Hey there,

There is a difference between a framework or brainstorming derived for McKinsey vs. a framework created for other consulting interviews.

At the core, McKinsey wants to see creative ideas communicated in a structured manner, the more exhaustive the better.

Your goal should be to come up with a tailored and creative answer that fits the question. The framework should - broadly speaking - follow these three characteristics:

• Broad
• Deep
• Insightful

In most firms, you have 1-2 minutes to present the framework. In a McKinsey interview, you can take up to 6-8 minutes to present your structure, your qualification, and hypotheses. This is due to the interviewer-led format that McK employs. The interviewer will only ask 'what else' if you 

• haven't gone broad or deep enough
• did not explain your ideas well enough for them to stand out (again, you have time here)

The firm wants to see exhaustive and creative approaches to specific problems, which more often than not do not fit into the classic case interview frameworks that were en vogue 10 years ago...

Again, this only applies if everything you say

• adds value to the problem analysis
• is MECE
• is well qualified
• includes a detailed discussion of your hypotheses at the end

The difference in format and way of answering a question is the reason why I recommend preparing very differently for McK interviews vs. other consultancies.

If you want to learn more, check out the following articles on McKinsey interviews:

1. Case: https://www.preplounge.com/en/mckinsey-interview
2. PEI: https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/mckinsey-pei

Cheers,

Florian

Hi there, 

during the recruiting process, we also evaluate your ability to be creative and how do you enjoy the case (otherwise you wont enjoy the work), hence to answer your questions I would say:

- Can we really ask for time to structure our thoughts throughout the case when asked a question? How to know when it is authorized? → ABSOLUTELY and actually I strongly recommend asking your interviewer if it is fine you take a few minutes to organize your thoughts (prepare additional questions, think of early hypothesis, key questions, etc.)

- How many ideas to communicate when answering a brainstorming question? Should we say only the most realistic ones or all of them? In what order? → I would encourage you to evaluate first all your ideas by yourself and only then communicate them to the interviewer. If you have a few in your head, you can present them explaining why not and why yes they would work (BUT YOU should be the one to choose one to go with!). Creativity and the ability to think out of the box is one of the important elements of your evaluation, if you share more of your thoughts (in a structured way!!!) it is a big plus!

- What time it is best to allocate to communicate the initial structure and the answer to a brainstorming question? → usually a few minutes (below 5 min I would say is fine)

Wishing you all the best in your recruiting process!

Lucie

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(edited)

1. Can we really ask for time to structure our thoughts throughout the case when asked a question? How to know when it is authorized?

You can ask, of course. They only way to know if it is authorizesd is… by asking.

2. How many ideas to communicate when answering a brainstorming question? Should we say only the most realistic ones or all of them? In what order?

As many as possible as long as they make sense (follow the 80-20% rule, of course). Just like in real life, there is no magic number. As long as it is relevant, you can keep going. Otherwise, stop. As a rule of thumb, 2-3 ideas is likely to be on the low side.  

3. What time it is best to allocate to communicate the initial structure and the answer to a brainstorming question?

Take your time to structure. But if you take a long time, one would expect a detailed well thought structure. If you don't take much time, one would expect a more high level structure, but then you should be able to provide more detailed when prompted to do so.

Regarding a brainstorming question, you shouldn't take long. 30 seconds just to have a high level structure - as in most cases you should already have some “mental maps” to help you identify good ideas.