mckinsey way of problem solving

McKinsey Problem Solving: Six steps to solve any problem and tell a persuasive story

The McKinsey problem solving process is a series of mindset shifts and structured approaches to thinking about and solving challenging problems. It is a useful approach for anyone working in the knowledge and information economy and needs to communicate ideas to other people.

Over the past several years of creating StrategyU, advising an undergraduates consulting group and running workshops for clients, I have found over and over again that the principles taught on this site and in this guide are a powerful way to improve the type of work and communication you do in a business setting.

When I first set out to teach these skills to the undergraduate consulting group at my alma mater, I was still working at BCG. I was spending my day building compelling presentations, yet was at a loss for how to teach these principles to the students I would talk with at night.

Through many rounds of iteration, I was able to land on a structured process and way of framing some of these principles such that people could immediately apply them to their work.

While the “official” McKinsey problem solving process is seven steps, I have outline my own spin on things – from experience at McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group. Here are six steps that will help you solve problems like a McKinsey Consultant:

Step #1: School is over, stop worrying about “what” to make and worry about the process, or the “how”

When I reflect back on my first role at McKinsey, I realize that my biggest challenge was unlearning everything I had learned over the previous 23 years. Throughout school you are asked to do specific things. For example, you are asked to write a 5 page paper on Benjamin Franklin — double spaced, 12 font and answering two or three specific questions.

In school, to be successful you follow these rules as close as you can. However, in consulting there are no rules on the “what.” Typically the problem you are asked to solve is ambiguous and complex — exactly why they hire you. In consulting, you are taught the rules around the “how” and have to then fill in the what.

The “how” can be taught and this entire site is founded on that belief. Here are some principles to get started:

Step #2: Thinking like a consultant requires a mindset shift

There are two pre-requisites to thinking like a consultant. Without these two traits you will struggle:

• A healthy obsession looking for a “better way” to do things
• Being open minded to shifting ideas and other approaches

In business school, I was sitting in one class when I noticed that all my classmates were doing the same thing — everyone was coming up with reasons why something should should not be done.

As I’ve spent more time working, I’ve realized this is a common phenomenon. The more you learn, the easier it becomes to come up with reasons to support the current state of affairs — likely driven by the status quo bias — an emotional state that favors not changing things. Even the best consultants will experience this emotion, but they are good at identifying it and pushing forward.

Key point : Creating an effective and persuasive consulting like presentation requires a comfort with uncertainty combined with a slightly delusional belief that you can figure anything out.

Step #3: Define the problem and make sure you are not solving a symptom

Before doing the work, time should be spent on defining the actual problem. Too often, people are solutions focused when they think about fixing something. Let’s say a company is struggling with profitability. Someone might define the problem as “we do not have enough growth.” This is jumping ahead to solutions — the goal may be to drive more growth, but this is not the actual issue. It is a symptom of a deeper problem.

Consider the following information:

• Costs have remained relatively constant and are actually below industry average so revenue must be the issue
• Revenue has been increasing, but at a slowing rate
• This company sells widgets and have had no slowdown on the number of units it has sold over the last five years
• However, the price per widget is actually below where it was five years ago
• There have been new entrants in the market in the last three years that have been backed by Venture Capital money and are aggressively pricing their products below costs

In a real-life project there will definitely be much more information and a team may take a full week coming up with a problem statement . Given the information above, we may come up with the following problem statement:

Problem Statement : The company is struggling to increase profitability due to decreasing prices driven by new entrants in the market. The company does not have a clear strategy to respond to the price pressure from competitors and lacks an overall product strategy to compete in this market.

Step 4: Dive in, make hypotheses and try to figure out how to “solve” the problem

Now the fun starts!

There are generally two approaches to thinking about information in a structured way and going back and forth between the two modes is what the consulting process is founded on.

First is top-down . This is what you should start with, especially for a newer “consultant.” This involves taking the problem statement and structuring an approach. This means developing multiple hypotheses — key questions you can either prove or disprove.

Given our problem statement, you may develop the following three hypotheses:

• Company X has room to improve its pricing strategy to increase profitability
• Company X can explore new market opportunities unlocked by new entrants
• Company X can explore new business models or operating models due to advances in technology

As you can see, these three statements identify different areas you can research and either prove or disprove. In a consulting team, you may have a “workstream leader” for each statement.

Once you establish the structure you you may shift to the second type of analysis: a bottom-up approach . This involves doing deep research around your problem statement, testing your hypotheses, running different analysis and continuing to ask more questions. As you do the analysis, you will begin to see different patterns that may unlock new questions, change your thinking or even confirm your existing hypotheses. You may need to tweak your hypotheses and structure as you learn new information.

A project vacillates many times between these two approaches. Here is a hypothetical timeline of a project:

Step 5: Make a slides like a consultant

The next step is taking the structure and research and turning it into a slide. When people see slides from McKinsey and BCG, they see something that is compelling and unique, but don’t really understand all the work that goes into those slides. Both companies have a healthy obsession (maybe not to some people!) with how things look, how things are structured and how they are presented.

They also don’t understand how much work is spent on telling a compelling “story.” The biggest mistake people make in the business world is mistaking showing a lot of information versus telling a compelling story. This is an easy mistake to make — especially if you are the one that did hours of analysis. It may seem important, but when it comes down to making a slide and a presentation, you end up deleting more information rather than adding. You really need to remember the following:

Data matters, but stories change hearts and minds

Here are four quick ways to improve your presentations:

Tip #1 — Format, format, format

Both McKinsey and BCG had style templates that were obsessively followed. Some key rules I like to follow:

• Make sure all text within your slide body is the same font size (harder than you would think)
• Do not go outside of the margins into the white space on the side
• All titles throughout the presentation should be 2 lines or less and stay the same font size
• Each slide should typically only make one strong point

Tip #2 — Titles are the takeaway

The title of the slide should be the key insight or takeaway and the slide area should prove the point. The below slide is an oversimplification of this:

Even in consulting, I found that people struggled with simplifying a message to one key theme per slide. If something is going to be presented live, the simpler the better. In reality, you are often giving someone presentations that they will read in depth and more information may make sense.

To go deeper, check out these 20 presentation and powerpoint tips .

Tip #3 — Have “MECE” Ideas for max persuasion

“MECE” means mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive — meaning all points listed cover the entire range of ideas while also being unique and differentiated from each other.

An extreme example would be this:

• Slide title: There are seven continents
• Slide content: The seven continents are North America, South America, Europe, Africa Asia, Antarctica, Australia

The list of continents provides seven distinct points that when taken together are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive . The MECE principle is not perfect — it is more of an ideal to push your logic in the right direction. Use it to continually improve and refine your story.

Applying this to a profitability problem at the highest level would look like this:

Goal: Increase profitability

2nd level: We can increase revenue or decrease costs

3rd level: We can increase revenue by selling more or increasing prices

Each level is MECE. It is almost impossible to argue against any of this (unless you are willing to commit accounting fraud!).

Tip #4 — Leveraging the Pyramid Principle

The pyramid principle is an approach popularized by Barbara Minto and essential to the structured problem solving approach I learned at McKinsey. Learning this approach has changed the way I look at any presentation since.

Here is a rough outline of how you can think about the pyramid principle as a way to structure a presentation:

As you build a presentation, you may have three sections for each hypothesis. As you think about the overall story, the three hypothesis (and the supporting evidence) will build on each other as a “story” to answer the defined problem. There are two ways to think about doing this — using inductive or deductive reasoning:

If we go back to our profitability example from above, you would say that increasing profitability was the core issue we developed. Lets assume that through research we found that our three hypotheses were true. Given this, you may start to build a high level presentation around the following three points:

These three ideas not only are distinct but they also build on each other. Combined, they tell a story of what the company should do and how they should react. Each of these three “points” may be a separate section in the presentation followed by several pages of detailed analysis. There may also be a shorter executive summary version of 5–10 pages that gives the high level story without as much data and analysis.

Step 6: The only way to improve is to get feedback and continue to practice

Ultimately, this process is not something you will master overnight. I’ve been consulting, either working for a firm or on my own for more than 10 years and am still looking for ways to make better presentations, become more persuasive and get feedback on individual slides.

The process never ends.

The best way to improve fast is to be working on a great team . Look for people around you that do this well and ask them for feedback. The more feedback, the more iterations and more presentations you make, the better you will become. Good luck!

If you enjoyed this post, you’ll get a kick out of all the free lessons I’ve shared that go a bit deeper. Check them out here .

Do you have a toolkit for business problem solving? I created Think Like a Strategy Consultant as an online course to make the tools of strategy consultants accessible to driven professionals, executives, and consultants. This course teaches you how to synthesize information into compelling insights, structure your information in ways that help you solve problems, and develop presentations that resonate at the C-Level. Click here to learn more or if you are interested in getting started now, enroll in the self-paced version ($497) or hands-on coaching version ($997). Both versions include lifetime access and all future updates.

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The McKinsey Mind: Understanding and Implementing the Problem-Solving Tools and Management Techniques of the World's Top Strategic Consulting Firm Hardcover – October 17, 2001

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The groundbreaking follow-up to the international bestseller­­a hands-on guide to putting McKinsey techniques to work in your organization

McKinsey & Company is the most respected and most secretive consulting firm in the world, and business readers just can't seem to get enough of all things McKinsey. Now, hot on the heels of his acclaimed international bestseller The McKinsey Way , Ethan Rasiel brings readers a powerful new guide to putting McKinsey concepts and skills into action­­ The McKinsey Mind . While the first book used case studies and anecdotes from former and current McKinseyites to describe how "the firm" solves the thorniest business problems of their A-list clients, The McKinsey Mind goes a giant step further. It explains, step-by-step, how to use McKinsey tools, techniques and strategies to solve an array of core business problems and to make any business venture more successful.

Designed to work as a stand-alone guide or together with The McKinsey Way , The McKinsey Mind follows the same critically acclaimed style and format as its predecessor. In this book authors Rasiel and Friga expand upon the lessons found in The McKinsey Way with real-world examples, parables, and easy-to-do exercises designed to get readers up and running.

• Print length 272 pages
• Language English
• Publisher McGraw Hill
• Publication date October 17, 2001
• Dimensions 6.3 x 1.1 x 9.3 inches
• ISBN-10 0071374299
• ISBN-13 978-0071374293
• See all details

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Editorial Reviews

From the back cover.

The First Step-by-Step Manual for Achieving McKinsey-Style Solutions--and Success

International bestseller The McKinsey Way provided a through-the-keyhole look at McKinsey & Co., history's most prestigious consulting firm. Now, the follow-up implementation manual, The McKinsey Mind , reveals the hands-on secrets behind the powerhouse firm's success--and discusses how executives from any field or industry can use those tactics to be more proactive and successful in their day-to-day decision-making.

