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Case Interview Fundamentals: Lesson 21 [The Landscape Technique] — Transcript

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0:00Hey there, Bruno here. So, by now you
0:02have learned how to create frameworks to
0:05any business strategy case. You have
0:07learned three techniques that complement
0:09each other in order to do that. You have
0:12learned about the three C's framework,
0:14our training wheels so that we have a
0:16place to start. You have also learned
0:19about the four-step approach to build
0:21and communicate frameworks. And this is
0:23key so your frameworks are complete and
0:26address all of your interviewers'
0:28expectations.
0:30Finally, you've learned techniques to
0:32adapt the three C's, making your
0:34structures more flexible and case
0:37specific. This makes the most of that
0:39basic tool, the three C's, and helps you
0:42create pretty good unique frameworks
0:45without having to reinvent the wheel
0:47every time.
0:49By using these three pieces of
0:51knowledge, plus mastering issue trees,
0:54it is possible that you can structure
0:56every single case and get an offer at a
0:59top consulting firm.
1:01You're well ahead of most candidates.
1:03Most candidates will either try to
1:05memorize a dozen different frameworks,
1:08or they'll try to come up with a master
1:11framework that kind of solves any case,
1:14and obviously that doesn't work. If you
1:17try to memorize a dozen different
1:18frameworks, you're going to leave too
1:21many gaps. There are hundreds of types
1:23of business problems, not just a dozen.
1:26And if you try to come up with a master
1:27framework, you will be repeating a
1:30generic structure over and over again.
1:33Who would hire a consultant that solves
1:35every single problem with the same
1:38methodology? I wouldn't. Still,
1:42even with your new-found skills of
1:45creating a customized structure to any
1:47business case, I'd say you're still in a
1:50very risky position to go to your
1:53interviews. Why? Well, because you're
1:56counting on the likelihood that all the
1:58cases you will get are business cases.
2:01And that means that with what you've
2:03learned so far, you have no idea how to
2:06structure a public sector case, an NGO
2:10case, or other less common case types.
2:13But non-business cases are super common.
2:17Here's a fact. More than a third of
2:20McKinsey cases are non-business cases.
2:24Here's another fact. If you do six
2:27interviews with a consulting firm that
2:29only applies public sector cases in 5%
2:32of their interviews,
2:34simple statistics will indicate that you
2:37have a 27%
2:40chance of getting at least one public
2:43sector case with them.
2:45At Bain, at BCG, and at other top
2:49consulting firms, your chances of
2:50getting a non-traditional, non-business
2:53case is higher than 5% per interview,
2:57which means that the combined
2:58probability that you will get at least
3:00one non-traditional case during your
3:03process is higher than a third. Maybe
3:06it's uh 50%, 2/3, who knows. It depends
3:10on the firm, it depends on the office.
3:13But it's a high probability. Now, in the
3:16past years, Julia and I have helped more
3:18than a thousand candidates, and we have
3:21noticed a pattern. Consulting firms are
3:24relying on public sector and strange,
3:26uncommon business cases that cannot be
3:29solved via traditional frameworks more
3:32and more. Why? Simple. Because they know
3:36candidates are preparing more and more,
3:38and they also know that many candidates
3:41prepare by memorizing frameworks, not by
3:44learning proper structuring skills. And
3:47because they don't want to test your
3:48memorization skills, but instead they
3:52want to test your ability to structure a
3:54problem you've never seen before,
3:58they're making their cases less and less
4:01common. Now, don't get me wrong. The
4:03majority of your cases are still going
4:05to be of common types: pricing, market
4:08entry, profitability, growth, everything
4:12that you could solve potentially by
4:15adapting the three C's. But the chances
4:18that you'll get at least one case of a
4:21non-traditional type in each firm that
4:24you apply to is very, very high. And
4:27when the recruiting process is so
4:29competitive that you can't afford to
4:32fail a single case in order to get the
4:35offer, you want to prepare for that,
4:37too. So, what's a way to structure any
4:41case, no matter how different, unusual,
4:44or strange?
4:46The landscape technique.
4:48Let's jump into it. You've been using
4:51the landscape technique already. You
4:53just didn't realize it. Remember when I
4:55said that you needed to learn the three
4:58C's really well before you learned to
5:00adapt it, and that you needed to learn
5:03to adapt it before I could teach you to
5:05structure any case from scratch? That's
5:08because the technique that I've shown
5:10you on how to adapt the three C's is the
5:13landscape technique applied specifically
5:16to business strategy cases.
