How to Open, Analyze, and Close a Case Interview (Part 3 of 12) | caseinterview

Summary

本视频脚本详细讲述了如何开启、分析并关闭一个案例，这是一个三步过程。首先，演讲者强调了在练习案例时要机械地遵循步骤，直到完全掌握，然后可以变得更加创造性和灵活。在开启案例时，演讲者建议先“暂停”以收集思路，验证对事实和术语的理解，并确保对客户想要解决的问题有正确的理解。接着，选择适合问题类型的框架，并识别该框架的关键组成部分。在分析案例时，演讲者提倡使用假设来指导数据收集，并根据数据调整假设。整个过程中，演讲者强调了理解问题本质、使用适当的框架、以及与客户进行有效沟通的重要性。

Takeaways

• 📝 **准备阶段**：在开始解决案例之前，要通过暂停来争取思考时间，这有助于梳理思路并避免匆忙回答。
• 🤔 **确认理解**：确保对客户的行业术语和问题有准确理解，避免因误解而给出错误建议。
• 🔍 **澄清问题**：通过提问来澄清客户的具体问题，注意问题的主体和客体，确保理解无误。
• 🏗️ **构建框架**：为案例分析选择合适的框架，这有助于系统化地解决问题，避免信息搜集的混乱。
• 🔑 **关键组件**：识别框架中的关键组件，这有助于集中分析的焦点，提高解决问题的效率。
• 📈 **数据导向**：基于数据来验证假设，通过分析收入和成本等关键因素来确定问题的根源。
• ❓ **提问技巧**：在分析过程中，通过提问引导对话，获取更多信息，同时也可以测试自己的假设。
• 💡 **假设设定**：在分析前设定一个假设，然后通过收集数据来验证其正确性，这是一个科学的方法。
• 📊 **视觉呈现**：使用图表和框架来直观展示分析过程，这有助于客户更好地理解和跟随你的逻辑。
• 📚 **框架选择**：根据不同的商业问题选择合适的框架，如利润问题、新产品问题或市场进入问题。
• 🧐 **分析过程**：分析意味着将问题分解成组成部分，通过逐步深入每个部分来理解整个问题。

