Case Prompt
Above all else: do not repeat the prompt verbatim!
This is not a memory test. It’s a listening test, at the very minimum, but it’s true purpose lies in assessing your ability to understand the crux of the issue. You may get a very long prompt. It’ll likely contain a lot of unnecessary detail. Sure, you can’t judge what is or isn’t going to turn out to be important yet, but you’re paying attention, so hopefully something will stick enough to give you little nudge later if you need it. What your interviewer is keen to find out is how well and how quickly you can cipher the gist of the case.
Take this example from the University of Michigan Ross Business School 2013 MBA Casebook, my all-time favorite, Case #2:
Our client is a large, multinational consumer products company with business in over 200 countries. Today, we are going to focus on its US business.
Our client has been following US demographic trends and has found that low income households have been growing two times as quickly as other consumer segments. Low income is defined as families with income at the poverty level or below.
Our client has always had a premium product strategy. It sells its products in grocery stores, convenience stores, mass retailers, etc. but its products are always priced at the high-end of their respective categories. It has never targeted the low income segment before and doesn't have a low income strategy, but given the growth of this segment, our client is considering entering the low income segment.
It’s a long prompt. You can scribble furiously and try to parrot back every word, but your interviewer has likely given this case a number of times (in the worst case, literally all day before you sat down for your turn) - don’t you think they’ll be bored by now?
Looking more closely at the prompt, you’ll see that you can effortlessly trim down this prompt to less sentences.
Our client is a large, multinational consumer products company with business in over 200 countries. Today, we are going to focus on its US business.
The second sentence immediately negates the first one. The client is a big company, got it, and we’re looking at their US business exclusively. No need to consider ex-US dynamics. Moving on!
Our client has been following US demographic trends and has found that low income households have been growing two times as quickly as other consumer segments. Low income is defined as families with income at the poverty level or below.
Low income households are growing. Okay.
Our client has always had a premium product strategy. It sells its products in grocery stores, convenience stores, mass retailers, etc. but its products are always priced at the high-end of their respective categories. It has never targeted the low income segment before and doesn't have a low income strategy, but given the growth of this segment, our client is considering entering the low income segment.
The client, this big company, is not used to selling to low income households. They’re thinking about it now.
What do we have so far? This company that sells stuff in a whole array of physical stores is interested in selling their stuff to low income households in the US. Why? Because that segment of the market seems to be growing in size. (Does that also mean the makeup of the socioeconomic strata is shifting, and therefore there are going to be less households in their current target segment, the one that comfortably buys premium products?)
The original prompt contains 131 words. Upon hearing and digesting them, you can confidently repeat back merely 21 words to check that you understood the prompt:
Our client is a consumer products company interested in exploring and potentially pursuing a low income strategy in the US market.
(You can even tack on an “am I right?” at the end to keep it colloquial.)
This particular case, as written in the Ross casebook, actually goes on to state that our client has three questions for you, which are explicitly:
1) Should it have a low income strategy?
2) If it should have a low income strategy, what are some tactics it should deploy?
3) What are some of the risks the client may face?
It’s not common for there to be three explicit stated questions, but if we take a deeper look we can see there is, at the core, still only one pertinent question: should this client have a low income strategy?
If the answer is no, then all we need to know is why. Probably because it won’t make them any additional money. If the answer is yes, then we’ll need to explain why and how: the why being how much money the client may stand to make (or, in case interview speak, “the size of the opportunity”) and the how being what actions the client should take to start pursing said low income strategy…which, if you read the second question, is basically what “some tactics it should deploy” refers to.
The third question is irrelevant because no matter what the answer is, you should be prepared to state some risks in your conclusion, no ifs and buts. Everything is a trade-off, everything carries risk, so you should provide a risk assessment unprompted.
So, at the start of the case, you’ll be given a prompt. This marks the start of the artifice that is the case interview. You’re leaning in, ready to showcase your best active listening skills. If you missed something, or might have misheard something, be quick to clarify! If there are numbers thrown at you (already!), be sure to write them down neatly so you can understand what you jotted down. Then, as your interviewer finishes up reading or stating the case prompt, think through what you were just told, look up, make eye contact and ask if you can repeat back what you heard to check your understanding.
Then wow them by repeating back only the heart of the matter and the key question this whole artifice is going to be about.
Boom.
Is this a time to ask questions? It depends. If you have questions to which the answers will determine how you think about approaching this problem, by all means please go ahead. For example, had the prompt not contained anything about our client being a large, multinational business and that we’re only looking at the US market, this would be a reasonable thing to clarify. “Can I ask: given the demographic change is being observed only in the US, is our client only considering a low income strategy in the American market?”
“Yes” means you’d present a structure that focused on the US, and “no” means you’ll likely include in your structure something about understanding other key markets. (If the answer were no, I’d also follow up and ask, “Oh, in that case, do you happen to know which other countries and markets our client has in mind for implementing a low income strategy?” This would allow you to include those specific countries in your structure, which would make it sound way more tailored.)
With the recap given, and the direction of your investigation confirmed, it’s time for the real show to start.