Hi there,
The key areas you will have to cover to prepare for a written case are the following.
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1. Define your action plan and allocate time
The first thing you should do in a written case is to define a plan and allocate your time in the best possible way. Most candidates mismanage time as usually you have a lot of material to go through (this is a key difference compared to the standard case interview).
If you have 45 minutes for the analysis, a good approach would include:
- 2 min – Read the questions
- 15-20 min – Read the material
- 3 min – Structure the approach
- 15-20 min – Perform math/ Identify answers/ Create slides
- 5 – Final review
You should practice to stick to the time allocated to maximize your performance.
2. Practice graph interpretation
You will likely have to analyze graphs as part of the data provided. The best way to practice is to take graphs from online sources and use a timer to test in how much time you can understand the key message. McKinsey PST graphs are a good practice for that.
3. Work on quick reading and quick understanding of key information
You won’t have time to read and prioritize everything, therefore you have to understand where to focus. The ideal way to practice is to use long cases such as HBS ones. You should then learn to absorb the key information of the case.
4. Practice quick math
You will likely have some math to do as part of the data analysis. GMAT and McKinsey PST math should work well to prepare for this.
5. Learn how to communicate your slides/answers
To present your findings in the second part, I would suggest the same structure used for a conclusion in a live interview, that is:
- Summarize the main questions you have to answer
- Present your proposed answers and detail the motivation behind
- Present risks and next steps for the areas you have not covered
Since you will not be able to double-check hypotheses with the interviewer when you prepare the presentation, you should clearly state when you are making hypotheses and that you will have to verify them with further analysis.
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Given you have to prepare slides I would recommend to take into account the following :
A) Order of the slides
Normally the structure for a 5-slide presentation is the following:
- 1st slide – summary of the questions and your answers
- 2nd, 3rd and 4th slides - supporting arguments for the first slide
- 5th slide - risks and next steps
B) Content of each slide
There are 3 basic components for most slides:
- Title
- Written content
- Graphs / Tables
Many candidates structure the title as a mere description of what the chart is about.
A great title instead shows the implication of the graph as well.
Example: say the graph is showing a cost structure for a division.
- A bad title would be: Cost structure from 2005 to 2015.
- A good title would be: Cost structure of Division XYZ is not sustainable”.
- A great title would be Cost structure of Division XYZ is not sustainable due to ABC, assuming you have insights on that.
The rule of thumb is that if you read all the titles of the slides together you should get a clear idea of the message of the presentation.
C) Present the slides
When you present, I would suggest the following steps for each slide:
- Introduce the slide: “Let’s move to slide 2, which will show us why we have an issue with this division”
- Present the main message of the slide: “As you can see, we have a cost structure which makes it unfeasible to be competitive in this market”
- Provide details: “The graph, indeed, shows how our fix cost is XYZ, while competitors can benefit from economies of scale. Indeed…”
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If you want to prepare further, I do a session exactly on that.
Before the session, I can send you the data source to work on. We can then simulate the presentation during the class, reviewing step-by-step all the improvements needed.
Please feel free to PM me in case you have any questions.
Best,
Francesco
