Issue Tree vs. Action Plan in Case Interview Structure

Question

Hi, does anyone know the difference between issue tree and action plan in case interview context?

I got adviced by an MBB consultant that I should try to make my structure less like an 'action plan' and more like an 'issue tree', but I'm not quite sure how to do it.

For example, in the market entry case, I'd structure it as

Q: Should the company enter this market?
1. Is the market attractive

how can we segment customers and what are their spending now and going foward
who are competitors and how big they are
tailwinds and headwinds in the market

2. Can company win in this market

Is company's product or service respond to customers' needs better than competitors?

3. Does the company has capabilities to deliver

Operational - do the company has asset and skills to produce, market, distribute, etc.?
Financial - do the company has enough funds?

4. Can company achieve its financial target with this entry

what is the investment required
what is the expected profitability

Of course, I would make it much more detailed and context specific in the real case interview, but this is general idea of how I would structure.

I know that it isn't that MECE considering that customers and competitors would appear twice in question 1 and 2, but then I also think it explore different aspects of customers and competitors: 1 = their size and 2 = more of customers needs and competitors offerings.

Company also appears twice in question 2 and 3, but then again 2 is more of company's product and 3 is more of its asset.

If I just group it together, such as, (again in real case probably more specific)

1. Market

customers
environment (regulations, trends, etc.)

2. Competitors

size
products

3. Company

products
assets
finance - (profitability breakdown/ ROI calculation)

Then wouldn't it be less hypothesis-driven?

Any advice on this?

Another example to illustrate:

For the profitability case

Q: Why profit is down and how to bring it up?

1. why the profitability is down

detailed profitability tree based on the business model

2. strategies to bring profitability up

i'd give some examples

Ultimately, i'd start the case as 'do we have any breakdown data of revenue and cost? I'd start there to see what's the root cause and why. After that, we can develop a more targeted strategy'

But I got the comment that the buckets are dependent to each other, therefore, not MECE. I should do the profitability tree breakdown.

Answer 1

The reality is that most case interviewers are looking for you to be as structured as possible. That may seem vague, but ultimately I never cared that much about the exact approach, it mattered way more if the candidate could do the following:

Explain their thinking clearly
Make it obvious to me they understood the prompt
Ensure it has as little overlap as possible (never needs to be perfectly MECE in my opinion, but it needs to make sense why you broke it in that way)
Not be too generic
Hope that helps!

Answer 2

Hi,

On your first question, an issue tree breaks the problem into the sub-questions you need to answer to reach a decision, while an action plan just lists the areas you would go and look at. The issue tree is what an interviewer wants to hear, and it is the one that has to be MECE.

On your example, your second structure (market, competitors, company) is much better as it cuts the overlap among the branches and is easier to follow when you talk through it. Each bucket answers one clear question, and together they build to the recommendation:

Market: is it attractive in the first place (size, growth, profitability, trends)?
Competitors: who is already winning, how, and how contestable is their position?
Company: can we compete effectively given our product, capabilities and economics?

So I would not overthink it. Clean buckets you can walk through clearly beat a more elaborate list if questions that is hard to follow out loud.

Hope it helps, and feel free to send me a DM if you want to go through a couple of structures together.

Federico