Interview Preparation
Market Sizing
Market sizing questions are designed to ascertain the extent of your structured thinking, analytical capabilities and ability to drive to a numerical solution. They are typically not related to specific Booz & Company experience, but relate to everyday topics such as “How many bottles of hotel shampoo are used everyday?” and “How many Easter eggs are sold over the Easter long weekend?”
The key to solving a market sizing question is to think about the question and structure your approach before diving into the problem. The interviewer is looking for a clearly described logical approach, not a micro level of detail.
Case Study
An interview case study is a business problem taken from a real-life business situation. The problem is designed to test your ability to conceptualise, break down, analyse and make judgements. Typically, they are derived from actual client experiences, often unique to the interviewer. “Cracking” a case requires 3 distinct skills which are representative of those required on a typical consulting project; set-up, analysis & resolution.
Set-Up
In this phase, take time to collect your thoughts, write some ideas down on paper and ask the interviewer questions to better determine the scope of the problem. At this point you should be ready to form some preliminary hypotheses to guide your workings through the case.
Analysis
The object of this phase to is logically work through the case. It is not necessary to apply known frameworks, but rather to talk to the interviewer about your approach. This approach should be clear, suit the problem, head towards the solution and be one you can follow throughout the entire case. Make sure you keep an ear open for hints from the interviewer as they will often help you to the optimal path.
Recommendation
At this point, there needs to be some sort of resolution to the problem. This can involve numerical work (market sizing, cost or benefit estimation), but always requires a set of recommendations and/or action items. The interviewer looks for logical recommendations backed by facts gleaned through the rest of the interview. There is no wrong answer – the interviewer is assessing how you arrived at a conclusion. Try to offer both short and long term recommendations, and “sell” them to the interviewer.