Structured around interviews and frontline anecdotes from former McKinsey consultants--as well as the authors, themselves McKinsey alumni-- The McKinsey Mind explores how McKinsey tools and techniques can be applied to virtually any business problem in any setting. Immensely valuable in today's crisis-a-minute workplace, it discusses:

• Techniques for framing problems and designing analyses
• Methods for interpreting results and presenting solutions

The ability to think in a rigorous, structured manner--a McKinsey manner--is not a birthright. It can, however, be a learned behavior. Let The McKinsey Mind show you how to approach and solve problems with the skill of a McKinsey consultant and obtain the positive results that have been delivered to McKinsey clients for over a century.

McKinsey & Co. is renowned throughout the world for its ability to arrive at sharp, insightful analyses of its clients' situations then provide solutions that are as ingenious as they are effective. McKinsey succeeds almost as well as shielding its revolutionary methods from competitors' scrutiny.

Now, The McKinsey Mind pulls back the curtain to reveal the ways in which McKinsey consultants consistently deliver their magic and how those methods can be used to achieve exceptional results in companies from 10 employees to 10,000. Packed with insights and brainstorming exercises for establishing the McKinsey mind-set, this book is an in-depth guidebook for applying McKinsey methods in any industry and organizational environment.

Taking a step-by-step approach, The McKinsey Mind looks at the McKinsey mystique from every angle. Owners, executives, consultants, and team leaders can look to this comprehensive treatment for ways to:

• Follow McKinsey's MECE (mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive) line of attack
• Frame business problems to make them susceptible to rigorous fact-based analysis
• Use the same fact-based analysis--in conjunction with gut instinct--to make strategic decisions
• Conduct meaningful interviews and effectively summarize the content of those interviews
• Analyze the data to find out the "so what"
• Clearly communicate fact-based solutions to all pertinent decision makers

Because organizational problems rarely exist in a vacuum, The McKinsey Mind discusses these approaches and more to help you arrive at usable and sensible solutions. It goes straight to the source--former McKinsey consultants now in leadership positions in organizations throughout the world--to give you today's only implementation-based, solution-driven look at the celebrated McKinsey problem-solving method.

" The McKinsey Mind provides a fascinating peek at the tools, practices, and philosophies that have helped this much-admired firm develop generations of bright young MBAs into trusted corporate advisors. But the book's practical, down-to-earth advice is not just for consultants. The disciplined way in which McKinsey consultants frame issues, analyze problems, and present solutions offers valuable lessons for any practicing or aspiring manager." --Christopher A. Bartlett, Daewoo Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School

"McKinsey and Co. rescues the biggest companies from disaster by addressing every problem with its own mixture of logic-driven, hypothesis-tested analysis. The McKinsey Mind helps everyone learn how to think with the same discipline and devotion to creating business success. According to the maxim, giving a man a fish may feed him for a day, but teaching him to fish will feed him for a lifetime. Paying McKinsey to solve your problem may help you for a day, but learning how they do it should help you for a lifetime." --Peter Wayner, Author of Free For All: How Linux and the Free Software Movement Undercut The High-Tech Titans

"The McKinsey Mind unlocks the techniques of the world's preeminent consulting firm and presents them in a format that is easy to understand and even easier to implement." --Dan Nagy, Associate Dean, The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University

About the Author

Ethan M. Rasiel was a consultant in McKinsey & Co.'s New York office. His clients included major companies in finance, telecommunications, computing, and consumer goods sectors. Prior to joining McKinsey, Rasiel, who earned an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, was an equity fund manager at Mercury Asset Management in London, as well as an investment banker.

Paul N. Friga worked for McKinsey & Co. in the Pittsburgh office after receiving his MBA from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina. He has conducted consulting projects relating to international expansion, acquisition and strategic planning, education, water, and other industries. He has also consulted for Price Waterhouse. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Strategy at Kenan-Flagler and is Acting Director of the North Carolina Knowledge Management Center.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ McGraw Hill; First Edition (October 17, 2001)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0071374299
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0071374293
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.3 x 1.1 x 9.3 inches
• #30 in Consulting
• #747 in Business Management (Books)
• #1,076 in Leadership & Motivation

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Romulus’s Substack

The mckinsey problem solving approach to consulting: a comprehensive guide, by: jason branin.

In the realm of management consulting, McKinsey & Company stands out as a beacon of excellence and innovation. Since its founding in 1926 by James O. McKinsey, the firm has grown to become one of the most prestigious and influential consulting firms in the world. Central to McKinsey's success is its unique problem-solving approach, which has not only shaped the firm’s own practices but has also significantly influenced the broader consulting industry. This article delves into the intricacies of the McKinsey Problem Solving Approach, exploring its methodologies, tools, and the impact it has on delivering high-value solutions to clients.

The Essence of the McKinsey Problem Solving Approach

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At its core, the McKinsey Problem Solving Approach is a structured methodology designed to tackle complex business challenges through a combination of rigorous analysis, strategic thinking, and practical recommendations. This approach is characterized by its systematic nature, emphasizing clarity, precision, and thoroughness in every step of the problem-solving process. The primary objective is to deliver actionable insights and sustainable solutions that drive tangible results for clients.

Key Components of the McKinsey Problem Solving Approach

1. Defining the Problem

The first and most crucial step in the McKinsey Problem Solving Approach is defining the problem. This involves clearly articulating the issue at hand, setting the boundaries for the analysis, and establishing the objectives of the engagement. McKinsey consultants use a structured framework known as the “problem statement” to capture the essence of the challenge. A well-defined problem statement typically includes:

- Context: The background information and relevant facts about the client and the issue.

- Objective: The desired outcome or goal of the analysis.

- Scope: The boundaries and constraints of the problem.

- Hypotheses: Initial assumptions or potential solutions that will be tested during the analysis.

By investing time and effort in defining the problem accurately, McKinsey ensures that the subsequent analysis is focused, relevant, and aligned with the client’s needs.

2. Disaggregating the Problem

Once the problem is defined, the next step is to break it down into smaller, manageable components. This process, known as disaggregation, allows consultants to tackle each part of the problem systematically. McKinsey employs the MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive) principle to ensure that all aspects of the problem are covered without any overlap or gaps. The MECE framework helps in organizing information logically and ensures that the analysis is comprehensive.

For example, if the problem involves improving a company's profitability, McKinsey might disaggregate it into components such as revenue enhancement, cost reduction, and operational efficiency. Each of these components is then further broken down into sub-components, allowing for a detailed and focused analysis.

3. Conducting the Analysis

The analysis phase is where McKinsey's analytical rigor comes to the fore. This phase involves gathering data, testing hypotheses, and developing insights. McKinsey consultants use a variety of tools and techniques to conduct their analysis, including:

- Benchmarking: Comparing the client’s performance against industry standards or best practices.

- Financial Modeling: Building detailed models to simulate different scenarios and their financial impact.

-Root Cause Analysis: Identifying the underlying causes of the problem rather than just addressing the symptoms.

-Scenario Planning: Exploring different future scenarios to anticipate potential challenges and opportunities.

Data-driven decision-making is a hallmark of McKinsey’s approach. The firm places a strong emphasis on using quantitative data to support its findings and recommendations. This ensures that the solutions proposed are not only theoretically sound but also practically viable.

4. Synthesizing Insights

After conducting the analysis, the next step is to synthesize the insights and draw conclusions. This involves distilling the vast amount of data and information into clear, actionable insights that address the client’s problem. McKinsey consultants use the “Pyramid Principle,” a communication technique developed by Barbara Minto, a former McKinsey consultant, to present their findings. The Pyramid Principle advocates starting with the main conclusion or recommendation and then supporting it with key arguments and data.

This top-down approach ensures that the most important insights are communicated upfront, making it easier for clients to understand and act upon the recommendations. It also helps in structuring complex information in a logical and coherent manner.

5. Developing Recommendations

Based on the synthesized insights, McKinsey consultants develop specific recommendations for the client. These recommendations are not just theoretical ideas but practical, actionable steps that the client can implement to address the problem. McKinsey places a strong emphasis on creating “value-driven” recommendations that deliver measurable impact.

To ensure the recommendations are actionable, McKinsey follows a few guiding principles:

- Feasibility: Ensuring that the recommendations are realistic and can be implemented within the client’s constraints.

- Sustainability: Focusing on long-term solutions that deliver sustained benefits rather than short-term fixes.

- Client Buy-in: Engaging the client throughout the process to ensure they understand and are committed to the recommendations.

6. Implementing Solutions

The final step in the McKinsey Problem Solving Approach is implementing the solutions. McKinsey often works closely with clients to support the implementation phase, ensuring that the recommendations are executed effectively. This involves developing detailed implementation plans, setting up monitoring mechanisms, and providing ongoing support and guidance.

McKinsey’s commitment to implementation reflects its philosophy of “seeing it through.” The firm recognizes that the true value of its consulting services lies not just in developing insightful recommendations but in helping clients achieve tangible results.

Tools and Techniques in the McKinsey Problem Solving Approach

McKinsey employs a wide range of tools and techniques to support its problem-solving approach. Some of the most commonly used tools include:

1. The Issue Tree

The Issue Tree is a visual representation of the problem and its sub-components. It helps in organizing the problem into a hierarchical structure, making it easier to identify the key issues and areas of focus. The Issue Tree is typically used during the disaggregation phase to break down the problem into smaller, manageable parts.

2. The Decision Tree

The Decision Tree is a tool used to map out different decision paths and their potential outcomes. It helps in evaluating the implications of different choices and identifying the most optimal decision. The Decision Tree is particularly useful in scenarios where there are multiple possible solutions or courses of action.

3. The Hypothesis Pyramid

The Hypothesis Pyramid is a tool used to structure hypotheses in a logical manner. It helps in organizing hypotheses into a hierarchy, with the main hypothesis at the top and supporting hypotheses underneath. This tool is used to guide the analysis and ensure that all relevant hypotheses are tested systematically.

4. The MECE Framework

The MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive) framework is a key principle in the McKinsey Problem Solving Approach. It ensures that all aspects of the problem are covered without any overlap or gaps. The MECE framework is used during the disaggregation phase to organize information logically and comprehensively.

5. The Pyramid Principle

The Pyramid Principle is a communication technique used to present findings and recommendations in a clear and structured manner. It advocates starting with the main conclusion or recommendation and then supporting it with key arguments and data. This top-down approach ensures that the most important insights are communicated upfront.

The Impact of the McKinsey Problem Solving Approach

The McKinsey Problem Solving Approach has had a profound impact on the field of management consulting and beyond. Some of the key impacts include:

1. Driving Business Success

McKinsey’s structured and rigorous approach to problem-solving has helped countless organizations achieve significant improvements in performance and profitability. By providing data-driven insights and practical recommendations, McKinsey has enabled clients to address complex challenges and capitalize on new opportunities.

2. Setting Industry Standards

McKinsey’s methodologies and best practices have set industry standards for consulting. Many of the tools and techniques developed by McKinsey, such as the MECE framework and the Pyramid Principle, have become widely adopted across the consulting industry. McKinsey’s emphasis on analytical rigor and strategic thinking has influenced the way consulting firms approach problem-solving.

