Hi Anonymous,

as for your first question, there are two things you can do when you get stuck and want to avoid silence:

1. Repeat all the information until that moment
2. Ask for one minute of time to think

You may also do both the steps together in the mentioned order. At the below link, you can find an example of how you can do so when you have to brainstorm, together with some suggestions on how you can structure brainstorming:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-can-you-brainstorm-in-a-structured-way-during-a-case-study-interview-436#a875

As for your second question, there may be two scenarios:

1. The information is relevant, but not critical to solve the case. In this case you should keep analysing the current branch you are, and then potentially move to the other.
2. The information is relevant and critical to solve the case (you should understand that as you should get hints from the interviewer that he would like you to concentrate there - eg he repeated a couple of times it could be interesting to analyse something else, or stressed a bit more that particular area). In this case you want to move to the new branch, making clear that you are doing so in order to prioritize the action to meet the client’s goal. In case you don't do so, you may lose points, as the interviewer may assume you are not able to follow hints and prioritize tasks.

Best,

Francesco

(editiert)