Ask clarifying questions and/or present the structure.
Example of an excellent answer (score: 2)
GOAL CLARIFICATION
An excellent candidate would clarify the objective in terms of absolute amount and time frame, budget constraints, and better understand how the client makes money.
STRUCTURE
A great candidate would include in the analysis the following elements:
- Profit improvement levers:
- Revenues
- Segment analysis to determine which segment to prioritize
- Define options to increase revenues based on:
- Current business
- Increase billing rate
- Increase water consumption
- Increase number of accounts
- New offerings
- Variation of existing offerings
- Diversify into brand-new offerings altogether
- Costs - define ways to reduce the cost per unit or number of units in a cost area. Possible options include:
- Copy best practices
- Leverage economies of scale
- Consolidate unused capacity
- Opportunity potential
- Estimate of direct profit result
- Potential synergies/cannibalization effect
- Capabilities of the client to launch:
- Financial
- Non-financial
- Risks and next steps
The candidate may include additional elements, but there should be a rationale related to the objective of the client.
COMMUNICATION
An excellent candidate should present clearly the different areas in a structured way.
Moreover, the candidate should clearly present the rationale for why he/she wants to explore a particular point, connecting the answer to the objective of the client.
Suggested score
An excellent candidate should:
- Clarify the goal of the client (timebound and quantified)
- Include the main elements in the structure as presented above
- Communicate the structure in a clear way
Recommended score calculation: starting from 2, decrease the score by 0,5 points down to 0 for any of the following:
- The candidate did not clarify the objective (timebound and quantified)
- The candidate missed points 1, 2, or 3 in the structure (not including risks and next steps is tolerable)
- The candidate included several useless elements in the structure (i.e., boiling the ocean)
- The candidate communicated the structure in a disorganized way or without a clear connection to the goal
To keep a structured approach in assessing the performance of the candidate, it is recommended that the interviewer uses a scoring system to evaluate the 5 parts of the case presented below. This will help the interviewee to understand his/her level of readiness for the actual interview.
A possible grading system for each part is the following:
A possible evaluation grid is the following:
You can adapt the grading system and the evaluation grid according to your needs.
The text presents the questions to ask, the proposed optimal answer and the suggestions to score a candidate performance in each area.