3. Fostering Innovation

McKinsey’s approach to problem-solving fosters innovation by encouraging consultants to think creatively and challenge conventional wisdom. The firm’s focus on developing hypotheses and testing them systematically promotes a culture of experimentation and continuous improvement. This has led to the development of innovative solutions that drive business success.

4. Building Client Capabilities

McKinsey’s commitment to implementation and client engagement helps build the capabilities of client organizations. By working closely with clients throughout the problem-solving process, McKinsey ensures that clients not only achieve immediate results but also develop the skills and knowledge to sustain improvements over the long term.

The McKinsey Problem Solving Approach is a testament to the firm’s commitment to excellence and innovation. Its structured methodology, emphasis on analytical rigor, and focus on delivering actionable insights have made McKinsey a trusted advisor to some of the world’s most successful organizations. By continually refining its approach and embracing new tools and techniques, McKinsey remains at the forefront of the consulting industry, helping clients navigate complex challenges and achieve sustainable growth.

As businesses continue to face an ever-changing landscape, the principles and practices of the McKinsey Problem Solving Approach will remain highly relevant. Its focus on defining the problem accurately, conducting rigorous analysis, and developing practical recommendations provides a robust framework for tackling the most pressing business issues. For organizations seeking to drive performance and innovation, embracing the McKinsey Problem Solving Approach can be a powerful catalyst for success.

If you are looking to continue this conversation or are looking for some advice, please, feel free to reach out to me at [email protected].

Ready for more?

"The McKinsey Way" Book: A Comprehensive Summary

The McKinsey Way is a book by Ethan M. Rasiel , published in 1999, about what McKinsey&Company does, how McKinsey organizes and what working at McKinsey is like.

20 years after publication, the book still holds significant value, offering timeless insights into the world’s most prestigious management consulting firm: McKinsey&Company. In this article, we’ll provide a detailed summary of all the lessons and insights from The McKinsey way . We’ll re-organize the content and occasionally insert supporting insights to make it more friendly to the reader.

The McKinsey Way has 5 Parts (Sections) with 180 pages:

• Part 1: The Problem Solving Methodology of McKinsey

Part 2: Logistics of how a McKinsey project works

Part 3: insights into the actual works of consultants, part 4: how to excel as a junior consultant, part 5: exit opportunities and life after mckinsey.

Table of Contents

Part 1: The McKinsey problem-solving methodology

The McKinsey problem-solving process can be summarized in the 5 steps: define the problems, find the root cause, use “hypothesis-driven” process, analyze with “issue tree” and propose solutions.

1. Define the problem: Every consulting project revolves around a “problem”. But the “problem” is NOT always the problem!

One symptom may have different causes and we as doctors should never rely on the patient to diagnose.

So, always dig deeper. Get facts. Asks questions. Poke around. Challenge the client… until you find the real problem.

2. Find the root cause: Don’t jump straight to the solution, because you might just be fixing the symptoms. The problem will come back if the root cause is not properly dealt with.

3. Use “hypothesis-driven” process: Make educated guesses of possible root-cause A B C and test with data (a.k.a: facts). We’ll sometimes call this a fact-based process.

4. Break down and structure the analysis with the “ issue tree ” framework: A “hypothesis-driven” process may take forever as there are millions of possible root-causes. We need to test hypotheses from the top to the bottom of the issue tree – a top-down fashion. These issue trees need to be MECE.

5. Propose solutions: When the root causes are identified, consultants propose solutions targeting them directly.

A few notes when using this methodology

No.1: Don’t force the facts to say what you want.

When you propose or work extensively with a running hypothesis , it’s easy to get emotionally attached and turn the problem-solving process into a proving exercise. So keep an open mind and listen to what the data have to say.

No.2: Let the hypothesis come to you naturally.

You will not be able to form an initial hypothesis every time. The clients may not even know their problems. The scope of the project is often large and vague. So, dive in, gather facts, conduct analyses, and the hypotheses will show themselves.

No.3: Don’t reinvent the wheel.

Business problems often resemble each other more than they differ. With suitable techniques, you can apply what you and the firm learned from other projects. After all, one of the values consulting firms bring is to provide the “best practice” – what the top players in the game are doing

No.4: Make sure your solution fits your client.

The most brilliant solution is useless without proper implementation. So know your client’s weaknesses, strengths, and capabilities and tailor your solutions accordingly.

No.5: Be mindful of politics.

There are always politics in projects. Many times, McKinsey gets involved in fights between corporate factions. This creates friction that prevents you from doing your job (late data; rejected interviews, etc.).

So think about how your solutions affect the players in an organization and always build a consensus along the way. If consensus requires you to change your solution, try to compromise. It’s no good devising the ideal solution if the client refuses to accept it.

It’s highly recommended that you refer to the following video for a general view on how McKinsey organizes and a better understanding of the insights from this part.

There is a whole system behind how McKinsey solve a business problem. In this part of The McKinsey Way, Ethan Rasiel describes how the company sells their projects, builds a team and manages its hierarchy.

Selling a study/project

McKinsey typically does not sell. The firm does marketing through a constant stream of books, articles, and scholarly journals like the McKinsey Quarterly, etc. The Firm also invites organize press releases and generates quite some coverage by journalists.

These publications help McKinsey Partners build and nurture a vast network of informal contacts with potential clients. And when a problem arises, the client knows who to contact.

Assembling a team

Almost all projects need a full-time team of consultants. Typically, the process goes like this:

• The ED (a.k.a: Project Owner) signs a contract with the client
• The ED hires an EM from within the McKinsey network, from any offices (a.k.a: Project CEO)
• The EM then hires a group of staff, consisting of BAs (a.k.a: Business Analyst) and Associates.

It’s solely the EM’s responsibility to keep the team happy and functional. McKinsey projects have a few common practices to do so:

• A monthly “team-bonding”. 
• A “team temperature” (a.k.a: morale) weekly survey.

The hierarchy

The chain of command in McKinsey is very clear and strict. So is the responsibility funnel. In the ED’s eyes, the EM is responsible for everything in the project. In the EM eyes, the BA is responsible for everything within the assigned workstream. Even when a BA messes things up, to the ED, it’s not the BA’s fault, but the EM.

To provide the best solution for the clients, consultants need tons of skills in preparing presentations; conducting researchs and interviews; presenting the final products in a simple structure; communicating with clients; and brainstorming.

Making presentations, a.k.a: the final deliverable documents

Most consultants spend a big portion of their time making presentations (often in PowerPoint). Utilize the support team! Keep it structured, from top to bottom, from end to end.

Note that there are diminishing marginal returns to your effort, meaning that the last miles toward perfection are always much harder than the beginning. So, resist the temptation to tweak your presentation at the last minute. Try to assess its gains vs those of a good night’s sleep for you and the supporting cast.

Visualizing data with charts and exhibits

We subconsciously admire the people who talk in sophisticated language, so we make complex charts. However, simple and easy-to-follow charts go a long way in consulting. Charts are just a means of getting your messages across, not a Ph.D. project.

Also, don’t forget to:

• Write clear chart titles
• List out units of measurement in all axes
• Mark legends and side notes
• Provide data sources

Managing internal communications

• Over-communication is always better. Keep that information flowing. Make sure that your team is up to date with at least the broad outlines of your workstream and your boss up to date with your team’s progress. There are many channels for this: email, voicemail, messaging, small talks during cigarette breaks, meetings, etc.
• Keep your communication brief, yet comprehensive and structured.
• Look over your shoulder – always. You never know who is listening. Remember that your client’s confidentiality is a must.

Working with clients

This is a big one as the true hierarchy at McKinsey is “Client -> Firm -> and then You”. The client is your biggest boss.

There are many tips on client management, but the general principle is to bring the client to your side. You never win by opposing the client. Remind them about mutual benefits. Do it everyday!

Some of the client members can be “liabilities”. There are 2 types of them:

• the merely “useless”.
• the hostile ones. 

With both types, the number 1 option is to subtly trade them out of your realm. When that is not possible, the next best option is to play ignorant. Leak out information only with the right “secret audience”.

No matter what, engage the client members in the process. The more they feel everybody is on the same boat, the more they would support you.

You should also get buy-ins throughout the organization along the process. Every important party has to agree with you. Ideally, the final document has already been discussed many times through many rounds with the client before the official presentation.

Doing research

Don’t reinvent the wheel! Whatever you are doing, chances are that someone, somewhere has done something similar. Building upon someone’s work is the best way to save time and energy while achieving the highest standard.

Besides, here are some research tips:     

• Start with the annual report. All public companies have them available on their website.
• Look for abnormal patterns (things that are especially good or bad). That’s where all the insights lie.
• Last but not least, look for the best practice. Find out what the best performers in the field are doing and learn from them.

Conducting interviews

This is one of the most effective ways to gather qualitative facts during a project. You will find yourself interviewing multiple industry and function experts as well as key client leaders.

Here are a few tips:

• Be prepared. Know exactly what you want to get out of it. Know as much as you can about the interviewee. Writing an interview brief for yourself is not a bad idea.
• If possible, have the interviewee’s boss set up the meeting.
• Start with some general and open-ended questions then move on to specific ones. Let the content flow naturally.
• Sometimes, it’s useful to use the indirect style. Take time to make the interviewee comfortable with you and the interview process.   
• Include some questions you know the answer to. This gives insights into the interviewee’s style, knowledge, and honesty.   
• Don’t ask too much. Focus on what you really need (what you prioritize in the interview brief).
• Listen and let the interviewee know you are doing so. 
• Paraphrase what you hear in your own words. Confirm whether you understand correctly. This also gives chances for the interviewee to add or amplify important points.
• Near the end, use this last trick to flush out any possible missing insights: “Is there anything else you would like to tell or any question I forgot to ask…?”.       
• Adopt the Columbo tactic. Wait until a day or two passes, then drop by the interviewee’s office. “I was just passing by and remembered a question I forgot to ask”. This is a less threatening way to keep the conversation going.
• Lastly, always write a thank-you note. A short and sincerely one always does the work.

Brainstorming at McKinsey

In McKinsey, we often use the word “Problem-Solving” interchangeably with brainstorming sessions. It’s a very topic-focus meeting within the McKinsey team, consisting of the consultant in-charge, the EM, and sometimes even the ED and experts.

Before the session, prepare in advance as much supporting data as possible. It will come handy in the process.Inside the White room: Start with tabula rasa — a clean slate. When you get your team into the room, leave your preconceptions at the door. Bring in only the facts, and find new ways of looking at them.

Management consulting is an interesting yet challenging job. To survive and thrive at McKinsey, here are some advices for you:

Tip 1: Find your own mentor

At McKinsey, every consultant is officially assigned a mentor, who may not be in the same office. How much you benefit from the official mentor is pretty much a matter of luck. If you want great guidance, you have to go out and get your own. Get a few too, don’t stick to just one.

