If you have read some of my previous posts, you know that I take a lot of my case interview philosophy from Victor Cheng, they guy behind the wildly successful site caseinterview.com. One of Victor's core principles is that successful consultants follow a logic, linear thinking which ultimately lead them to a solution of the problem. Similarly, candidates in case interview are expected to display the same consistency of though, so that interviewers are confident that the candidate does possess the skills to success, and didn't just get lucky.
A Process Perspective
As it turns out, the thought pattern promulgated by Victor Cheng is so systematic, so linear, that a very good way to describe it is using process modeling. Despite its rather dreadful name (it was originally invented by IT folks), process modeling is very simple at its core: it visually lays out a sequence of activities triggered by a specific event. No more, no less.
Since a process is a well-defined collection of discreet activities, it is just perfect to describe a logical and linear set of tasks. Yes, just like the case interview ;-)
I therefore here suggest a possible process-centric view on business case interviews, as taught by Victor Cheng. The process is modeled using the Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN), which has become the industry's standard. The BPMN model presented here follows the Method and Style convention of BPMN's guru Bruce Silver. No worries, you won't need to buy the book to understand the model, we are going to walk along it together.
I haven't came across any modeling of this sort on the web so I believe this is a rather original view to bring to the case interview methodology. The process is far from being perfect and I actually love to hear your suggestions about how to make it better.
So let's all buckle up and put our nose into the wonderful world of the Case Interview Process Model©. It's going to be fun.
I haven't came across any modeling of this sort on the web so I believe this is a rather original view to bring to the case interview methodology. The process is far from being perfect and I actually love to hear your suggestions about how to make it better.
So let's all buckle up and put our nose into the wonderful world of the Case Interview Process Model©. It's going to be fun.
