Knowing what information to ask for

Question

I completely understand how to get the calculations and the justification behind increasing vs decreasing price for certain segments but I am a bit confused on how to know what type of additional information to ask the interviewer for. For example, I was able to get to the initial estimates of yearly revenue but it did not occur to me to calculate or ask for elasticity. In this case, would it be something I have to explicitly ask for, or would saying "I need more information to calculate how price affects demand" work fine?

Answer 1

Hey there, Great question!

In general, you want to ask for information that are drivers to the problem you want to solve. Also for variables that are inter-related (as in with this example between sales volumes and price). Try to think as deep and wide as you can of relevant drivers, and put this in a formulaic approach to give your thoughts and answers structure and precision. You clarify this with the interviewer as they may or may not have it.

And with pricing elasticity, this is important because it is too often candidates make an implicit assumption that customers have an inelastic price elasticity. It may be the case that revenues can go down if prices go up (or vice versa) - and even if you didn't explicitly call for price elasticity, you could have asked for what the impact on sales volumes would be if price changes

Also, you don't want to ask for information that is not relevant. This will make you look like you don't know how to prioritise what's important or know what's important to think about

All the best

Answer 2

Hi,

When you request information to the interviewer, it's very important to state why you would like this information and how this will help you to solve the case. If the interviewer does not give you the exact information; you can do a proposal to estimate yourself or break it down first to parameters that are more easy to estimate.

Feel free to reach out if you would like additional info and/or want to practice this skills.

Mattijs

Answer 3

Hey!

It's important to strike a balance between being specific and demonstrating structured thinking. Instead of asking broadly for "more information," it's better to indicate the specific factor you're considering. A good approach would be to say something like:

"To better understand the impact of a price change, I would need information on price elasticity of demand. Could you provide insights into how sensitive our customers are to changes in price?"

This shows that you know what you're looking for and why it's relevant. If you're unsure what exactly to ask, framing it as a hypothesis can help, e.g.:

"I assume that demand might be elastic for this segment, but I would need more data on past price changes and their impact on sales to confirm. Could we explore that?"

This way, you're demonstrating both structured thinking and curiosity without appearing to lack knowledge.

Alessa