Tip 2: Survive the road                                 

Business travel can be exhausting and difficult, here are some note you can take to deal with it:

• Look at business travel as an adventure.
• Do proper planning. These simple logistics can make a big difference
• Treat everyone with tremendous respect

Tip 3: Have a list of items to bring when traveling

Here is the list:

• Clothing: extra shirts or blouses, spare ties, spare shoes, casual clothes, cashmere sweaters
• Tools: writing pad, copy of whatever you send to the client, calculator
• Personal care Items
• Things to keep you organized and in touch

Tip 4: Treat your assistant well

Having a good assistant is a lifeline. Treat them well. Be clear about what you want. Give them room to grow. Take time to train them well. Answering their questions and showing them the ropes.

Tip 5: Have boundaries to keep your life balance

Since you have a large amount of work to cover as a consultant, there is almost no work-life balance. However, if you want a life, lay down some rules. For example:

• Make one day a week to be completely free of work, both physically and mentally. Tell your boss about it! He/she will respect it. And so should you.
• Don’t take work home. When you are home, you are home!
• Plan long ahead, especially when you travel.

Tip 6: The 80 / 20 Rule

80% of the wealth is owned by just 20% of the population. 80% of the output can be produced by 20% of the effort. 20% of the problems can cause 80% of the trouble.

So if you wanna save time and effort. Always try to find those 20% and act upon them!

Tip 7: Don’t try to analyze everything

If you don’t take shortcuts, there is simply too much to do. Be selective. Find the key drivers. Focus on the core problem, then apply analysis. This helps avoid going down blind alleys and boiling the ocean.

Tip 8: The Elevator Test                             

Concise communication is crucial in consulting. Anytime the EM asks you for your workstream status, you have to be able to give him a 30 seconds summary. Short yet insightful. This skill takes practice. Try doing it every day in various contexts!

Tip 9: Pluck the Low-Hanging Fruit 

Solving only part of the problem can still mean increased profits. Those little wins help you and your customers. Try to see such opportunities and grab them first.

Tip 10: Hit singles                           

Get your job and only your job done, don’t try to do the work of the whole team.

It’s impossible to do everything yourself all the time. Even if you manage to pull it off once, you raise unrealistic expectations and once you fail, it is difficult to get back credibility.

Tip 11: Look at the big picture

When you are feeling swamped, take a step back, figure out what you are trying to achieve, and then look at what you are doing. “Does this really matter?”

Probably not! All of these troubles will go away!

Tip 12: Just say “I don’t know”

The firm pounds the concept of professional integrity: Honesty. If you don’t know something, just say “I DON’T KNOW” in an empowering fashion. Admitting that is a lot less costly than bluffing.

“Leaving McKinsey is never a question of whether—it’s a question of when”

There are not many people who stay with McKinsey for their whole career life. In the last part of The McKinsey Way , Ethan Rasiel and other ex-McKinsey consultants share their valuable lessons and memories from working at the company.

• “Structure, structure, structure. MECE, MECE, MECE. Hypothesis-driven, Hypothesis-driven, Hypothesis-driven.” – Former associate in Dusseldorf and San Francisco offices
• “The quality of the people. In the corporate world, the average-caliber employee is far below McKinsey’s least intelligent.” – Wesley Sand
• “What stays with me is the rigorous standard of information and analysis, the proving and double-proving of every recommendation, combined with the high standard of communication both to clients and within the Firm.” – Former associate in the Boston and New York offices
• “When faced with an amorphous situation, apply structure to it.” – Kristin Asleson, New York office, 1990-93; now working in Silicon Valley
• “Execution and implementation are the key. A blue book is just a blue book, unless you do something with it. Getting things done is the most important thing.” – Former EM in the New York office

Scoring in the McKinsey PSG/Digital Assessment

The scoring mechanism in the McKinsey Digital Assessment

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Among MBB firms, people tend to say McKinsey is slightly better than the other two in three factors: prestige, people, practices, and offices

At McKinsey, the salary for entry-level consultants ranges from $90,000 to $110,000/year, while the figure for experienced Associates can go up to $233,000

McKinsey hiring process including 3 phases: resume screening, PST test, and case interview. Each candidate will have to undergo 4-6 interviews during 4-8 weeks

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Mckinsey approach to problem solving, a guide to the 7-step mckinsey problem solving process.

McKinsey and Company is recognized for its rigorous approach to problem solving. They train their consultants on their seven-step process that anyone can learn.

This resource guides you through that process, largely informed by the McKinsey Staff Paper 66. It also includes a PowerPoint Toolkit with slide templates of each step of the process that you can download and customize for your own use.

In this guide you'll learn:

Overview of the mckinsey approach to problem solving, problem solving process, problem definition.

• Problem Statement

Stakeholder Analysis Worksheet

Structure the problem, hypothesis trees, issue trees, analyses and workplan, synthesize findings, craft recommendations, communicate, distinctiveness practices, harness the power of collaboration, sources and additional reading, request the mckinsey approach to problem solving.

Problem solving — finding the optimal solution to a given business opportunity or challenge — is the very heart of how consultants create client impact, and considered the most important skill for success at McKinsey.

The characteristic “McKinsey method” of problem solving is a structured, inductive approach that can be used to solve any problem. Using this standardized process saves us from reinventing the problem-solving wheel, and allows for greater focus on distinctiveness in the solution. Every new McKinsey associate must learn this method on his or her first day with the firm.

There are four fundamental disciplines of the McKinsey method:

1. Problem definition

A thorough understanding and crisp definition of the problem.

2. The problem-solving process

Structuring the problem, prioritizing the issues, planning analyses, conducting analyses, synthesizing findings, and developing recommendations.

3. Distinctiveness practices

Constructing alternative perspectives; identifying relationships; distilling the essence of an issue, analysis, or recommendation; and staying ahead of others in the problem-solving process.

4. Collaboratio n

Actively seeking out client, customer, and supplier perspectives, as well as internal and external expert insight and knowledge.

Once the problem has been defined, the problem-solving process proceeds with a series of steps:

• Structure the problem
• Prioritize the issues
• Plan analyses
• Conduct analyses
• Synthesize findings
• Develop recommendations

Not all problems require strict adherence to the process. Some steps may be truncated, such as when specific knowledge or analogies from other industries make it possible to construct hypotheses and associated workplans earlier than their formal place in the process. Nonetheless, it remains important to be capable of executing every step in the basic process.

When confronted with a new and complex problem, this process establishes a path to defining and disaggregating the problem in a way that will allow the team to move to a solution. The process also ensures nothing is missed and concentrates efforts on the highest-impact areas. Adhering to the process gives the client clear steps to follow, building confidence, credibility, and long-term capability.

The most important step in your entire project is to first carefully define the problem. The problem definition will serve the guide all of the team’s work, so it is critical to ensure that all key stakeholders agree that it is the right problem to be solving.

The problem definition will serve the guide all of the team’s work, so it is critical to ensure that all key stakeholders agree that it is the right problem to be solving.

There are often dozens of issues that a team could focus on, and it is often not obvious how to define the problem.

In any real-life situation, there are many possible problem statements. Your choice of problem statement will serve to constrain the range of possible solutions.

Constraints can be a good thing (e.g., limit solutions to actions within the available budget.) And constraints can be a bad thing (e.g., eliminating the possibility of creative ideas.) So choose wisely.

The problem statement may ignore many issues to focus on the priority that should be addressed. The problem statement should be phrased as a question, such that the answer will be the solution.

Example scenario – A family on Friday evening :

A mother, a father, and their two teenage children have all arrived home on a Friday at 6 p.m. The family has not prepared dinner for Friday evening. The daughter has lacrosse practice on Saturday and an essay to write for English class due on Monday. The son has theatre rehearsal on both Saturday and Sunday and will need one parent to drive him to the high school both days, though he can get a ride home with a friend.

The family dog, a poodle, must be taken to the groomer on Saturday morning. The mother will need to spend time this weekend working on assignments for her finance class she is taking as part of her Executive MBA. The father plans to go on a 100-mile bike ride, which he can do either Saturday or Sunday. The family has two cars, but one is at the body shop. They are trying to save money to pay for an addition to their house.

Potential problem definitions – A family on Friday evening :

The problem definition should not be vague, without clear measures of success. Rather, it should be a SMART definition:

• Action-oriented

Given one set of facts, it is possible to come up with many possible problem statements. The choice of problem statement constrains the range of possible solutions.

Before starting to solve the problem, the family first needs to agree on what problem they want to solve.

• What should the family do for dinner on Friday night?
• How can the family schedule their activities this weekend to accomplish everything planned given that they only have one vehicle available?
• How can the family increase income or reduce expenses to allow them to save $75K over the next 12 months to pay for the planned addition to their house?

Problem Statement Worksheet

This is a helpful tool to use to clearly define the problem. There are often dozens of issues that a team could focus on, and it is often not obvious how to define the problem. In any real-life situation, there are many possible problem statements. Your choice of problem statement will serve to constrain the range of possible solutions.

• Use a question . The problem statement should be phrased as a question, such that the answer will be the solution. Make the question SMART: specific, measurable, action-oriented, relevant, and time-bound. Example: “How can XYZ Bank close the $100 million profitability gap in two years?”
• Context . What are the internal and external situations and complications facing the client, such as industry trends, relative position within the industry, capability gaps, financial flexibility, and so on?
• Success criteria . Understand how the client and the team define success and failure. In addition to any quantitative measures identified in the basic question, identify other important quantitative or qualitative measures of success, including timing of impact, visibility of improvement, client capability building required, necessary mindset shifts, and so on.
• Scope and constraints . Scope most commonly covers the markets or segments of interest, whereas constraints govern restrictions on the nature of solutions within those markets or segments.
• Stakeholders . Explore who really makes the decisions — who decides, who can help, and who can block.
• Key sources of insight . What best-practice expertise, knowledge, and engagement approaches already exist? What knowledge from the client, suppliers, and customers needs to be accessed? Be as specific as possible: who, what, when, how, and why.

In completing the Problem Statement Worksheet, you are prompted to define the key stakeholders.

As you become involved in the problem-solving process, you should expand the question of key stakeholders to include what the team wants from them and what they want from the team, their values and motivations (helpful and unhelpful), and the communications mechanisms that will be most effective for each of them.

Using the Stakeholder Analysis Worksheet allows you to comprehensively identify:

• Stakeholders
• What you need from them
• Where they are
• What they need from you

The two most helpful techniques for rigorously structuring any problem are hypothesis trees and issue trees. Each of these techniques disaggregates the primary question into a cascade of issues or hypotheses that, when addressed, will together answer the primary question.

A hypothesis tree might break down the same question into two or more hypotheses. 

The aim at this stage is to structure the problem into discrete, mutually exclusive pieces that are small enough to yield to analysis and that, taken together, are collectively exhaustive.

Articulating the problem as hypotheses, rather than issues, is the preferred approach because it leads to a more focused analysis of the problem. Questions to ask include:

• Is it testable – can you prove or disprove it?
• It is open to debate? If it cannot be wrong, it is simply a statement of fact and unlikely to produce keen insight.
• If you reversed your hypothesis – literally, hypothesized that the exact opposite were true – would you care about the difference it would make to your overall logic?
• If you shared your hypothesis with the CEO, would it sound naive or obvious?
• Does it point directly to an action or actions that the client might take?

