My mind goes blank when I try to brainstorm and come up with a framework

Question

This is especially worse when I'm in an interview situation and I'm nervous. When it's time to brainstorm and structure the points into a framework for a case, my mind goes blank and I can think of maybe 2, max. 5 points and that's it. I just don't have any more ideas and also don't have any ideas on how to further elaborate the points I do have. I don't know if it's because of lack of industry knowledge or just lack of overall working experience in general. I don't know exactly, don't fully understand and haven't experienced how things run in most industries, how companies make money, what they deal and struggle with in their daily operations etc. and therefore it's extremely hard for me to come up with relevant ideas. Even when I try to be creative, I don't know if my ideas are completely unrealistic and therefore useless.

You can only have a good framework to solve a case if you have good points/ideas that you can structure into a framework to begin with. And so far, I haven't even been able to build frameworks out of the mere 2-3 ideas that I could think of.

Answer 1

First of all — what you are describing is very common.
When the mind goes blank in an interview, it’s usually pressure + lack of structure, not lack of intelligence.

A few important reframes:

1. Frameworks don’t come from “having many ideas.”
They come from having a clear structure first.
Strong candidates don’t brainstorm randomly — they define buckets and then fill them.

For example, instead of thinking:

“What ideas do I have?”

Think:

“What are the 2–3 major drivers of this problem?”

Structure reduces panic. Ideas follow structure.

2. You don’t need deep industry knowledge.
Consulting interviews test logical thinking, not expertise.

Most businesses, regardless of industry, revolve around:

Revenue (price × volume)
Costs (fixed vs. variable)
Customers
Competition
Operations

If you anchor yourself in fundamentals, you will rarely go blank.

3. If your mind freezes, slow down — don’t push harder.
Take 10–15 seconds.
Write down the objective.
Ask yourself:

“What would logically need to be true for this to work?”

That question alone often unlocks new angles.

4. Depth > number of ideas.
Two well-developed buckets are stronger than five shallow ones.

Interviewers are not counting points — they’re evaluating:

Is your structure logical?
Is it MECE enough?
Can you go deeper when asked?

5. This is trainable.
If you consistently practice:

Breaking problems into 2–3 clear drivers
Using first principles (how does the company make money?)
Expanding each bucket one level deeper

Your “blank mind” moments will decrease dramatically.

It’s rarely about creativity.
It’s about having a reliable thinking process under pressure.

Let me know if you’d like to walk through a live example — happy to help 🙂

Answer 2

Hi there
If I may it sounds like interview anxiety is getting the better of you. What I have seen when working with candidates is that when we strip away the 'intense' environment of doing an interview and start casually brainstorming everyone is able to get to the main elements of how to drive a case - and in this topic- develop the structure.

My recommendation?

-Study case frameworks (yes these are the "cookie cutter" ones, but they will give us a launch pad when needed, and realistically some cases do require those cookie cutter frameworks

-Always add case nuance to the frame work (this is done through adding any case data or making educated assumptions)(e.g., when you're discussing Variable Costs for a Gum Manufacturer likely it will include the ingredients to the gum and packaging, which can be broken down further into gum substance, flavor, etc and paper wrappers, boxes etc)

-Review frameworks from past cases - see how it was approached based on the problem (a HUGE case prep tool that many do not leverage is reviewing cases that they have already solved)

Hope this helps - happy to chat further about it if helpful!