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Looking for partners to practice setting up MECE issue trees

Bain BCG case structure issue tree McKinsey MECE Structure
New answer on Aug 31, 2022
2 Answers
4.4 k Views
Jan asked on Sep 17, 2017
Preparing for MBB interviews.

Hi folks,

I have practiced quite a lot of cases and would say of myself that I crack almost every case presented to me. However, in one of my last interviews I was being told that my structure still looks more like a laundry list than a proper case structure.

It seems to me that in the beginning, they all want to see proper issue trees like this one here:

http://faculty.msb.edu/homak/homahelpsite/webhelp/Content/image202.gif

Therefore:

Does anybody...

  1. ...have or know a great resource that focuses on the creation of these MECE issue trees?
  2. ...have best-practices on how to train it best?
  3. ...would like to practice together the setting up of great issue trees?

I am looking forward to receiving your replies.

Best,

Jan

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Tomi updated an answer on Oct 13, 2017

Hey one of my other case buddies recommended www.rocketblocks.me/index.php.

I tried it and it a has really allowed/ helped me to develop my thinking about the different buckets which helped me become more MECE!

Hope it helps you too.

(edited)

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Simon
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Content Creator
replied on Aug 31, 2022
50+ successful coachings / Ex-Mckinsey JEM & Interviewer / Industry + Engineering background

Dear Jan,

in general a good structure can be evaluated by a certain depth and breadth. The “depth” should be at least 3-4 levels while the “breadth” should cover the entire solution space. You can cross-check this with the MECE principles (For details see respective article on Preplounge), but the CE (collectively exhaustive) part is basically defining your breadth.

Finally, make sure to check for inter-linkages in your structure and point them out.

Simon

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Benjamin replied on Sep 17, 2017
Advanced/Pro ONLY (min 30 cases) and no preplounge cases, I've interview next week, full feedback required! Thanks

Hey Jan,

Definitely following-up this conversation as I'm having the same issues. What I somehow find a bit helpful is to do a post-mortem of the case after having read the solution and draw a decision tree that would have gotten you to the desired outcome the most efficiently.
But similar to you, not quite there yet and I need to do more reading and practice.

Best of luck.

Ben

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