Quickly developing a powerful hypothesis tree enables us to develop solutions more rapidly that will have real impact. This can sometimes seem premature to clients, who might find the “solution” reached too quickly and want to see the analysis behind it.

Take care to explain the approach (most important, that a hypothesis is not an answer) and its benefits (that a good hypothesis is the basis of a proven means of successful problem solving and avoids “boiling the ocean”).

Example: Alpha Manufacturing, Inc.

Problem Statement: How can Alpha increase EBITDA by $13M (to $50M) by 2025?

The hypotheses might be:

• Alpha can add $125M revenues by expanding to new customers, adding $8M of EBITDA
• Alpha can reduce costs to improve EBITDA by $5M

These hypotheses will be further disaggregated into subsidiary hypotheses at the next level of the tree.

Often, the team has insufficient knowledge to build a complete hypothesis tree at the start of an engagement. In these cases, it is best to begin by structuring the problem using an issue tree.

An issue tree is best set out as a series of open questions in sentence form. For example, “How can the client minimize its tax burden?” is more useful than “Tax.” Open questions – those that begin with what, how, or why– produce deeper insights than closed ones. In some cases, an issue tree can be sharpened by toggling between issue and hypothesis – working forward from an issue to identify the hypothesis, and back from the hypothesis to sharpen the relevant open question.

Once the problem has been structured, the next step is to prioritize the issues or hypotheses on which the team will focus its work. When prioritizing, it is common to use a two-by-two matrix – e.g., a matrix featuring “impact” and “ease of impact” as the two axes.

Applying some of these prioritization criteria will knock out portions of the issue tree altogether. Consider testing the issues against them all, albeit quickly, to help drive the prioritization process.

Once the criteria are defined, prioritizing should be straightforward: Simply map the issues to the framework and focus on those that score highest against the criteria.

As the team conducts analysis and learns more about the problem and the potential solution, make sure to revisit the prioritization matrix so as to remain focused on the highest-priority issues.

The issues might be:

• How can Alpha increase revenue?
• How can Alpha reduce cost?

Each of these issues is then further broken down into deeper insights to solutions.

If the prioritization has been carried out effectively, the team will have clarified the key issues or hypotheses that must be subjected to analysis. The aim of these analyses is to prove the hypotheses true or false, or to develop useful perspectives on each key issue. Now the task is to design an effective and efficient workplan for conducting the analyses.

Transforming the prioritized problem structure into a workplan involves two main tasks:

• Define the blocks of work that need to be undertaken. Articulate as clearly as possible the desired end products and the analysis necessary to produce them, and estimate the resources and time required.
• Sequence the work blocks in a way that matches the available resources to the need to deliver against key engagement milestones (e.g., important meetings, progress reviews), as well as to the overall pacing of the engagement (i.e., weekly or twice-weekly meetings, and so on).

A good workplan will detail the following for each issue or hypothesis: analyses, end products, sources, and timing and responsibility. Developing the workplan takes time; doing it well requires working through the definition of each element of the workplan in a rigorous and methodical fashion.

It’s useful to match the workplan to three horizons:

• What is expected at the end of the engagement
• What is expected at key progress reviews
• What is due at daily and/or weekly team meetings

The detail in the workplan will typically be greater for the near term (the next week) than for the long term (the study horizon), especially early in a new engagement when considerable ambiguity about the end state remains.

Here are three different templates for a workplan:

This is the most difficult element of the problem-solving process. After a period of being immersed in the details, it is crucial to step back and distinguish the important from the merely interesting. Distinctive problem solvers seek the essence of the story that will underpin a crisp recommendation for action.

Although synthesis appears, formally speaking, as the penultimate step in the process, it should happen throughout. Ideally, after you have made almost any analytical progress, you should attempt to articulate the “Day 1” or “Week 1” answer. Continue to synthesize as you go along. This will remind the team of the question you are trying to answer, assist prioritization, highlight the logical links of the emerging solution, and ensure that you have a story ready to articulate at all times during the study.

McKinsey’s primary tool for synthesizing is the pyramid principle. Essentially, this principle asserts that every synthesis should explain a single concept, per the “governing thought.” The supporting ideas in the synthesis form a thought hierarchy proceeding in a logical structure from the most detailed facts to the governing thought, ruthlessly excluding the interesting but irrelevant.

While this hierarchy can be laid out as a tree (like with issue and hypothesis trees), the best problem solvers capture it by creating dot-dash storylines — the Pyramid Structure for Grouping Arguments.

Pyramid Structure for Grouping Arguments

• Focus on action. Articulate the thoughts at each level of the pyramid as declarative sentences, not as topics. For example, “expansion” is a topic; “We need to expand into the European market” is a declarative sentence.
• Use storylines. PowerPoint is poor at highlighting logical connections, therefore is not a good tool for synthesis. A storyline will clarify elements that may be ambiguous in the PowerPoint presentation.
• Keep the emerging storyline visible. Many teams find that posting the storyline or story- board on the team-room wall helps keep the thinking focused. It also helps in bringing the client along.
• Use the situation-complication-resolution structure. The situation is the reason there is action to be taken. The com- plication is why the situation needs thinking through – typically an industry or client challenge. The resolution is the answer.
• Down the pyramid: does each governing thought pose a single question that is answered completely by the group of boxes below it?
• Across: is each level within the pyramid MECE?
• Up: does each group of boxes, taken together, provide one answer – one “so what?” – that is essentially the governing thought above it?
• Test the solution. What would it mean if your hypotheses all came true?

It is at this point that we address the client’s questions: “What do I do, and how do I do it?” This means not offering actionable recommendations, along with a plan and client commitment for implementation.

The essence of this step is to translate the overall solution into the actions required to deliver sustained impact. A pragmatic action plan should include:

• Relevant initiatives, along with a clear sequence, timing, and mapping of activities required
• Clear owners for each initiative
• Key success factors and the challenges involved in delivering on the initiatives

Crucial questions to ask as you build recommendations for organizational change are:

• Does each person who needs to change (from the CEO to the front line) understand what he or she needs to change and why, and is he or she committed to it?
• Are key leaders and role models throughout the organization personally committed to behaving differently?
• Has the client set in place the necessary formal mechanisms to reinforce the desired change?
• Does the client have the skills and confidence to behave in the desired new way?

Once the recommendations have been crafted in the problem-solving process, it’s vital to effectively communicate those findings and recommendations.

An executive summary is a great slide to use for this. See more on executive summary slides, including 30 templates, at our Ultimate Guide to Executive Summary Slides .

Great problem solvers identify unique disruptions and discontinuities, novel insights, and step-out opportunities that lead to truly distinctive impact. This is done by applying a number of practices throughout the problem-solving process to help develop these insights.

Expand: Construct multiple perspectives

Identifying alternative ways of looking at the problem expands the range of possibilities, opens you up to innovative ideas, and allows you to formulate more powerful hypotheses. Questions that help here include:

• What changes if I think from the perspective of a customer, or a supplier, or a frontline employee, or a competitor?
• How have other industries viewed and addressed this same problem?
• What would it mean if the client sought to run the company like a low-cost airline or a cosmetics manufacturer?

Link: Identify relationships

Strong problem solvers discern connections and recognize patterns in two different ways:

• They seek out the ways in which different problem elements – issues, hypotheses, analyses, work elements, findings, answers, and recommendations – relate to one another.
• They use these relationships throughout the basic problem-solving process to identify efficient problem-solving approaches, novel solutions, and more powerful syntheses.

Distill: Find the essence

Cutting through complexity to identify the heart of the problem and its solution is a critical skill.

• Identify the critical problem elements. Are there some issues, approaches, or options that can be eliminated completely because they won’t make a significant difference to the solution?
• Consider how complex the different elements are and how long it will take to complete them. Wherever possible, quickly advance simpler parts of the problem that can inform more complex or time-consuming elements.

Lead: Stay ahead/step back

Without getting ahead of the client, you cannot be distinctive. Paradoxically, to get ahead – and stay ahead – it is often necessary to step back from the problem to validate or revalidate the approach and the solution.

• Spend time thinking one or more steps ahead of the client and team.
• Constantly check and challenge the rigor of the underlying data and analysis.
• Stress-test the whole emerging recommendation
• Challenge the solution against a set of hurdles. Does it satisfy the criteria for success as set out on the Problem Statement Worksheet?

No matter how skilled, knowledgeable, or experienced you are, you will never create the most distinctive solution on your own. The best problem solvers know how to leverage the power of their team, clients, the Firm, and outside parties. Seeking the right expertise at the right time, and leveraging it in the right way, are ultimately how we bring distinctiveness to our work, how we maximize efficiency, and how we learn.

When solving a problem, it is important to ask, “Have I accessed all the sources of insight that are available?” Here are the sources you should consider:

• Your core team
• The client’s suppliers and customers
• Internal experts and knowledge
• External sources of knowledge
• Communications specialists

The key here is to think open, not closed. Opening up to varied sources of data and perspectives furthers our mission to develop truly innovative and distinctive solutions for our clients.

• McKinsey Staff Paper 66 — not published by McKinsey but possibly found through an internet search
• The McKinsey Way , 1999, by Ethan M. Rasiel

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25/36 : 🛠️ McKinsey's Problem-solving Process

A problem well defined is a problem half-solved — charles kettering.

Problem Solving for Product Managers

Product Managers excel in problem-solving by employing a strategic mix of analytical thinking, creative ideation, and data-driven insights. They keenly identify and comprehend customer needs, analyze market trends, and craft innovative solutions that enhance products' value and propel business growth. By addressing challenges, optimizing development processes, and aligning products with company objectives, they ensure customer demands are met efficiently and deliver successful outcomes.

Concept of problem-solving

Today's businesses want employees who can adapt to new situations rapidly and effectively.

The ideal employee is a master of basic skills such as reading, writing, and numeracy.

The ideal employee is also a master of learning, communication, critical thinking, creative thinking, and problem-solving.

The ideal employee can respond to a problem quickly, correctly, and with little or no supervision.

If you can solve problems, you can write your own ticket for whatever job you want.

Defining Problem-Solving

Problems can be classified into puzzle problems, well-structured problems, and ill-structured problems.

Simple Problems Many games contain puzzle problems and are not "serious" in nature, nor is there any real-life consequence for failing to solve them.

Well-structured Problems Some problems which are simple and well-defined are called well-structured problems and include a set number of possible solutions - solutions are either 100% right or 100% wrong. An example of a well-structured problem is a typical mathematical (2 + 2 = 4) question. This question has a definitive correct answer.

Ill-structured Problems In contrast to well-structured problems are ill-structured problems. In these cases, problems may have many possible answers because they are complex and poorly defined. The "best" solutions to ill-defined problems depend on the priorities underlying the situation. What is "best" today may not be "best" tomorrow. Ill-structured problems, because they are more difficult to "solve," require the development of higher-order thinking skills and the ability to construct a convincing argument for a particular solution as opposed to all other possible solutions.

To summarize ill-structured problems:

They are complex and poorly defined.

They have many possible answers.

They do not have one best answer.

