Interview Structure: Always process all of your structure points?

Question

Hi guys,

I am concerned about the initial structure you lay out in the very beginning of an interview. When it goes to the problem analysis later, should you work through all the points you've listed in your structure and kind of check them off if they are irrelevant or already processed (in order to show the interviewer that you have a structured approach)?

Thanks for your advice in advance and all the best for 2018!
Daniel

Answer 1

Hi Daniel,

in general, it is ok to consider all the points of your structure in your analysis to check their relevance. Most of the time, for a matter of time, the interviewer will ask you though to focus on only one or two of the areas you listed (this happens almost always in interviewer-led cases). In same rare cases, the interviewer will say nothing, letting you analyse all the points without asking to focus on specific areas. As a consequence, a good approach would be to (i) be ready to keep as a reference the initial structure and cover all the points presented, but also (ii) be flexible to focus on the specific areas the interviewer will ask you to consider, in particular in interviewer-led cases.

Hope this helps,

Francesco

Answer 2

Dear Daniel,

in general a good structure can be evaluated by a certain depth and breadth. The “depth” should be at least 3-4 levels while the “breadth” should cover the entire solution space. You can cross-check this with the MECE principles (For details see respective article on Preplounge), but the CE (collectively exhaustive) part is basically defining your breadth.

Finally, make sure to check for inter-linkages in your structure and point them out.

Simon

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