5:19But before we get into the specifics of
5:22how to structure any case, let me take a
5:25step back and show you why I call this
5:28technique the landscape technique.
5:31Imagine you were shown this picture of a
5:34landscape, and you had to create a
5:36structure to describe it.
5:39Now, you could say that there's the land
5:41and the atmosphere, but that wouldn't be
5:44a good way to describe this landscape.
5:47It says nothing about it. It's not
5:49specific. In a case interview, this is
5:52like structuring a case using opposite
5:54words, such as internal factors and
5:57external factors. It's better than
6:00nothing, but it's not good enough to
6:02complex problem. It doesn't describe
6:04that specific problem. It describes any
6:07problem. And let's be real to each
6:09other. It's not even an intuitive way to
6:11describe it. I mean, if you looked at
6:13this picture, would you say that it is
6:16divided by the land and the atmosphere?
6:19It's not intuitive. What's an intuitive
6:22way to describe this picture?
6:24To me, it's quite obvious. There's the
6:26mountain range,
6:28the valley,
6:29and the lakes.
6:31Depending on the goal of this
6:33description, you could also add the
6:35beautiful blue skies and the road with
6:38the bridge. The first three categories
6:41that I've described are essential to
6:44have a MECE structure, and the last two,
6:47the skies and the road with the bridge,
6:50are not essential. Your structure is
6:52still MECE even if you skip them, unless
6:56the reason why you're describing this
6:57landscape requires you to describe them.
7:01So, what did I do here to create this
7:03structure? I basically broke this
7:05landscape down into its most important
7:09elements. I didn't do a generic
7:11breakdown, such as land and atmosphere,
7:14and I also didn't speak about each
7:17specific feature of the terrain, no
7:20matter how irrelevant it is.
7:23Let me show you a couple more examples.
7:26This landscape could be described as
7:29balloons versus non-balloons,
7:32but that would be lazy. Instead, a
7:34better way to structure or describe it
7:37would be the mountainous terrain,
7:39the balloons, the sunset, and you could
7:44also add the sunset skies if you wanted
7:46to.
7:47Here I did the same thing as the last
7:49one. I broke down the whole picture into
7:52its most important elements. I also
7:56grouped all the balloons together
7:57because even though they're each an
7:59individual uh feature or element,
8:02conceptually, they're part of the same
8:05group of elements. Now, this is not
8:07photography class or anything, so I'll
8:10just give you one more example before I
8:12make my point and bring this back to
8:15case interviews. How would you structure
8:18this landscape?
8:20A candidate trying to be MECE but not
8:23relevant might say, "Well, everything to
8:25the left side of the road and everything
8:27to the right side of the road." And
8:30while this is MECE, it's not really
8:32insightful, right? It doesn't describe
8:34the picture. A better candidate would
8:36say that there's a road,
8:38and then there's desert plains on both
8:40sides of the road. There's a big
8:43mountain in front of the road, and there
8:45are other mountains behind it. They
8:48might also add that there's a car
8:50driving down the road. Now, you're
8:53certainly asking yourself, "Why the hell
8:55is Bruno showing me pictures of places
8:58and landscapes and asking me to
9:00structure it? Does it even make sense to
9:03structure a picture?" Well, I did this
9:05for two reasons. The first is to show
9:09you that you can get something complex,
9:11as any of these landscapes are, and
9:13break them down intuitively just by
9:17looking at it. Really, a six-year-old
9:19could describe these pictures as well as
9:22I did, and they're complex enough to
9:25make a a robot or an AI have trouble
9:29describing it in a way that makes sense.
9:32At least nowadays. I mean, maybe five
9:34years from now that's different, right?
9:36Now, the second reason I'm showing you
9:38this is to show you that these intuitive
9:41descriptions are almost as MECE and much
9:45more relevant than any logical technique
9:48I could have used: land and atmosphere,
9:50balloon and non-balloon, right side and
9:52left side of the road. So, what does
9:55this mean to case interviews? Simple.
9:58You can structure any case in a very
10:01customized way by breaking down the
10:03elements of that problem's landscape if
10:06you can only learn to look at the
10:09problem the right way. So, let me show
10:11you how to look at the problem.
