I've been in my role as a consultant for 3 months (joined as experienced hire without previous strategy consulting experience). I still have 3 more months left for my probation period, and my boss told me that I need to accelerate ‘’problem solving / structuring skills'' to pass the probation.
To be specific, he mentioned that I tend to solve problems in an “academic approach” - boiling the ocean and not being 80-20. The feedback is I tend to analyse “everything” and was not able to tackle with core issues / form my view fast.
Although I have practiced these skills during case interview, I feel that in real life when facing a vague client question, it becomes challenging to identify key question, break it down in an MECE way, and form a practical hypothesis that sheds commercial implications. In a nut shell, I feel that I wasn't able to identify the ‘’core'' issues in an effective manner.
I'm wondering what is the most effective way to specificly improve the points that I've mentioned? Would practiving structuring (just as what people practice during case preps) work? What did you do to ramp up these core skill sets?
Thank you!