Marketsizing question MECE

Question

Dear all,

I have a question regarding a structure: The case question was to define how much revenue a company will generate when entering a new european market and also what aspects they should keep in mind when entering.

I thought about structuring it into 3 buckets: 1. Market size (typical marketsizing question), 2. Estimated market share (revenue) and 3. needed capabilities&risks.

The calculations are very much in line with the solution however are the first and second bucket MECE since they build up on each other or would they need to be 1 bucket to be fully MECE and not separate?

Thank you!

Answer 1

I wouldn't worry too much about the MECE aspect here.

Strictly speaking, you're right that market size and market share are not fully independent, since estimated revenue is usually:

Market Size × Market Share

So from a purely logical perspective, they could sit under the same branch.

That said, in a real interview I would have no issue with the structure you proposed because it reflects a very natural decision-making process:

Is the market attractive enough? (market size)
How much of it can we realistically capture? (market share / revenue)
What do we need to succeed and what are the risks? (capabilities & risks)

In fact, I might even prefer your version because it mirrors how executives often think about market entry.

One thing I've noticed is that candidates sometimes become overly obsessed with perfect MECE. Interviewers generally care much more about whether your structure is:

logical
easy to follow
relevant to the question

than whether every branch is mathematically independent.

So I would not merge buckets 1 and 2 just for the sake of "being more MECE." Your approach sounds perfectly reasonable to me.