Here is an example of an ill-structured problem:

The population of your community is growing. Your water supply will not support many new people.

What do you do?

This is a complex problem. It affects the people, the environment, and the quality of life itself. To arrive at a good solution, you need to use math, science, political science, psychology, and probably more!

This problem actually occurs frequently in areas with a growing population. In one community facing this problem, more than 20 possible solutions were presented to the public. A solution was then chosen upon which the majority of the public agreed. It wasn't the "right" solution because all of the 20 possible solutions had strengths and weaknesses.

The lesson here is that ill-structured problems usually have several workable solutions. Each solution has advantages and disadvantages that depend on who is affected by the solution. The solution chosen is often the one that has the best argument for it.

3 Prerequisites for a good solution

He realized there are three essential prerequisites for good solutions:

The product must be defined to allow for the development of useful solutions. The potential solution must fit the defined problem space and product scope. The product team must have understood the problem.

Understanding the problem Whether the problem comes from your users or another set of stakeholders, you need to properly understand the problem. The only way to do that is through a combination of research, and empathy. This means gathering both qualitative and quantitative data. Find out how the user/stakeholder feels about the problem, as well as how they behave in response to it.

Communicate “The Why” As a product manager, your most important why is the customer problem that your product is trying to solve. Include your team and other stakeholders in understanding the customer problem and selecting the right goal metric to grow. This way, everyone can contribute, feel ownership, and stay motivated to solve the problem even if the product changes.

First , it helps everyone internalize “the why” so they can make decisions with the same goal in mind.

Second , if people are not aligned on “the why”, they’re more likely to bring up objections if you talk about it constantly.

Keep It Simple When communicating with others, the most critical question that you need to answer is, “Do people understand?” If people don’t understand the why, they won’t be able to execute.

Keep your communication simple, short, and specific. Check to see if people understand your message by asking them to explain it back to you

Make a risk vs reward assessment Once you know what the problem is, you need to lay the groundwork for your plan on how to proceed with solving it. Analyze the potential risks and rewards of the project. So if a stakeholder is asking that a new feature be implemented, work out how much of your team’s work hours, budget, and resources will be needed to complete the project and solve the problem.

Balance this out by seeing how the best-case scenario (eg, you completely solve the problem) will benefit your product in terms of OKRs, and the bottom line.

Define Success Defining the success of a project really boils down to the final part of your risk vs reward assessment. What does the best-case scenario look like?

If the answer isn’t obvious, think about your company’s North Star metrics, or your team’s KPIs. If the project is worthwhile, its goals should align with either, if not both, or these.

I learned to approach every problem from multiple angles. It was the combination of both qualitative and quantitative insights that led us to our proposed solution. Also, a variety of perspectives are critical.  

Learning to Ask the Right Questions: Define the Problem Statement

McKinsey’s Problem-solving process

McKinsey’s benchmark is the problem-solving process as practiced by McKinsey. At the most abstract level, McKinsey develops solutions to clients’ strategic problems and, possibly, aids in the implementation of those solutions

Business Need You can’t have problem-solving without a problem or, more broadly, a need on the part of the client. In business, those needs come in several forms: competitive, organizational, financial, and operational.

Analyzing Once your organization has identified the problem, it can begin to seek a solution, whether on its own or with the help of McKinsey (or any other outside agent). McKinsey’s fact-based, hypothesis-driven problem-solving process begins with framing the problem: defining the boundaries of the problem and breaking it down into its component elements to allow the problem-solving team to come up with an initial hypothesis as to the solution. The next step is designing the analysis, determining the analyses that must be done to prove the hypothesis, followed by gathering the data needed for the analyses. Finally comes interpreting the results of those analyses to see whether they prove or disprove the hypothesis and to develop a course of action for the client.

Presenting You may have found a solution, but it has no value until it has been communicated to and accepted by the client. For that to happen, you must structure your presentation so that it communicates your ideas clearly and concisely and generates buy-in for your solution for each individual audience to which you present.

Managing The success of the problem-solving process requires good management at several levels. The problem-solving team must be properly assembled, motivated, and developed. The client must be kept informed, involved, and inspired by both the problem-solving process and the solution. The individual team members (that’s you) must strike a balance between life and career that allows them to meet the expectations of the client and the team while not “burning out.”

Implementation Your organization may have accepted your solution, but it must still implement it. This requires the dedication of sufficient resources within the organization, the timely reaction of the organization to any stumbling blocks that may arise during implementation, and the focus of the organization on completion of the tasks necessary for full implementation. In addition, the organization must institute a process of iteration that leads to continual improvement. That process requires reassessing implementation and rededicating the organization to make additional changes identified during reassessment.

Leadership At the nexus of solution and implementation comes leadership. Those at the helm of your organization must conceive a strategic vision for the organization. They must also provide inspiration for those in the organization who will do the hands-on work of implementation. Finally, they must make the right judgments regarding the delegation of authority in overseeing implementation throughout the organization.

There is one other piece of the model: the tension between intuition and data. Problem-solving doesn’t take place in a vacuum. Even McKinsey has only so many resources to throw at a problem and a limited time in which to solve it. While we are advocates for McKinsey-style fact-based problem solving, we recognize that it’s practically impossible to have all the relevant facts before reaching a decision. Therefore, most executives make business decisions based partly on facts and partly on intuition—gut instinct tempered by experience. We will discuss the pros and cons of each element later in the book. For now, we will simply say that we think a sound decision requires a balance of both.

8 Steps to Problem-Solving from McKinsey

Solve at the first meeting with a hypothesis, intuition is as important as facts, do your research but don’t reinvent the wheel, tell the story behind the data, start with the conclusion, hit singles, respect your time.

The McKinsey problem-solving process begins with the use of structured frameworks to generate fact-based hypotheses followed by data gathering and analysis to prove or disprove the hypotheses.

Gut feeling at this stage is extremely important because we don’t have many facts yet. However, structure strengthens your thinking and ensures that your ideas will stand up. Typically, the problem-solving process would involve defining the boundaries of the problem and then breaking it down into its component elements.

The concept of MECE (pronounced “mee-see” and an acronym for Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive), is a basic tenet of the McKinsey thought process. Being MECE in the context of problem-solving means separating your problem into distinct, non-overlapping issues while making sure that no issues relevant to your problem have been overlooked. This allows to simplify the problem and plan the work because in most cases, a complex problem can be reduced to a group of smaller, simpler problems that can be solved individually.

The most common tool McKinsey people use to break problems apart is the  logic tree .

Having reduced the problem to its essential components, you are ready to embark on the next step which is framing it: forming a hypothesis as to its likely solution. By already knowing where your solution is, you eliminate a lot of paths that lead to dead ends.

Using an initial hypothesis to guide your research and analysis will increase both the efficiency and effectiveness of your decision-making because it provides you and your team with a problem-solving roadmap that will lead you to ask the right questions and perform the correct analysis to get to your answer. A good hypothesis will also save you time by pointing out potential blind alleys much more quickly and allowing you to get back to the main issues if you do go down the wrong path.

Since you should form your hypothesis at the start of the problem-solving process, you have to rely less on facts (you won’t have done most of your fact gathering yet) and more on instinct or intuition. Take what you know about the problem at hand, combine it with your gut feelings on the issue, and think about what the most likely answers are.

Executives make major strategic decisions based as much on gut instinct as on fact-based analysis.

Intuition and data complement each other. You need at least some of each to have a solid basis for your decisions. The key to striking the balance is quality over quantity.

When you form an initial hypothesis, you are “solving the problem at the first meeting.” Unfortunately, although you may think you have the answer, you have to prove it through fact-based analysis.

Your next step is to figure out which analyses you have to perform and which questions you have to ask in order to prove or disprove your hypothesis.

When your time and resources are limited, you don’t have the luxury of being able to examine every single factor in detail. Instead, when planning your analyses, figure out which factors most affect the problem and focus on those. Drill down to the core of the problem instead of picking apart each and every piece. In most situations, achieving a scientific level of exactitude for your management decisions is counterproductive.

That’s why also as one of your first steps in designing your analysis, you should figure out what not to do.

As your next step, you should decide which analyses are quick wins — easy to complete and likely to make a major contribution to proving or refuting the initial hypothesis (80/20 rule).

When doing your research, you don’t want to get as much information as possible, you want to get the most important information as quickly as possible.

With a plan of action for what to research, make sure you don’t reinvent the wheel as you start gathering your data. Whatever problem you’re facing, chances are that someone somewhere has worked on something similar. So your next step here is to look through all possible internal documents and then look externally.

Once you have your analysis finished, you need to interpret it because numbers or data don’t say anything. You have to figure out the story behind it and the message that you want to communicate.

At this stage, first comes the process of understanding the data: piecing together (in your own mind or within your team) the story the data is telling you and the steps you should take based on that story. The second comes assembling your findings into an externally directed end product: a key message that includes a course of action for your organization, ream, or client.

Your interpretation of the data leads to a story, that is, what you think the data means. You select those portions of the story that you believe your audience needs to know in order to understand your conclusion, along with the supporting evidence, and you put them together into your end product as in your presentation.

To succeed here you need to see through your client’s, executive’s or audience’s lenses and speak their language.

The key to successful presentations and getting buy-in (in order for your audience to accept your recommendations) is prewiring.

The reason behind this is because to get the buy-in you need to bridge the information and trust gaps between you and your audience. The information gap exists because you know more about your findings than your audience does. Depending on the relationship between you and your audience, the trust gap (if it exists) could take any of several forms. Your audience may think that you are too inexperienced to comment on their business, or they may mistrust you because you are an outsider, are overeducated, or not educated enough.

In its essence, prewiring means taking your audience through your findings before you give your presentation. This allows for people to trust you, ask questions you may not have thought about to avoid surprises, and then during the presentation say yes and support you among others who may be more skeptical.

Prewire everything. A good business presentation should contain no shocking revelations for the audience. Walk the relevant decision-makers in your organization through your findings before you gather them together for a dog and pony show. At a minimum, you should send out your recommendations via email to request comments from key decision-makers before the presentation if you can’t meet with those people face-to-face.

The earlier you can start the prewiring process, the better. By identifying and getting input from the relevant players early on, you allow them to put their own mark on your solution, which will make them more comfortable with it and give them a stake in the outcome.

When you begin your presentation in front of your desired audience, make sure you start with the conclusion.

Having your conclusions or recommendations upfront is sometimes known as inductive reasoning. Simply put, inductive reasoning takes the form, “We believe X because of reasons A, B, and C.” This contrasts with deductive reasoning, which can run along the lines of, “A is true, B is true, and C is true; therefore, we believe X.” Even in this simplest and most abstract example, it is obvious that inductive reasoning gets to the point a lot more quickly, takes less time to read, and packs a lot more punch.

As an additional advantage, starting with your conclusions allows you to control how far you go into detail in your presentation.

You need to explain this clearly within just 30 seconds. Almost like an elevator pitch. If you can pass this “elevator test,” then you understand what you’re doing well enough to sell your solution.

A successful presentation bridges the gap between you — the presenter — and your audience. It lets them know what you know.

