Using customer journey to outline structure

Hi Daisy,

The short answer is “no”. Just because it's FMCG does not mean it should be customer journey - please stop listening to whoever told you this!

If an FMCG is buying another company, why would they use a customer journey map? Equally, if they're adjusting pricing, why would they look at a customer journey map.

Please please learn how to process a prompt, understand what's going on with the business, and be objective-driven in your casing. This will get you much further than memorizing set frameworks/approaches and hoping the round peg will fit in the square hole!

This is a classic case of forcing a certain framework and a big red flag. In your example you point out that it's a profitability problem. If you use anything other than the profitability framework to begin with, you will loose your interviewer right there.

That being said, there may be a place for using customer journeys in a case interview and I wouldn´t outright dismiss it. However, it would always be related to a specific question around creativity/ brainstorming. 

Whatever you do, it should always feel natural. Don't ever force anything if in doubt!

Best of luck!

Hello!

Agree with other coaches, this seems to me as you trying to force a type of framework that doesn´t work well with this type of question. 

Generally speaking, avoid general frameworks, sicne they don´t solve the type of cases you will be given in the real interview. THey are good as mental checklists for yourself to ensure you have everything, but not as the key to open the door. 

Hope it helps!

Cheers, 

Clara

Hi Daisy,

First of all, it is great to see you are trying to better understand industry dynamics!

This is indeed an interesting question which is probably relevant for quite a lot of users, so I am happy to provide my perspective on it:

• Generally speaking, I would advise you not to generalize things, as tempting as it might be. The best way of structuring a case study depends on both the individual client (i.e. the simple industry does not suffice) and the type of question/ task.
• For instance, in this specific situation, unless it is a one-product FMCG company (which would be rather unusual), I would advise you to rather think about structuring the revenue streams by business units/ products to further understand where exactly the issue lies.

In case you want a more detailed discussion on how to best structure any type of case study, please feel free to contact me directly.

I hope this helps,

Hagen

Hello Daisy,

I’m quite surprised that you received a suggestion like this.
Even in the case that you proposed: How can you outline the main drivers of volume reduction starting from the Customer Journey? It could be, for example, a problem with your distribution channels.

I would suggest to refer to Customer Journey only if you need to brainstorm some ideas or to structure a problem solving that is about consumers behaviour.

Hope it helps,
Luca

No, for two reasons.

First, you are forcing a framwork regardless of the specific problem. Doing that will result in a rejection.

Second, customer journey is usually used to understand satisfaction drivers and pain points. So using it for profitability is just nonsense. You can use it for many things (identify new revenue opportunities, improve operations, etc.). 

The trick here is to stay flexible. You should have many alternative “mental maps” that you can use for brainstorming questions. Customer journey is one of them. But use it ONLY when it clearly makes sense.