10:15This is the landscape of a business
10:17industry.
10:18It could be the automotive industry, the
10:21airline industry, the restaurant
10:23industry,
10:24the toothpaste industry, doesn't really
10:26matter. I think you'll remember this
10:28slide from the video on adapting the 3
10:30C's. Basically, what I taught you on
10:33that video was to see this landscape for
10:36each case that you have on business and
10:38then look for the important elements of
10:41it in the specific case you're tackling.
10:45Doing this would help you create the
10:47categories of your framework for that
10:49specific case. Then, you'd need to
10:52understand the role of each part in the
10:55overall system so that you could come up
10:58with insightful questions and issues
10:59regarding each one using the 5 W 2 H
11:03list of questions.
11:05So, how can you structure any case using
11:09the same logic? Let me give you a few
11:11examples.
11:14If you had to figure out how to win a
11:16football match, we could think of the
11:19landscape of a football match.
11:21What is the context that we need to
11:23break down in order to understand the
11:26problem? I used this football match
11:28example in the first video of this
11:29module, so I'm taking the opportunity to
11:31show you how to come up with that very
11:34same framework.
11:36Supply and demand obviously don't make a
11:39lot of sense here.
11:41The broader world is also mostly
11:44relevant to a football match. So, we'll
11:46need to think about another way to
11:48organize this information.
11:51How about everything that happens in the
11:54field
11:55versus everything that happens off the
11:58field?
11:59This is not our structure yet. Just like
12:02supply and demand is not our structure
12:04to a business strategy problem. These
12:06are too generic, but they're a way for
12:09us to organize the information in our
12:12heads and not miss anything. Think of
12:15the land and atmosphere in the landscape
12:18breakdown that I've shown you before.
12:21Now, we need to think of what are the
12:23elements of this landscape. Elements in
12:26the picture of a landscape is easy, but
12:29how to think of elements in a football
12:31match?
12:32Well, a football match is a social
12:34system. They're people trying to achieve
12:37a goal.
12:38So, we can think about who are these
12:41people and who has the power to change
12:43the system. These are the decision
12:46makers.
12:47We could also think about how do these
12:50people interact directly with one
12:53another, the direct interfaces.
12:56And we could also think about the rules
12:58of the game. Here are quite literally
13:00the rules of the game and the other
13:02structural factors that affect this
13:06match. So, we're using decision makers,
13:09interfaces,
13:11and structural factors as elements
13:14to come up with our framework just like
13:16we did when adapting the 3 C's. So, in
13:19this case, I think there are three main
13:21decision makers all within the game, all
13:24in the fields. These are team A,
13:28team B,
13:30and the referee
13:31or the team of referees who can of
13:34course influence the result of this
13:36match.
13:38In the fields, there's another factor
13:40interfering with the match, which is how
13:44is the infrastructure, how good it is.
13:46This is pretty standard in most football
13:49matches, but it could influence some of
13:51the games.
13:52And then, off field, there are two
13:55structural factors going on that could
13:58affect the results of the match. And
14:01these are the rules of the football. I
14:03mean, and this doesn't really change,
14:05but if it did change or if it changed
14:08for this match, this would influence the
14:11results of the game and the crowd.
14:14So, here I have six buckets that are
14:16fully customized to this case. You could
14:19also come up with other buckets, for
14:21example, the weather. Maybe it changes
14:24uh the depending on who's playing with
14:26whom.
14:27If I understand why each of these
14:29buckets is important to answer the key
14:33question, how can team A win this match,
14:37I can come up with relevant questions to
14:39each bucket. And if I use the 5 W 2 H
14:43list of questions to guide me through
14:45uh coming up with the issues, I can be
14:47fairly confident that I won't miss
14:50anything important.
14:52Now, I know what you're thinking. All
14:54right, Bruno, but let's get more
14:56pragmatic. No one's going to ask me
14:57about football matches in a consulting
15:00case interviews.
15:01Okay, you're probably right. Let's see
15:04how I structure a case on urban
15:05cleaning, how to make a city cleaner. To
15:09be more specific, we're talking about
15:11solid waste only in this situation, not
15:15sewage or air pollution.