Q & A

在案例分析的过程中，开展了哪些步骤？

案例分析的过程包括延迟、验证理解、构建框架、分析案例、提出假设、选择分支、确定关键问题以及分析数据等步骤。

为什么在案例分析的开头要先延迟回答问题？

延迟回答问题是为了给自己一点时间思考，尤其是在面对突然的、棘手的问题时，延迟可以让你有更多时间思考解决方案。

为什么在开案时要验证对案例的理解？

验证对案例的理解是为了确保对事实和术语的理解准确，因为不同行业可能会使用不同的术语，理解不准确可能导致误解问题。

为什么在开案时要确定问题的类型并选择正确的框架？

确定问题的类型并选择正确的框架可以帮助解决问题的效率，因为不同类型的问题需要不同的方法，选择错误的框架可能导致浪费时间。

为什么在案例分析中要提出假设？

提出假设类似于科学方法中的实验设计，可以指导分析的方向和方法，如果假设错误，可以及时调整分析的重点。

在案例分析中如何确定要分析的分支？

在提出假设后，要根据假设选择相应的分支，通常是根据框架的不同部分来确定分支，然后分析其中的关键问题。

在分析案例时为什么要确定关键问题？

确定关键问题可以确保分析的全面性和系统性，避免漏掉重要的因素，有助于更深入地理解问题的本质。

为什么在分析案例时需要仔细考虑并提取关键数据？

仔细考虑并提取关键数据可以为分析提供支持和依据，帮助验证假设并得出合理的结论，提高解决问题的准确性。

在案例分析中，为什么要确保在分支下列出所有的关键问题？

确保在分支下列出所有的关键问题可以避免遗漏重要的因素，确保分析的全面性和系统性，同时向面试官展示你的全面思考能力。

提出假设和选择分支之间有什么关联？

提出假设指导选择适当的分支，假设的准确性直接影响到分析的方向和有效性，因此两者之间密切相关。

Outlines

00:00

😀 如何开启、分析并关闭一个案例

本段主要讲述了处理案例的三个步骤：开启、分析和关闭。强调了在早期练习案例时，需要非常机械和严格地按照步骤进行，直至能够熟练掌握。随后，作者会变得更加创造性和灵活。提到了框架的概念，即标准化的方法来解决特定类型的问题，并指出在实际案例中可能需要使用多个框架。

05:02

😉 开启案例的三个步骤：拖延、验证和结构化

详细描述了开启案例的三个步骤：首先通过拖延来获取思考时间；其次，验证对事实和术语的理解，强调了不同行业可能使用不同的术语；最后，结构化案例以进行分析，包括识别问题类型、选择合适的框架，并确定框架的关键组成部分。

10:02

🧐 分析案例：将问题分解为组成部分

分析案例意味着将问题分解为其组成部分，类似于将乐高积木分开来查看每个部分。咨询师的日常工作就是不断分解问题，更深入地理解问题的不同方面。在案例面试中，分析是必要的步骤，它要求咨询师提出假设，并通过数据验证这些假设。

15:04

🔍 深入分析：从假设出发，识别关键问题

在形成假设后，选择框架的一个分支开始分析，例如如果是收入问题，则首先分析收入的变化。然后，识别该分支逻辑中的关键问题，如收入是否增加、保持不变或减少，并询问客户是否有数据支持。强调了在深入分析之前明确所有关键问题的重要性。

Keywords

💡案例分析

案例分析是指对商业问题进行深入研究，以找出问题的原因并提出解决方案的过程。在视频中，案例分析是核心内容，涉及三个主要步骤：开放、分析和关闭案例。案例分析在咨询领域尤为重要，因为它帮助咨询师理解客户的问题并提供专业的建议。

💡框架

在视频中，框架是指标准化的方法或模型，用于解决特定类型的商业问题。例如，利润问题可能使用收入减成本等于利润的框架。框架帮助咨询师系统地分析问题，确保不遗漏任何关键要素。

💡假设

假设是对可能的结论或解决方案的初步猜测，它基于已有的信息或理解。在案例分析中，提出假设是一种科学方法，通过收集数据来验证或反驳假设。例如，如果利润下降，初步假设可能是收入减少，然后通过分析数据来确认或调整这一假设。

💡结构化思维

结构化思维是一种逻辑严谨的思考方式，它要求将复杂问题分解为更小、更易于管理的部分。在视频中，结构化思维用于打开案例，即通过识别问题类型和选择适当的框架来组织分析过程。

💡利润问题

利润问题是视频中讨论的一个具体案例类型，指的是企业利润下降的问题。解决这类问题通常需要分析收入和成本两个方面。在视频中，通过一个CEO关心保费下降的例子来说明如何使用框架来解决利润问题。

💡收入

收入是企业从销售商品或提供服务中获得的财务收入。在案例分析中，收入是影响利润的关键因素之一。视频中提到，要理解利润下降的原因，需要检查收入是否减少、保持不变或增加。

💡成本

成本是企业在生产商品或提供服务过程中发生的各种费用。在利润问题的案例分析中，成本分析是确定利润下降原因的另一个关键部分。视频提到了固定成本和变动成本，以及它们对利润的影响。

💡市场进入

市场进入是指企业进入一个新的市场或地理区域的商业行为。在视频中，市场进入问题是一个案例分析的类型，需要使用特定的框架来分析潜在的市场机会和挑战。

💡新产品设计

新产品设计是指开发新产品的过程，这通常涉及市场调研、设计、原型制作和测试。在视频中，新产品设计问题是一个案例分析类型，需要使用创新和市场分析的框架来解决。

💡复合框架问题

复合框架问题是指一个案例可能同时涉及多个框架的情况。在视频中，这种情况被描述为特别具有挑战性，因为它要求咨询师在分析过程中灵活地在不同框架之间转换，以适应不断变化的信息和问题。

