Clarifying questions for an interviewer-led vs interviewee-led case interview

Hi!

1. There is no difference between interviewer-led and intervieww-led cases with respect to the clarifying questions!

2. The questions you ask at the beginning have the following objectives:

• Completely understanding the context/situation (including, unclear terminology, but also, for example, the business model of the client if unclear!)
• Understanding the question(s) of the client
• Understanding (and quantifying if applicable) the underlying objective(s) of the client

These questions are NOT meant to start the analysis already! They are aiming at understanding the initial setting, hence forming a precondition to outline your structure towards answering the core question (the issue tree)! Hence, some of the examples you give above are not adequate to be asked as clarifying question (e.g., "Is this an industry wide problem?" --> here you are starting the analysis already (in a very random and arbitrary way) before having thought through an approach!)

The later questions that you ask while navigating through the case are then aiming to verify the actual relevance of each sub-branch in your tree. So if you have defined and disaggregated the criterion to answer the client's core question in a clean way, all these later questions follow this precise "roadmap" as layed out by your tree. These questions then oftentimes also comprise enquiries on current performance metrics (revenues, costs, growth rates etc.), which normally should never be asked in the clarifying questions (before making explicit your structure).

Cheers, Sidi

(edited)

Hi,

First - ask the clarifying questions BEFORE doing the recap. Recap only makes sense once you have all the information

Second - it doesn't matter who leads the case - you should ask the same questions

I suggest asking the following questions:

1) Clarify the business model / how the business actually makes money. Even if you think you understand it, try to repeat it to make sure that you understand it correctly. e.g. if the case is about oil&gas company which revenues are declining, ask if it is Up / mid / down-stream problem. In this case, defining a revenue stream is critical to setting up the right structure.

2) Clarify the objective. Here make sure that your goal is:

• Measurable
• Has a time-framed
• Has / has no limitations

e.g. Should I invest 100k in this business for 1 year if I want to get 15% return?

3) Ask the questions that will help you build a relevant structure and remove ambiguity.

Best!

Dear A,

I'm happy to shre with you some tips which you have to bear in mind before asking clarifying questions:

1. Before case solving and presenting its structure, make sure the the objective of the case interview is clear

Here the basic things you have to know about the case objective:

• What is the measurable metric of success?

• What is the time frame?

• What are potential restrictions or limitations?

2. You should have sufficient information about the company:

•. Business model: How does the company make money? Do they sell directly to customers or do they sell through retailers or partners?

• Products and services: What products and services does the company sell? What benefits do these products and services provide?

• Geographic location: Does the company have one location or are they a national chain? Does the company operate in just one country or do they have an international presence?

3. You can ask clarifying questions about terminology you don't know

Most consulting interviews do not require you to have specialized knowledge or expertise in an industry. Therefore, if you come across a term that you are unfamiliar with, it is completely acceptable to ask the interviewer for the definition.

Hope it helps,

André

Hi there,

Regardless of the case type, you can always target to drive the case. So you should ask the questions! Having said that, after you explain your structure, the interviewer will lead you to focus on a specific point(s) if it is an interviewer-led one. So you should not expect that during the interviewer led case, you will only answer the questions asked to you.

Cheers
Serhat