15:17I always like to start with the supply
15:19demand broader world idea to see if we
15:23can use it somehow. It usually works
15:26because most human activities involve
15:29someone doing something for someone. So,
15:32there's usually some demand for that
15:34thing that's being done and someone
15:36supplying that thing. Clearly, that's
15:39not what happens in a football game
15:41because this
15:43in a football game, there are two teams
15:45competing to win, but it works in a lot
15:48of activities that generate and create
15:51value, including public sector and NGOs.
15:55In this case, in every city, there is
15:57someone supplying things to be cleaned,
16:00that is, people making the city dirtier,
16:03and there are other people demanding
16:05things to be cleaned, that is, people
16:08are cleaning up after them. Now, this is
16:10not a very intuitive way to think about
16:12it, so let me adjust the phrasing a
16:15little bit.
16:16And voila! There are producers of waste
16:20and there are cleaners of waste.
16:22Pretty intuitive, right? Okay. Now,
16:25let's think about who are the people who
16:28decide, who make decisions on both
16:31sides.
16:32There are the citizens, of course, and
16:34we could think of citizens both in their
16:37houses and when they're walking on the
16:40streets
16:42or in public life.
16:44Then, there are businesses. And here, I
16:47think it makes sense to segment these
16:49businesses as different businesses are
16:51very different in how they produce
16:53waste. So, for example, we could think
16:55of small businesses such as restaurants,
16:59construction businesses, which produce a
17:02lot of waste of a very specific type,
17:05industries, which again produce a lot of
17:09very specific type of waste, and then
17:11I'd add other businesses just to take
17:14into account for the larger businesses
17:16that are not construction or industries.
17:19This shouldn't be too relevant, but
17:21we'll add them here just for the sake of
17:23being messy.
17:25And hey, there's non-human waste as
17:27well. Trees that drop leaves and
17:29branches, animals that poop and die,
17:33land and dirt that is affected by the
17:36elements. Let's call this nature. It's
17:40obviously not a decision maker, but a
17:42structural factor, but it doesn't really
17:44matter. It's still part of our city
17:47cleaning landscape. On the other side of
17:50the equation, there are other players
17:52involved. I'd say that a good way to
17:54understand the side that cleans the
17:57waste of a city is to think of a simple
18:00value chain. Some people collect the
18:02waste, others transport the waste, and
18:06finally, others process the waste.
18:10As different cities structure their city
18:12cleaning efforts differently, I won't
18:14say who the specific players are here.
18:17In a real case, I'd actually ask the
18:20interviewer, how does this specific city
18:23manages their public cleaning? As it
18:26varies a lot city by city.
18:29Now, in the middle, intermediating both
18:32sides, there's a key decision maker in
18:35this, which is the government. Also, I'd
18:38say that there's a bunch of direct
18:40interfaces between producers and
18:43cleaners of waste in the form of
18:46infrastructure.
18:47So, all the public trash cans and other
18:50spaces reserved for discarding the
18:53waste.
18:54And finally, in the broader world, I'd
18:58say that there are three main factors
19:00affecting a city's solid waste
19:02management.
19:04The culture, which will influence how
19:07everyone think and act about what's
19:10acceptable for how clean the city should
19:13be,
19:14the law, which determine what can be
19:17done to change the situation, and
19:19because this is a city, not necessarily
19:21we can change the law, it could be
19:23national, and the weather, which can
19:26make things a lot easier or a lot harder
19:29for cleaning the city.
19:32Ah, this was exhausting. As you can see,
19:34keeping a city clean is very complex.
19:37There are a lot of different moving
19:39parts with different incentives. Back
19:41when I worked at McKinsey, I worked in a
19:44city cleaning project and we did have to
19:47consider all of these factors and then
19:50some more in order to arrive at a good
19:53recommendation to our clients. In a case
19:55interview, often the question's going to
19:58be more specific, so you'll be able to
20:01filter out a lot of these categories and
20:04just focus on what's important for the
20:07specific case that you're solving.
20:10So, this is the landscape technique. You
20:14can use it to structure any problem by
20:17breaking down the context, the landscape
20:20of the problem into its key elements.
20:23The way Julia and I call these resulting
20:25structures of this process is
20:28context-driven structures, because
20:30they're structures that break down the
20:32problem by finding the key elements of
20:36its context. There are other ways to
20:38structure problems as well, many of
20:41which we cover in our advanced course on
20:44structuring. Still, I particularly like
20:47context-driven structures because
20:49they're easy to understand, they're easy
20:53to keep MECE enough, and they're easy to
20:56build using the landscape technique.
