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Notes on MECE thinking, issue trees, and structuring problems — including case interview prep.
- Growth Strategy Framework for Case Interviews
How to structure a growth strategy case interview: organic vs. inorganic growth, new markets, and the enablers that decide whether a growth plan actually works.
- Cost Reduction Framework for Case Interviews
How to structure a cost reduction case interview: COGS, operating expenses, process efficiency, and the strategic trade-offs that separate a real plan from a list of cuts.
- Why AI Makes Structured Thinking More Important, Not Less
AI can generate a structure for any problem instantly. Here's why that makes the underlying skill (MECE thinking, building issue trees yourself) more valuable, not obsolete.
- Pricing Framework for Case Interviews
How to structure a pricing case interview: cost-based, value-based, and competition-based pricing, without collapsing them into one guess.
- M&A Framework for Case Interviews
How to structure an M&A case interview: standalone value, synergies, and integration risk, with a worked example of evaluating an acquisition.
- Market Sizing Framework for Case Interviews
How to estimate a large, unknown market size by breaking it into pieces you can actually estimate: top-down vs. bottom-up, with a worked example.
- Market Entry Framework for Case Interviews
How to structure a market entry case interview: market attractiveness, company capability, and entry mode, with a worked example.
- Profitability Framework for Case Interviews
How to build a profitability framework for a case interview: the standard revenue/cost split, how to adapt it to the business in front of you, and a worked example.
- Bain Case Interview: What to Expect and How to Prepare
What Bain's case interview looks like: format, the written case round, and how to prepare with structured practice instead of memorized frameworks.
- BCG Case Interview: What to Expect and How to Prepare
What BCG's case interview looks like: format, evaluation criteria, and how to prepare with structured practice instead of memorized frameworks.
- McKinsey Case Interview: What to Expect and How to Prepare
What McKinsey's case interview actually looks like: format, what's evaluated, and how to prepare by practicing structure instead of memorizing frameworks.
- Why Memorizing Case Interview Frameworks Doesn't Work
Memorized frameworks fail the moment a case doesn't fit the template. Here's why interviewers design cases to expose it, and what to practice instead.
- How to Structure a Case Interview, From the First 60 Seconds
A step-by-step approach to structuring any case interview prompt: clarify, build a MECE issue tree out loud, and prioritize, even when it doesn't match a textbook framework.
- Case Interview Frameworks: What They Are and Why They're Not Enough
A guide to the standard case interview frameworks (profitability, market entry, market sizing, and more) and why memorizing them isn't the same as passing a case.
- How to Break Down a Complex Problem (Without Overcomplicating It)
A practical method for taking a big, vague problem and turning it into a set of small, answerable questions, using issue trees and MECE thinking.
- How to Build an Issue Tree, Step by Step
A practical, repeatable process for building an issue tree for any problem, from writing the root question to knowing when to stop branching.
- Issue Tree vs. Decision Tree: What's the Difference?
Issue trees and decision trees look similar but do different jobs. Here's how to tell them apart, with examples of when to use each.
- What Is an Issue Tree? A Clear Definition With Examples
An issue tree is a MECE breakdown of a problem into a branching structure. Here's what it looks like, how it's built, and where it's used.
- Why MECE Matters (Even If You've Never Heard the Term)
MECE thinking isn't just consulting jargon. Here's what actually goes wrong when a problem isn't structured MECE, and why it's worth the extra minute.
- MECE Examples: 7 Breakdowns That Actually Hold Up
Real MECE examples across business, product, and everyday decisions, plus a look at why each split doesn't overlap and doesn't leave anything out.
- MECE Framework: How to Build One From Scratch
A step-by-step process for building a MECE framework for any problem, plus the most common mistakes that make a split not-quite-MECE.
- What Does MECE Mean? A Plain-English Definition
MECE stands for Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive. Here's what that actually means, why it matters, and how to tell if your own breakdown is MECE.