It also keeps it simple for them which is why it’s important to stick to a key rule if you are using a deck: one message per slide or chart. No more. The more complex a chart/slide becomes, the less effective it is at conveying information. The meaning should be immediately obvious to the reader, so use whatever tools you need to bring it out.

If you broke out your initial hypothesis into a MECE set of issues and sub-issues (and suitably modified them according to the results of your analysis), then you have a ready-made outline for your presentation that will support your conclusion.

Remember that you have two ears and only one mouth. It’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it. Overcommunication is better than under-communication which is why prewiring as mentioned above is so important.

Finally, if you are proposing a certain solution in which you will be involved in the execution, make sure you don’t overpromise because you’re bound to under-deliver. Instead, balance the demands for the solution with your capabilities and those of your team. If more work is necessary, you can always start a second project once the first is done.

When you begin executing on the solution, aim to hit singles.

This is a metaphor from baseball. You can’t do everything, so don’t try. Just do what you’re supposed to do, and get it right. It’s impossible to do everything yourself all the time. If you do manage that feat once, you raise unrealistic expectations from those around you. Then, when you fail to meet those expectations, you’ll have difficulty regaining your credibility.

Getting on base consistently is much better than trying to hit a home run and striking out nine times out of ten.

Do few things well rather than a ton with mediocre execution or results. Stick to targeted focus rather than perfection and drilling into every little piece.

Quality over quantity. And when there’s a lot of work to be done, delegate around your limitations. Know them for what they are and respect them.

Don’t forget that work is like a gas: it expands to fill the time available.

As in the previous point, share the load by delegating and also perform sanity checks on the way to allow you to take a step back and look at the big picture.

You will also have to get others to respect your time. The better you are at your job or the higher up you go in your organization, the more everyone wants a piece of you. There’s an old saying, “Stress is the feeling you get when your gut says, ‘No,’ and your mouth says, ‘Yes, I’d be glad to.’” You have to train your mouth to say, “No.”

Once you make a commitment — “I won’t work on weekends” or “I’ll cook dinner three nights a week” — stick to it, barring life-and-death emergencies. If you seem to be having life-and-death emergencies every week (and you’re not dealing with matters of real life and death, as in a trauma ward), take a hard look at your priorities.

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Additional Reads :

1/36 - Product Discovery Process

2/36 - Pre-discovery Phase

3/36 - PD Preparation & Frameworks

4/36 - Double Diamond Discovery

5/36 - User-Centered Design

6/36 - Managing Product Ideas for Product Discovery

7/36 - Crafting a Problem Statement

8/36 - Product Logic Model : Input, Output, Outcome

9/36 - Understanding Problem Space

10/36 - User Research 101: Navigating the Discovery Process

11/36 - User Interviews Deep Drive

12/36 - User interview analysis – turning raw data into insights effectively

13/36 : Lean Prioritization Framework

14/36 : Understanding Solution Space

15/36 : Lean Experiment & Case Study

16/36 : 📈 Discover the Power of Product Metrics

17/36 : 🚀 Minimum Viable Product Playbook

18/36 :Product Discovery - Risks & Mitigations

19/36 : 🧠 Product Discovery - Inception

20/36 : 🧠 Outcome based Product roadmaps?

21/36 : DEEP Product Backlog

22/36 : BDD, Theme, Epic, Feature & Story

23/36 : 📚 A Guide to Effective User Stories and Story Mapping and Pointing

24/36 : 🔁 Continuous discovery & Product market matrix

Product Management Reading List For 2023

Ready for more?

McKinsey Solve

• Fundamentals
• How it works
• Skills tested
• How to prepare
• A guide to the McKinsey Problem Solving Game

MCC is here to help

McKinsey’s Solve assessment has been making candidates sweat ever since it was initially trialled at the firm’s London office back in 2017 - and things have gotten even more difficult since a new version launched in Spring 2023, adding the Redrock case study.

More recently, in Summer 2023, we have seen a new iteration of that Redrock case, as we continue to interview test takers to keep you updated. This replaces the case study about optimising wolf pack populations across Redrock Island with one about boosting the overall plant biodiversity on the same island.

Since its initial roll-out, the Solve assessment has definitely been the most idiosyncratic, but also the most advanced, of the screening tests used by the MBB firms.

It can be hard to understand how an ecology-themed video game can tell McKinsey whether you’ll make a good management consultant, let alone know how to prepare yourself to do well in that game. When you consider that McKinsey are potentially cutting 70%+ of the applicant pool based on this single test, you can hardly blame applicants for being worried.

Matters are definitely not helped by the dearth of reliable, up-to-date information about what could very well be - with a top-tier consulting job on the line - the most important test you will take over your entire career. This was already true with the version of Solve that had been around for a few years, let alone the new iterations.

What information is available online is then often contradictory. For a long time, there was huge disagreement as to whether it is actually possible to meaningfully prepare for the Solve assessment - before you’ve even considered how to go about that preparation. There is also a lot of confusion and inaccuracy around the new Redrock case - largely as it is such a recent addition, and individual test takers tend to misremember details.

Luckily, we at MCC have been interviewing test takers both before and after the Redrock case rollout and have been following up to see which strategies and approaches actually work to push individuals through to interview.

Here, we’ll explain that it is indeed possible to prepare effectively for both versions of Solve and give you some ideas for how you can get started. Understanding how the Solve assessment works, what it tests you for and how is critical for all but the most hurried preparations.

This article makes for a great introduction to the Solve assessment. However, if you are going to be facing this aptitude test yourself and want full information and advice for preparation, then you should ideally get our full PDF guide:

Master the Solve Assessment

What is the mckinsey solve assessment.

In simple terms, the McKinsey Solve assessment is a set of ecology-themed video games. In these games, you must do things like build food chains, protect endangered species, manage predator and prey populations, boost biodiversity and potentially diagnose diseases within animal populations or identify natural disasters.

Usually, you will be given around 70 minutes to complete two separate games, spending about the same amount of time on each.

Until recently, these games had uniformly been Ecosystem Building and Plant Defence. However, since Spring 2023, McKinsey has been rolling out a new version across certain geographies. This replaces the Plant Defence game with the new Redrock case study. Some other games have also been run as tests.

We’ll run through a little more on all these games below to give you an idea of what you’ll be up against for both versions and possible new iterations.

An important aspect that we'll cover in more detail here is that the Solve games don't only score you on your answers (your "product score"), but also on the method you use to arrive at them (your "process score") - considerably impacting optimal strategy.

In the past, candidates had to show up to a McKinsey office and take what was then the Digital Assessment or PSG on a company computer. However, candidates are now able to take the re-branded Solve assessment at home on their own computers.

Test takers are allowed to leverage any assistance they like (you aren’t spied on through your webcam as you would be with some other online tests), and it is common to have a calculator or even another computer there to make use of.

Certainly, we strongly advise every candidate to have at least a pen, paper and calculator on their desk when they take the Solve assessment.

Common Question: Is the Solve assessment the same thing as the PSG?

In short, yes - “Solve” is just the newer name for the McKinsey Problem Solving Game.

We want to clear up any potential confusion right at the beginning. You will hear this same screening test called a few different things in different places. The Solve moniker itself is a relatively recent re-branding by McKinsey. Previously, the same test was known as either the Problem Solving Game (usually abbreviated to PSG) or the Digital Assessment. You will also often see that same test referred to as the Imbellus test or game, after the firm that created the first version.

You will still see all these names used across various sites and forums - and even within some older articles and blog posts here on MyConsultingCoach. McKinsey has also been a little inconsistent on what they call their own assessment internally. Candidates can often become confused when trying to do their research, but you can rest assured that all these names refer to the same screening test - though, of course, folk might be referring to either the legacy or Redrock versions.

How and why does McKinsey use the Solve assessment?

It’s useful to understand where the Solve assessment fits into McKinsey’s overall selection process and why they have felt the need to include it.

Let’s dive right in…

How is the Solve Assessment used by McKinsey?

McKinsey's own account of how the Solve assessment is used in selection can be seen in the following video:

Whilst some offices initially stuck with the old PST, the legacy Solve assessment was soon rolled out globally and given universally to candidates for roles at pretty well every level of the hierarchy. Certainly, if you are a recent grad from a Bachelor’s, MBA, PhD or similar, or a standard experienced hired, you can expect to be asked to complete the Solve assessment.

Likewise, the new Redrock case study versions seem to be in the process of being rolled out globally - though at this point it seems you might be given either (especially as McKinsey has been having significant technical problems with this new online case study) and so should be ready for both.

At present, it seems that only those applying for very senior positions, or perhaps those with particularly strong referrals and/or connections, are allowed to skip the test. Even this will be office-dependent.

As noted above, one of the advantages of the Solve assessment is that it can be given to all of McKinsey’s hires. Thus, you can expect to be run into the same games whether you are applying as a generalist consultant or to a specialist consulting role - with McKinsey Digital , for example.

The takeaway here is that, if you are applying to McKinsey for any kind of consulting role, you should be fully prepared to sit the Solve Assessment!

Where does the Solve assessment fit into the recruitment process?

You can expect to receive an invitation to take the Solve assessment shortly after submitting your resume.

It seems that an initial screen of resumes is made, but that most individuals who apply are invited to take the Solve assessment.

Any initial screen is not used to make a significant cut of the candidate pool, but likely serves mostly to weed out fraudulent applications from fake individuals (such as those wishing to access the Solve assessment more than once so they can practice...) and perhaps to eliminate a few individuals who are clearly far from having the required academic or professional background, or have made a total mess of their resumes.

Your email invitation will generally give you either one or two weeks to complete the test, though our clients have seen some variation here - with one individual being given as little as three days.

Certainly, you should plan to be ready to sit the Solve assessment within one week of submitting your resume!

Once you have completed the test, McKinsey explain on their site that they look at both your test scores and resume (in more detail this time) to determine who will be invited to live case interviews. This will only be around 30% of the candidates who applied - possibly even fewer.

One thing to note here is that you shouldn’t expect a good resume to make up for bad test scores and vice versa. We have spoken to excellent candidates whose academic and professional achievements were not enough to make up for poor Solve performance. Similarly, we don’t know of anyone invited to interview who hadn’t put together an excellent resume.

Blunty, you need great Solve scores and a great resume to be advanced to interview.

Your first port of call to craft the best possible resume and land your invitation to interview is our excellent free consulting resume guide .

Why does this test exist?

As with Bain, BCG and other major management consulting firms, McKinsey receives far far more applications for each position than they can ever hope to interview. Compounding this issue is that case interviews are expensive and inconvenient for firms like McKinsey to conduct. Having a consultant spend a day interviewing just a few candidates means disrupting a whole engagement and potentially having to fly that consultant back to their home office from wherever their current project was located. This problem is even worse for second-round interviews given by partners.

Thus, McKinsey need to cut down their applicant pool as far as possible, so as to shrink the number of case interviews they need to give without losing the candidates they actually want to hire. Of course, they want to accomplish this as cheaply and conveniently as possible.