20:59Now, let's go a little deeper and
21:01integrate the landscape technique with
21:04our four-step approach. I'll show you
21:06the example of a public sector case,
21:09I'll find the key categories with you,
21:12and I'll show you how to come up with
21:14issues and hypotheses for those
21:17categories.
21:19All right, I'll show you in this example
21:21how to create a full structure for a
21:23public education case using the
21:25landscape technique. We're not going to
21:27use any pre-made frameworks, just our
21:30logic and intuition. And we're going to
21:33end up with a pretty good framework,
21:35good enough to get an offer at McKinsey.
21:38Let's do it. So, first the case
21:40question. The Minister of Education of a
21:43developing mid-income country wants to
21:46develop a long-term plan to improve
21:49basic public education. What areas would
21:52you analyze in order to help her create
21:56this plan?
21:57Okay, so let's assume that the
21:59interviewer doesn't give us any extra
22:02information. But the way that this
22:04question is phrased, this is clearly a
22:07long-term strategy problem. That means
22:10that we should not use an issue tree to
22:13diagnose what is the current problem.
22:16Instead, we'll use a conceptual
22:19framework. It also helps that this
22:22problem is qualitative. Even though
22:25there are numerical indicators that can
22:27be used to help us understand how good
22:29an educational system is, no indicator
22:32can describe the whole picture. All
22:35right, so how to create this framework?
22:38I'm going to take things one step at a
22:41time here, so that you can see my whole
22:44thought process. Most of this that I'm
22:46going to show you happens very quickly
22:49in my head as I build the framework.
22:51The first thing I do is to try to think
22:55of the most basic structure of an
22:57educational system to help me think
23:00through this. Is it someone offering a
23:02service to someone else like in the city
23:04cleaning example? Is it something
23:06happening within an arena with an
23:09external arena that serves as context as
23:12in the football match example? Is it
23:14something else?
23:16To me, education is basically supply and
23:20demand.
23:22Some people called students demand
23:24education, while other people called
23:26teachers supply education.
23:29In fact, the most basic educational
23:32systems need nothing more than students
23:35and teachers. Now, these are the two key
23:38categories that we will certainly have
23:41in our framework. So, let's add that.
23:44And actually, let me rename this
23:47supply-demand name so that it's clearer
23:50to us what we're talking about here.
23:53I'll call it the educator side and the
23:56learner side.
23:58All right, now let's think of who else
24:01is a decision maker in this system. One
24:04obvious that comes to mind are the
24:06actual schools. You can think of schools
24:09as decision makers if you think about
24:11the people who run these schools. You
24:13could also think about the schools as
24:15needed infrastructure. Both are
24:18important, and it doesn't really matter
24:20if you think of the schools primarily as
24:22decision makers or as infrastructure.
24:26The important thing is to know that
24:28schools comprehend these two aspects and
24:31that they're critical in the educational
24:34system. Back in the educator side, there
24:37are few other players. Suppliers of
24:40school materials, school administrators,
24:44and the government in general. And on
24:47the learner side, an important decision
24:49maker that could change the results of
24:51the whole educational system are the
24:54families of the students.
24:56All right, so this covers all the
24:58decision makers that I can think of.
25:00Now, let's think interfaces. I see three
25:03key ones. The first is transportation
25:07for students to reach the schools. This
25:10could make or break a developing
25:12country's educational system. The
25:15second, whatever tools the teacher uses
25:18to teach students. I'll call these
25:20textbooks, materials, and methodology.
25:24And finally, a critical interface
25:26between governments and the schools is
25:29the public budget. This is what's going
25:31to give the schools the resources, the
25:33financial resources that they need. All
25:36right, so now we have a lay of the land.
25:40We have the key elements of our public
25:42education landscape. Now, the next step
25:45is to select which ones will become
25:48actual categories in our framework. We
25:51just want the key elements that can
25:54change the system. For example, I don't
25:56think suppliers qualify for that. A
25:59government can find suppliers for school
26:01materials and textbooks, and that should
26:04be no problem. I'd also put some of
26:07these things together. For example,
26:09teachers and administrators should
26:11probably be grouped together as it's
26:15difficult to completely separate their
26:17actions.
