Clarifying and Structuring the Problem

Whenever you get a question that seems deceptively straightforward (e.g. “How do we grow engagement?”) there’s probably a lot of context to understand.

• How did this question come about?
• How does growing engagement fit into the broader business goals at the moment?
• What’s the timeline we’re thinking about?
• What’s on the table vs. off the table in terms of resources and business trade-offs?
• Who is this coming from? What are their motivations?
• Which cross-functional partners need to be involved to get this done?

This context will help illustrate what problem you’re actually trying to solve and how you can go about solving it.

Typically, it’s helpful to centralize all the information you gather on the problem in a scoping document like the below. (You can make a copy of the template here!)

While you aren’t required to go into this level of detail in the interview, being able to talk through each dimension of how you scope the problem and speak to key questions or hypotheses you have can really set you apart.

Recap

Clarifying the problem upfront is key to giving a good case interview. When demonstrating problem-scoping skills in behavioral questions, be sure to walk your interviewer through how you scoped the problem in the past so that they can understand.

To demonstrate problem-scoping skills:

• Get crystal clear on how this problem came about.
• Define greater business goals, urgency, resources, and stakeholders available & needed, and consider the external environment you're operating in.
• It's easy to derail due to untested assumptions; be sure to check in with your interview at every step of the way.
• Ask for time to gather your thoughts before you speak. This will help you ask better questions, and will be extra helpful during behavioral interviews as you'll need a moment to consider how much context to share.