keep these written down.

Happy to provide a more personalized guidance to you so you can master this skill - feel free to reach out for a free 20min consultation where I can get to know your current needs better and explain my approach.

Best,

Mari

First of all, I'd take what you see in case books with a pinch of salt. Most casebooks are written by MBA candidates who want to get into these firms in the first place. They don't know how the recruitment process works in these firms or what is tested. The cases are typically written based on an understanding of what cases should look like, formed after reading other, older case books. 

For chart interpretation, typically, you:

1. Read the exhibit with the interviewer and ask any clarifying questions you might have

2. Take a minute to come up with the insights

3. Get back to the interviewer and present the insights top down, starting from a data point, explaining what it means and what the client should do as a consequence of that (i.e., 'so what' / hypothesis / even potential recommendation depending on how conclusive the evidence is)

Ideally, you should have at least 2 insights, but it really depends on the exhibit(s). 

Aim for quality and depth of discussion, not speed. 

Best,
Cristian

Hey there :)

Totally get what you mean—those “advanced” answers in casebooks can feel a bit out of reach at first. The key is to build pattern recognition. Do as many chart drills and math-heavy cases as possible on your own, without looking at the answers. Then compare your takeaways to theirs and reflect: what did they see that I missed? Was it a sharper quant insight, a deeper implication, or a more creative link to the big picture?

Also, push yourself to write out 2–3 extra insights for each chart you solve, even if they feel a bit of a stretch. This trains your brain to dig deeper.

Happy to go through one together if you'd like!

best,
Alessa :)

Hello,

Most advanced comments trickle down to a few scenarios but it is very difficult to explain here by text. If you would like to book a coaching session, I would be very happy to go through them with you.

Best,

Alexandra

The biggest struggle in consulting - getting to insights. 

It takes a while to build this up, but what's most important is to have a quality feedback loop - you need to have someone explain what you are missing to you, and then you need to reflect and see how you can internalize that lesson.