26:18Same for students and families,
26:21especially for basic education, which is
26:23mostly children and teenagers. I'll also
26:26group schools and transportation
26:30as these are pieces of infrastructure,
26:32and government and budget for obvious
26:35reasons. As you see, there is some
26:38flexibility to how we do this. It's not
26:41black and white, nor there is one right
26:44answer.
26:45It's just like describing the picture of
26:47a landscape into the elements you see.
26:49Some people would do it differently than
26:51others. Some people will say that
26:53there's one mountain range or two, and
26:55they might group them together or not,
26:58but everyone can do it, and most people
27:00would describe the landscape pretty
27:03similarly and as accurately to each
27:05other. Now, let's translate this into
27:09the categories of our frameworks.
27:12We have the teachers and administrators
27:14as our first category of analysis. Their
27:17key role is to teach, of course. And to
27:20do that, the system needs to have the
27:23right people
27:25with the right attitudes and the
27:27resources to teach. We also have
27:30students and their families as a key
27:32area to understand. And their key role
27:35is to be in school and to make an effort
27:37to learn.
27:38And to do that, they need to have the
27:40right attitudes and the resources to go
27:43to school. Then we have to understand
27:45the infrastructure, schools and
27:48transportation.
27:50Their role is to support teaching, and
27:53to fill its role, we need enough
27:56infrastructure in good condition. Our
27:59fourth bucket is the materials,
28:01textbooks, and methods.
28:03First thing about this is we should have
28:05materials and methods for our teachers
28:08and students. Second thing is that they
28:10should be proven to work. We're a
28:12developing country, there's no need to
28:15create new teaching methods to teach,
28:18say, math or science that we don't know
28:21if it's going to work or not. So, we
28:23need proven stuff. And finally, the
28:26government needs to send enough money
28:30and oversee the system to help it work
28:33well. Now, let me pause for a quick
28:35second here. You don't usually see
28:37people who teach case interviews online
28:40giving so much emphasis to this step of
28:43figuring out what's the role of each
28:45category of your framework before you
28:48come up with your key issues and
28:50hypotheses. And the reason for that is
28:53that even though every consultant does
28:56it, they do it in a split second in
28:59their heads. In fact, everything I did
29:02until now is something that I can easily
29:05do in 10 to 15 seconds in an interview.
29:08This is not to scare you in case you're
29:10not able to do that yet. You will be
29:13able to do it, too. This is just to make
29:16you aware that when I'm building a
29:18framework from scratch, I'm not actually
29:21drawing the map on the left side of the
29:23screen in my head. All I'm doing is
29:26letting my intuition find the categories
29:29that might be useful for the case and
29:32adding them to my paper. I just draw the
29:34buckets on the right side. But where
29:37does this intuition of what categories
29:40to add come from, and how to develop?
29:42Well, the exact logic is on the map on
29:46the left side of the screen. That's why
29:48I'm showing you that. If you practice
29:50building enough frameworks using that
29:53logic, eventually your intuition will be
29:56developed as well, and you'll be able to
29:58simply write down the categories as they
30:00come to you.
30:02Also, as I add these categories in my
30:04paper, I try to understand why each
30:07category is critical to the case, and
30:10what needs to be true for our client to
30:12have a successful strategy. And this is
30:15exactly what's written in italics on the
30:18left side of the categories in my
30:19framework. I don't really write that
30:22down in the interview. It's something
30:24that I think really quickly as I write
30:27down the category.
30:29As the why of each category comes to my
30:32mind, I can easily think of key issues I
30:34want to add to my framework. And because
30:37these key issues are rooted on a why,
30:40it's actually pretty easy to make sure
30:42that they're relevant and insightful.
30:44So, most of what I've shown you until
30:47here actually happens quickly and
30:50intuitively to me. What I did in this
30:53part of the video is to show you the
30:55systematic way to think about that
30:58intuition. Your goal is to develop that
31:02intuition, too. And the way to do that
31:04is to practice building frameworks in
31:07this systematic way that I'm showing
31:09you. All right. Now, time for the key
31:11issues. The only thing that I have to do
31:14is for each category, come up with the
31:16key issues that will help me understand
31:18how to have that category behave in the
31:21way we want it for the system to work.
31:24So, for example, our first category is
31:27teachers and administrators.
31:30We know that we want the right people
31:32with the right attitudes and with the
31:35resources they need. So, my first
31:37question might be, are there enough
31:39teachers?