💡客户友好

客户友好是指在咨询过程中采取的态度和方法，旨在与客户建立良好的合作关系。在视频中，提到了在分析案例时，应该采取客户友好的方式，如通过视觉呈现和积极倾听来确保客户理解并参与到问题解决过程中。

Highlights

介绍如何开放、分析和关闭案例的三步过程

强调在早期练习案例时采取机械式、严格的步骤，直到熟练掌握

提到在实践中会使用多个框架来解决案例问题，称为复合框架问题

在案例面试中，如何通过暂停来争取思考时间而不显得慌张

验证对事实和术语的理解，特别是在不同行业中同一词汇可能代表不同含义

询问背景问题以确保对案例的准确理解

强调了在案例开始时明确问题的重要性，包括注意特定的词汇和语法结构

如何为案例分析构建框架，包括识别问题类型和选择正确的框架

解释了如何通过框架来识别关键组件并进行分析

强调了在分析案例时，将问题分解为其组成部分的重要性

提出了“后备框架”概念，用于处理不符合常规框架的案例

展示了如何通过提出假设来指导案例分析的方向

讨论了如何通过选择框架的一个分支开始分析，并识别该分支内的关键问题

强调了在分析过程中与客户合作的重要性，以及如何通过身体语言和互动来建立合作关系

解释了如何通过视觉呈现来使客户更容易理解复杂的信息

提供了四个最喜欢的框架以及在这些框架上使用的标准开场白

讨论了如何通过分析来创造性地解决问题，并强调了分析在咨询过程中的重要性

提供了一个案例分析的示例，展示了如何将理论应用于实践

Transcripts

oh good right on track here okay uh

let's talk about how to uh open uh

analyze and close a case so it's a

three-step

process I'm going to go through the

process mechanically and then I'm going

to demonstrate it one thing too is um I

mentioned earlier there's sort of more

well um I'll I'll say that for

later actually what I wanted to mention

was when you go when you practice cases

I found for myself that was very

mechanical early on in the process of

practicing okay so step one step two

step three every single time um very

rigidly until I sort of mastered that

process and then later what I do is I

would be sort of more creative and more

flexible and I don't know if that's sort

of how everyone does it but I thought I

just point that out that for me it was

very regimented early on until I could

do it in my sleep sort of this the first

part of a case uh and then I started

getting very flexible so an example is

you heard of framework which is sort of

standardized approaches for solving

certain kinds of problems um you often

times find that in reality you'll use

multiple Frameworks within a case okay

we'll talk about I call I call that a

compound framework problem and

um and it's very hard for um someone

who's just practicing to do a compound

case problem because they're thinking

which problem is it and which framework

do I fit it in but as you get

information through the case you realize

ah I thought it was a you know cost

problem but it's actually like a

marketing problem different problem

different framework and sometimes people

can't make that transition okay so

here's how I open a case there a lot of

ways to be right um first thing I do is

I stall okay they say client says you

know should I go acquire my biggest

competitor okay and I always say no joke

H that's an interesting question bought

myself 10 seconds okay five seconds

before I speak because you get past six

study show if you pause for more than 5

Seconds people think something's wrong 5

Seconds say the work another 5 seconds

I'm thinking like how the heck do I

solve this problem I have no freaking

idea okay um and I've had I've had out

of my 60 cases I did I probably I've

said that probably at least 20 30 times

and about 15 of them I literally had no

idea because it was sort of really out

of left field okay and I had to stop and

think for a second um so it's good to

have a phrase don't all use that phrase

but if you if it all come back to

me okay the first thing you want to do

is you want to verify your understanding

of facts and terminology very important

because in different Industries they use

different words to mean different things

uh so for example if I I had a client

who was in reinsurance and so I might

give a case that would say uh the CEO of

a reinsurance company uh is concerned

that premiums are down 15% what do you

tell the client to do okay and and if I

were on the receiving end of that my

first thought is hm that's an industry

question what the hell is reinsurance

right and so I would say can I ask some

background questions before I get

started sure what's reinsurance it's the

insurance company for insurance

companies oh okay so for example if

you're in a hurricane insurance

companies have insurance policies on

their homeowners policies so if they

lose more than $2 billion in Florida for

example the reinsurance company pays ah

okay so the insurance company I get that

um next question what's a premium is

that like profits no that's like

revenues that's what people pay on their

policy they call it premiums ah okay so

basically you're saying that the client

is asking me that uh revenues are down

20% what should he do is that right yes

I got it okay so almost all the time I

would ask I'll ask clarifying questions

um for a couple reasons because you

don't want to like just because of a a

difference in vocabulary words like blow

a case because you misunderstood the

information so if you don't get it

explain it and sometimes what happens is

