How would you start with this market sizing question?

Question

Hi all,

Today I got a case interview at ADL. My question is, how would you go ahead with this one? I was a bit confused because of the weird course of the business case.

Case description:

A rich entrepreneur flew to San Francisco and saw the application Uber. He flew back to Paris in France and asked your help to determine if a application like Uber would be a success in Paris. Would that be profitable?

After the description of the case, the interviewer said that I could ask a few "high-level" (?) questions. After that, I should take 10 minutes to "solve" the case and come up with my recommendations (no talking during the 10 minutes).

The interviewer basically answered every question related to numbers with "the entrepreneur doesn't know anything and he is completely relying on you." (For example: what is the fee charged, what is the population, what are the different type of customers, ...).

Curious about how you guys would tackle this case.

Answer 1

First, I would realize that this is not a market sizing.

The market sizing element is a very very small portion of it (one bucket).

Really, I have to:

1) Determine the value proposition Uber offers in the US

2) Compare the value offering to the current situation in France...i.e. do they face the same problems...i.e. need the value proposition

3) If yes, figure out of the specific Uber solution would work in Paris (roads, etc.) AND be adopted (culture, other similar initiatives, etc.)

4) THEN, estimate an actual market size IF 1-3 hold true

Answer 2

Hi, in addition to the solutions proposed by the other coaches in the discussion, I would like to suggest similar cases in the platform to practice with:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-much-would-you-charge-to-clean-all-the-windows-in-seattle-4965
https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/market-sizing-milk-consumption-5087
https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-would-you-calculate-the-value-of-a-cow-4982
https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/estimate-number-of-traffic-lights-in-a-london-5692

Hope it helps,
Antonello