31:41And are they well hired and well
31:43trained?
31:45This covers whether we have the right
31:47people or not. But I also want to know
31:50if they have the right attitude. So, I
31:51might ask, are they incentivized to
31:55teach and motivate students?
31:58And finally, I want to know if they have
32:00access to the resources they need to
32:02teach effectively. For students, I want
32:05to know if they're motivated to learn
32:07and study, and if not, why?
32:10I want to know if they have the right
32:12support systems in place, which includes
32:15everything family and housing related.
32:18And also, I want to know if their health
32:21and nutrition is in good conditions,
32:23because we know that malnourished kids
32:25don't learn as well. Now, let's tackle
32:27infrastructure. I'd love to know if
32:30there are enough schools and if they're
32:32in good conditions. I want to know if
32:34schools are close to students and if
32:37transportation is accessible. And
32:39finally, I want to know if schools offer
32:42extracurricular activities in case these
32:45are important to our client, the
32:48Minister of Education.
32:50For our materials and textbooks, our
32:52concern is that there are enough
32:53materials available and that the methods
32:56work. So, for the first question, I'd
32:58ask if textbooks and materials are
33:00available. And then for the second
33:02question, I'd ask if they're using
33:05methodologies
33:07within parameters of international
33:09standards, especially for math and
33:11language, because these tend to be the
33:13most important things that you learn in
33:16school. And finally, I want to know if
33:19they properly test students, because we
33:21need to know if these methods work with
33:23our students in our culture, not just
33:26students in other nations, right?
33:28And finally, on the government side, I
33:31want to understand what's the total cost
33:33of the system versus the budget versus
33:36benchmarks of other countries'
33:39educational systems. Just to see how
33:41costly the system is and if the
33:44government is affording it.
33:46I'd want to know if the money actually
33:48gets to the school system. And I'd also
33:51want to know how the bureaucracy
33:54interacts with the system.
33:56Now, because I know the function and the
33:59reason why each of these questions is
34:02here, I'd have absolutely no trouble
34:05formulating a hypothesis for each of
34:07these issues.
34:09And because I know how to create a
34:10testable hypothesis, I'd have no trouble
34:13testing each hypothesis.
34:16Now, eventually, after exploring these
34:18areas of analysis, I'd be able to
34:20actually help this minister formulate a
34:23long-term strategic plan to improve
34:26basic education in her country, which is
34:29precisely what our interviewer is
34:32looking for. Now, a few points to
34:34notice. Number one, this is not the
34:37ultimate structure for education cases.
34:41It's simply a pretty good structure for
34:43the case we were given, and a unique one
34:46at that that was created on the spot. No
34:49other candidate's going to have the same
34:51structure as we have here.
34:53Number two, most of the ideas here are
34:56common sense, which is a good thing.
34:59Your interviewer's not interested in
35:01testing your knowledge in educational
35:04systems. Instead, they're interested in
35:07seeing if you can structure common sense
35:09ideas and questions to come up with a
35:12robust plan to help your clients. In the
35:16projects that you do once you get in the
35:18consulting firm, you'll have access to
35:21all the knowledge and technical details
35:23that you want. The challenging part is
35:26to be able to structure that in a
35:28logical way.
35:30Number three, if you're able to
35:32intuitively have a model of the
35:35landscape of the problem like I did on
35:38the left side of the screen in your
35:40mind, coming up with the categories in
35:4310 to 15 seconds is going to be easy.
35:46You can develop this intuition through
35:48practicing building a lot of frameworks.
35:52And if you're able to understand the
35:54role of each category in solving the
35:57problem in the system as a whole, coming
36:00up with insightful issues shouldn't be a
36:03problem, either.
36:06And that's it. This is the landscape
36:08technique to create frameworks from
36:10scratch. It works for any problem,
36:13although I recommend using it in
36:15strategic problems. For simpler,
36:18shorter-term problems, using an issue
36:21tree to dissect the root cause of the
36:24problem is a better, more efficient way
36:26to work. If you want to learn how to
36:28create issue trees from scratch, again,
36:30go check our guides to issue trees in
36:34our website. All right. Now, let's put
36:36all of this into practice. Right after
36:40this video, there's a public sector
36:41framework drill so that you can apply
36:44your new skills into a realistic case
36:47example. I'll see you in the next video.

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