a lot of interviews they will use um

their actual clients cases they'll just

change the names so they have like

they've done lots of data analysis and

they know everything

and and so some of these clients are

really esoteric businesses like I had

one I had one case that was um in a

really bizarre Health Care insurance

client was the client situation and it

took me 10 minutes just to even figure

out what what business are they in like

and like and there's like there's not a

customer but there's like a customer and

an affiliate it was a very complicated

relationship and I couldn't even

understand the basic facts of the case

let alone the problem they were asking I

had a very hard time understanding is

there one customer do they pay no they

don't pay somebody else pays oh so the

person paying the money is not the

person receiving the service correct but

there's a fourth party involved that's

the government oh how does that work and

I couldn't understand that and so I

spent I devoted time to figuring out

just what the heck are they talking

about so if you don't understand what

they're talking about take the time to

make sure you understand it because if

you're solving the wrong problem you

can't get it right

okay second thing to verify is making

sure that the that your understanding of

what problem this client want solved is

in fact right okay so pay attention to

the specific words and literally the

grammar what's the subject what's the

object right and think about what it is

they're asking and and I would spit it

back out paraphrase it's like a good

listing skill in general spit it back

out so do you mean the client wants to

know whether or not they should merge

with their biggest partner correct got

it okay

um so that's important and and the last

one is when you open a case the third

step in opening a case is you structure

the case for

analysis which is a a putting a a

framework basic picking the right

framework essentially and saying to

solve this case we need to understand

four core

ideas so to open a case stall verify

structure I'll move it up there you

go

yes struct the case do

you next slide what do I mean by

structuring case

um I love when people do

that it's a four-step process to

structure a case means first identify

the type of problem or situation that

we're trying to solve for the client

like it's a profit problem it's a very

common one profits are down what do you

do oh okay it's a profit problem

or uh they're thinking of launching a

new product Oh that's a new product

problem okay or they're thinking of

entering the China Market oh that's a

market entry problem okay so there's

sort of categories of problems and and

I'll show you for what kinds of problems

which Frameworks I found useful to solve

those kinds of problems so it's like a

matching thing so the first thing you're

doing when you're opening a case is

figureing out what the heck are they

talking about okay what kind of problem

is it and sometimes it's confusing so

that's why you have to verify your

understanding make sure you understand

that uh find the type and then pick the

right framework for that kind of problem

okay because if you sort of pick the

wrong framework you start Gathering data

in the wrong places right and it sort of

waste time more than anything

else once you have a framework chosen

you want to pick the key components

identify the key components of that

framework so as an example I'll show you

in a second if it's a pro problem the

framework is you know revenues Minus

cost equals profits right so to

understand profits are down by 20% we

need to look at revenues and we need to

look look at costs and that'll help us

understand that's sort of like a

standard opening for a profit problem

I'll walk through all the standard

verbiage you don't want to mention the

actual framework by name so don't say

you know oh that's emergers and

acquisition framework problem or that's

a Portis 5 forces problem um just use

the framework it makes you look smarter

and you know they know they know you're

sort of know this stuff and but it's

just like pretend right that sort of

came out of your head um and then

finally draw the framework

out it's important so I'll give you an

example that right

now so let's say um the example is the

case interview is um uh the CEO of ABC

company comes to you and say profits are

down by 20% what do you do okay and and

I would say I would verify that's

interesting let me think about that for

a second verify my understanding what

they what they're asking

for and um and then say okay that's a

profitability problem I know that I've

