Market sizing involving buildings

Question

Hello,

I have a general question about market sizing cases. If we need to estimate, for example, the number of phones, or fire hydrants in the US, how can we tackle the commercial building part? How can we estimate number of offices, or number of schools, hotels etc?

Answer 1

Hi,

By splitting the city into the # of blocks and trying to estimate the average number of (Fire hydrants, etc) per one block

Another way - calculate separately the number of leaving buildings from the population and then assuming x commercial buildings per y living.

Best

Answer 2

Hi there,

Providing some market sizing thinking for anyone revisiting this Q&A:

Remember that there's rarely a "best" answer with market sizing. What's important is that you break down the problem the way it makes sense to you. Importantly, break it down so that the assumptions you make are the ones you're most comfortable in.

For example, do you know all the major brands? Great go with that. Do you understand all the segments of that country's population (either age or wealth or job breakdown)? Go with that. Do you know the total market size of the tourism (or hotel) industry? Then break it down that way.

Some tips:

Just like in a case, make sure you understand the question - what are you really being asked to calculate
Decide whether a top-down or bottom-up approach is best
Figure out what you know you know, and what you know you don't know, but could estimate
1. This helps you determine how to split out buckets
Stay flexible - you can start with a "high-level" market sizing, but gauge your interviewers reaction....if it looks like they want you to do more...then go along level deeper in terms of your splits