How many questions can I ask for a business situation case (Market Entry, Product Launch, etc..), a Profitability Case, and an M&A Case

Hi there,

I believe about 5 - 10 if the case is very complex. It may sounds like a lot, but depending on the prompt you really need to deep dive to isolate the scope. You should know what problem you have to solve and what "solve" look like, so the idea is to really understand what you are dealing with and how success will be measured so that you can structure your answer based on the objective in a very crisp and efficient way.

Some questions that usually are useful:

1) What is the client's goal? What is the success metric? (increase profits, reduce churn, etc)

2) Does the client has a target? (e.g.: if the metric is profits, how much or by how much does he wants to grow?)

3) By when? (is there a deadline?)

4) Are there any constraints to be considered? (e.g.: the client is only interested in a particular investment if it has a payback of X)

5) + depending on the context, may be interesting asking WHY the client wants to do something, if there are underlying reasons that one should be aware of (context: enter a market, buy a company, launch a product; potential underlying reasons: respond to a threat, comply with government laws, respond to a market demand, etc.)

Best,

Mari

Hello, 

I know this is not what you want to hear, but it's not about the number of questions you ask (this is not a metric tracked by interviewers - it can be very misleading) but what you ask, when, and in what sequence. 

Here are some tips to improve at asking questions: 

• Don't jump around between your buckets: Don't ask a question in your 1st bucket, then jump to your 4th, then circle back to the 1st. This is the syndrome of a candidate who is just guessing and who is not driven by a hypothesis.
• Use a top-down approach: Don't ask a very detailed question first: This is the syndrome of an unstructured candidate who is likely to miss an important information.
• Explain why you are asking the question: Be selective, you don't have to do it every time. This will help the interviewer understand your rationale, and it's the syndrome of a structured candidate who is following a clear process and who is good at communicating.
• Ask "High-Probability Questions": These are defined by Victor Cheng as not-to-miss questions that can reveal key information in the case. 2 examples are: "Is this problem company-specific or industry wide?" and "What is the revenue split per segment?"
• Quantify a change: It's not enough to know if something is declining or growing. Ask "by how much", this will unlock deeper insights. 

Eventually, if you master these concepts, you will solve a case faster and ask fewer questions. 

I hope this helps! We've only scratched the surface here. Please feel free to reach out if you want to test these concepts in a case. I'm offering a buy-1, get-1 session this month, so let me know if you are interested!