seen those before

and what I would say great to understand

uh how to address this client situation

we need to look at their company's

profits and why it's decreasing by 20%

once we understand that we can figure

out what we can do about it to

understand profitability we need to look

at two key things revenue and costs and

I would literally I'll literally

literally draw this as I'm talking

okay and just from a dynamic standpoint

um sometimes I'll actually move my chair

closer to them so rather than being sort

of adversarial

I will do it this way let me show you to

understand profits we got to look at

revenues first okay and then costs right

um and that's more collaborative and

it's a client skill too right if you're

meeting an average saleor clients

there's a reason for behind all if

you're meeting an average saleor client

when you when a police officer

interrogates a criminal what do they

do right across from one another if

you're being collaborative you do it

together you see and so it has a

different body language so I'll do that

too little things um and but but also

the other reason is that way you don't

have to like write upside

down because they can't if you do it

this way they can't read it like I can't

draw it upside down so I got to come

around and say come on over here let me

show you first we got look at profits

revenues and costs or I'll draw it my

way and then I'll turn it around and

show it to them like a lot of little

little things um but you want to figure

out how you're comfortable sort of

presenting information visually I told

you visual is client friendly right so

you can't just say Obviously

profitability you got to look at

revenues and costs right within costs

there sort of fixed cost varable cost

this that and that kind of cost unit

cost and you got look at the trend line

and this they can't follow right so you

got to draw it

out so it's very important to draw that

out and so for for all the major types

of case problems I will give you the

list of my four favorite Frameworks and

I'll give you the standard opening that

I've used on those four Frameworks okay

so like I mentioned earlier opening a

case is very mechanical and then as you

get information that's where sort of

creative problem solving and analytics

sort of comes into play okay but up at

this point it's really about sort of

opening it

correctly that's how to structure a case

um the next step in the process is once

you sort of opened it up you've sort of

laid out how you're going to approach

this case all the major categories of

issues next thing is to analyze the

case I Googled the word analyze last

night turns out the definition which is

actually kind of nice

is uh the separation of any material or

abstract entity into its constituent

Elements which basically means to

analyze means to break apart into pieces

okay so if you have a business it's a

bunch of Lego blocks analysis means you

pull apart the Lego blocks look at each

one individually okay by the way that's

the what I call the backup

framework if you ever get a case where

you don't know what's going on and it

doesn't match any of the ones I've

mentioned and I had a couple of those

you get the wacko you get weird ones

once in a while um if you got enough in

it's not a matter of you know if you'll

get them you definitely it's a matter of

when when and doubt pull apart the

pieces you know so for for example uh

well that's a bad example so so that's

sort of the the main idea to analyze

means to break out into its component

parts and this is what you do all day

long as a consultant you're breaking

things into Parts you're breaking the

parts into more parts you're breaking

those parts into more parts and and

we'll talk about why you do that and you

have to do this in a case interview have

to impossible to pass without doing this

very important okay so when they say

analyze a case it means breaking it

apart and I'll give you some ways of how

to standard ways of breaking things

apart but even if you forget everything

I said and then you get a question if

the first thing is out of your mouth is

well that's interesting I'm not sure how

to solve that let's break it apart okay

that's a good way to

start let's

see okay step by step how do you analyze

a case sort of generically and then

we'll go into specific

cases first thing I do is I ask them if

there's any information about the

situation that would suggest where I

ought to start in my framework okay so I

would say um to uh to understand why ABC

companies's profits are down 20% and how

to respond to that we got to look at the

revenues and the costs because those two

combined form profits okay do we have

any information from the client that

indicate whether this is a revenue

problem or a cost problem okay 80% of

the time they'll say no okay or they'll

smile and smirk and still say no okay um

sometimes they'll say sure you know why

don't we start with costs first and they

deliberately lead you down a wrong end

like it's Del it's they know it's a

revenue problem but they're telling you

why don't you start with cost first just

to see if you can figure out that he

threw you down the wrong direction and

see if you can kind of come back up okay

about 20% of the time they actually tell

you particularly if you have like a big

framework there's a lot of things you

need to analyze um

they can save you time and if sometimes

they don't have sometimes they don't

have data on parts of it so like if they

know it's a revenue problem and they and

because it's a real life case they they

were working on they didn't do any of

the cost analysis so they have no data

so they don't want you to go there

sometimes so if you ask them they'll

sort of steer to steer you sort of in

that direction about 20% of the time so

that's what I usually do again this is

my process um you can certainly succeed

without without doing this step the next

thing is you state a

hypothesis okay and um hypothesis

interesting enough I I actually never

did this explicitly when I was

interviewing I sort of did it implicitly

they could tell I I had a hypothesis I

never use the words but it's actually

not a bad idea to use the word

hypothesis you know it comes from you

know science and the scientific method

uh of you you have an experiment and you

think that you know the key to curing

cancer is in like Gene number 24 okay

what do we got to new what do we got to

do to sort of isolate and prove whether

or not that assertion is that hypothesis

is correct well we got you need

structure an experiment to figure that

out same process to solving business

problems again this is a Consulting

process it's not the only process you

can solve them business problems in

creative ways lots of other ways but in

Consulting it has to be this sort of

scientific method

approach so I'll give you an example of

hypothesis

um company ABC's profits are down 20% we

need to look at revenues and costs uh

I'm going to hypothesize that it's

probably a revenue problem so I'm going

to gather some data on to see whether

that's true or not okay um and then also

not continue have revenues declined stay

the same or increased okay oh revenues

have increased oh okay hypothesis is

wrong profits are down but revenues are

up what does that mean interpretation

it's a cost problem right okay so my

hypothesis was incorrect new hypothesis

I'll say ah obviously it's not a revenue

problem the revenue is not causing the

loss and profitability it must be cost

okay so that's an example of how that

the dialogue would

work uh the third step which I sort of

already demonstrated is you once you st

your hypothesis you want to pick a

branch of the framework to start okay so

I said my hypothesis is it's a revenue

problem let's look and analyze revenues

first has Revenue changed if so in which

direction

right next step is to identify the key

issues within that branch of logic

you'll see in a second that there are a

lot of branches to these sort of

Frameworks that are sort of very logical

um so I will say uh to to understand

whether or not revenue is causing the

profitability problem we need to know if

Revenue has changed and in which

direction so has Revenue increased stay

the same or decreased it's it's only one

of those three things and those are the

three issues do you have any data that

will indicate which one of the three is

correct okay um and so I'm very

deliberate about that so stating the

things I want to know and consider and

then ask for data okay it's very

important to do that by the way um it

seems like a a little obvious but

obviously Revenue you can only go up

down or say the same right um but you

again we're trying to be client friendly

so we're laying out all the issues um

and on that one in particular I probably

wouldn't draw it out because it's sort

of simple you know um but in general

when you have when you're starting to

work down a branch you want to break out

what are the key issues within that

Branch State all the major issues and

then dive in if you just dive in without

stating all of them they will assume you

missed them

okay they will assume you missed them

and I'll give you an example a little

bit later

on then what

I

for