The Problem Solving Test (invariably shortened to PST) had been used by McKinsey for many years. However, it had a number of problems that were becoming more pronounced over time, and it was fundamentally in need of replacement. Some of these were deficiencies with the test itself, though many were more concerned with how the test fitted with the changing nature of the consulting industry.

The Solve assessment was originally developed and iterated by the specialist firm Imbellus ( now owned by gaming giant Roblox ) to replace the long-standing PST in this screening role and offers solutions to those problems with its predecessor.

We could easily write a whole article on what McKinsey aimed to gain from the change, but the following few points cover most of the main ideas:

• New Challenges: Previously, candidates were largely coming out of MBAs or similar business-focussed backgrounds and the PST’s quickfire business questions were thus perfectly sufficient to select for non-technical generalist consulting roles. However, as consulting projects increasingly call for a greater diversity and depth of expertise, McKinsey cannot assume the most useful talent – especially for technical roles – is going to come with pre-existing business expertise. A non-business aptitude test was therefore required.
• Fairness and the Modern Context: The covid pandemic necessitated at-home aptitude testing. However, even aside from this, online testing dramatically reduces the amount of travel required of candidates. This allows McKinsey to cast a wider net, providing more opportunities to those living away from hub cities, whilst also hugely reducing the carbon footprint associated with the McKinsey selection process.
• Gaming the System: More pragmatically, the Solve assessment is a much harder test to “game” than was the PST, where highly effective prep resources were available and readily allowed a bad candidate with good preparation to do better than a good candidate. The fact that game parameters change for every individual test taker further cuts down the risk of candidates benefitting from shared information. The recent move towards the Redrock version then also helps McKinsey stay ahead of those developing prep resources for the legacy Solve assessment.
• Cost Cutting: A major advantage of scrapping the old pen-and-paper PST is that the formidable task of thinning down McKinsey’s applicant pool can be largely automated. No test rooms and invigilation staff need to be organised and no human effort is required to devise, transport, catalogue and mark papers.

Impress your interviewer

There has been a bit of variation in the games included in the Solve assessment/PSG over the years and what specific form those games take. Imbellus and McKinsey had experimented with whole new configurations as well as making smaller, iterative tweaks over time. That being said, the new 2023 Redrock case studies (seemingly added by McKinsey themselves without Imbellus) are by far the largest change to Solve since that assessment's genesis back in 2017.

Given that innovation seems to continue (especially with the lengthy feedback forms some candidates are being asked to fill in after sitting the newest iteration), there is always the chance you might be the first to receive something new.

However, our surveys of, and interviews with, those taking the Solve assessment - both before and after recent changes - mean we can give you a good idea of what to expect if you are presented with either the legacy or one of the Redrock versions of Solve.

We provide much more detailed explanation of each of the games in our Solve Assessment PDF Guide - including guidance on optimal scenarios to maximise your performance. Here, though, we can give a quick overview of each scenario:

Ecosystem Building

In this scenario, you are asked to assemble a self-sustaining ecosystem in either an aquatic, alpine or jungle environment (though do not be surprised if environments are added, as this should be relatively easy to do without changing the underlying mechanics).

The game requires you to select a location for your ecosystem. Several different options are given, all with different prevailing conditions. You then have to select a number of different plant and animal species to populate a functioning food chain within that location.

In previous versions of the game, you would have had to fit as many different species as possible into a functioning food chain. However, newer iterations of the Solve assessment require a fixed number of eight or, more recently, seven species to be selected.

Species selection isn’t a free-for-all. You must ensure that all the species you select are compatible with one another - that the predator species you select are able to eat the prey you have selected for them etc. All the species must also be able to survive in the conditions prevailing at the location you have selected.

So far, this sounds pretty easy. However, the complexity arises from the strict rules around the manner and order in which the different species eat one another. We run through these in detail in our guide, with tips for getting your food chain right. However, the upshot is that you are going to have to spend some significant time checking your initial food chain - and then likely iterating it and replacing one or more species when it turns out that the food chain does not adhere to the eating rules.

Once you have decided on your food chain, you simply submit it and are moved on to the next game. In the past, test takers were apparently shown whether their solution was correct or not, but this is no longer the case.

Test takers generally report that this game is the easier of the two, whether it is paired with the Plant Defence game in the legacy Solve or the Redrock case study in the new version. Candidates will not usually struggle to assemble a functioning ecosystem and do not find themselves under enormous time pressure. Thus, we can assume that process scores will be the main differentiator between individuals for this component of the Solve assessment.

For ideas on how to optimise your process score for this game, you can see our PDF Solve guide .

Plant Defence

As mentioned, this game has been replaced with the Redrock case study in the new newer version of the Solve assessment, rolled out from Spring 2023 and further iterated in Summer 2023. However, you might still be asked to sit the legacy version, with this game, when applying to certain offices - so you should be ready for it!

This scenario tasks you with protecting an endangered plant species from invasive species trying to destroy it.

The game set-up is much like a traditional board game, with play taking place over a square area of terrain divided into a grid of the order of 10x10 squares.

Your plant is located in a square near the middle of the grid and groups of invaders - shown as rats, foxes or similar - enter from the edges of the grid before making a beeline towards your plant.

Your job then is to eliminate the invaders before they get to your plant. You do this by placing defences along their path. These can be terrain features, such as mountains or forests, that either force the invaders to slow down their advance or change their path to move around an obstacle. To actually destroy the invaders though, you use animal defenders, like snakes or eagles, that are able to deplete the groups of invaders as they pass by their area of influence.

Complication here comes from a few features of the game. In particular:

• You are restricted in terms of both the numbers of different kinds of defenders you can use and where you are allowed to place them. Thus, you might only have a couple of mountains to place and only be allowed to place these in squares adjacent to existing mountains.
• The main complication is the fact that gameplay is not dynamic but rather proceeds in quite a restricted turnwise manner. By this, we mean that you cannot place or move around your defences continuously as the invaders advance inwards. Rather, turns alternate between you and invaders and you are expected to plan your use of defences in blocks of five turns at once, with only minimal allowance for you to make changes on the fly as the game develops.

The plant defence game is split into three mini-games. Each mini-game is further split into three blocks of five turns. On the final turn, the game does not stop, but continues to run, with the invaders in effect taking more and more turns whilst you are not able to place any more defences or change anything about your set-up.

More and more groups of invaders pour in, and your plant will eventually be destroyed. The test with this “endgame” is simply how many turns your defences can stand up to the surge of invaders before they are overwhelmed.

As opposed to the Ecosystem Building scenario, there are stark differences in immediate candidate performance - and thus product score - in this game. Some test takers’ defences will barely make it to the end of the standard 15 turns, whilst others will survive 50+ turns of endgame before they are overwhelmed.

In this context, as opposed to the Ecosystem Building game typically preceding it, it seems likely that product score will be the primary differentiator between candidates.

We have a full discussion of strategies to optimise your defence placement - and thus boost your product score - in our Solve guide .

Redrock Case Study

This is the replacement for the Plant Defence game in the newest iteration of Solve.

One important point to note is that, where the Solve assessment contains this case study, you have a strict, separate time limit of 35 minutes for each half of the assessment. You cannot finish one game early and use the extra time in the other, as you could in the legacy Solve assessment.

McKinsey has had significant issues with this case study, with test takers noting several major problems. In particular:

• Glitches/crashes - Whilst the newest, Summer 2023 version seems to have done a lot to address this issue, many test takers have had the Redrock case crash on them. Usually, this is just momentary and the assessment returns to where it was in a second or two. If this happens to you, try to just keep calm and carry on. However, there are reports online of some candidates having the whole Solve assessment crash and being locked out as a result. If this happens, contact HR.
• Poor interface - Even where there are no explicit glitches, users note that several aspects of the interface are difficult to use and/or finicky, and that they generally seem poorly designed compared to the older Ecosystem Building game preceding it. For example, test takers have noted that navigation is difficult or unclear and the drag and drop feature for data points is temperamental - all of this costing precious time.
• Confusing language - Related to the above is that the English used is often rather convoluted and sometimes poorly phrased. This can be challenging even for native English speakers but is even worse for those sitting Solve in their second language. It can make the initial instructions difficult to understand - compounding the previous interface problem. It can also make questions difficult, requiring a few readings to comprehend.
• Insufficient time - Clearly, McKinsey intended for Redrock to be time pressured. Whilst the newest, Summer 2023 iteration of the Redrock case seems slightly more forgiving in this regard, time is still so scarce that many candidates don't get through all the questions. This is plainly sub-optimal for McKinsey - as well as being stressful and disheartening for candidates. We would expect further changes to be made to address this issue in future.

McKinsey are clearly aware of these issues, as even those sitting the new version of Redrock have been asked to complete substantial feedback surveys. Do note, then, that this raises the likelihood of further changes to the Redrock case study in the near term - meaning you should always be ready to tackle something new.

For the time being, though, we can take you through the fundamentals of the current version of the Redrock case study. For more detail, see our freshly updated PDF Guide .

The Scenario

Whilst changes to the details are likely in future, the current Redrock case study is set on the Island of Redrock. This island is a nature reserve with populations of various species, including wolves, elk and several varieties of plant.

In the original Redrock case, it is explained that the island's wolves are split into four packs, associated with four geographical locales. These packs predate the elk and depend upon them for food, such that there is a dynamic relationship between the population numbers of both species. Your job is to ensure ecological balance by optimising the numbers of wolves in the four packs, such that both wolves and elk can sustainably coexist.

In the newer iteration of the case, first observed in Summer 2023, you are asked to assess which, if any, of three possible strategies can successfully boost the island's plant biodiversity by a certain specified percentage. Plants here are segmented into grasses, trees and shrubs.

The Questions

The Redrock case study's questions were initially split into three sections, but a fourth was added later. These sections break down as follows:

• Investigation - Here, you have access to the full description of the case, with all the data on the various animal populations. Your task is to efficiently extract all the most salient data points and drag-and-drop them to your "Research Journal" workspace area. This is important, as you subsequently lose access to all the information you don't save at this stage.
• Analysis - You must answer three numerical questions using information you saved in the Investigation section. This can include you dragging and dropping values to and from an in-game calculator.
• Report - Formerly the final section, you must complete a pre-written report on the wolf populations or plant biodiversity levels, including calculating numerical values to fill in gaps and using an in-game interface to make a chart to illustrate your findings. You will leverage information saved in the Investigation section, as well as answers calculated in the Analysis section.
• Case Questions - This section adds a further ten individual case questions. These are wolf-themed, so are thematically similar to the original Redrock case, but are slightly incongruous with the newer, plant-themed version of Redrock. In both instances, though, these questions are entirely separable from the main case preceding them, not relying on any information from the previous sections. The ten questions are highly quantitative and extremely time pressured. Few test takers finish them before being timed out.

This is a very brief summary - more detail is available in our PDF Guide .

Other Games - Disease and Disaster Identification

There have been accounts of some test takers being given a third game as part of their Solve assessment. At time of writing, these third games have always been clearly introduced as non-scored beta tests for Imbellus to try out potential new additions to the assessment. However, the fact that these have been tested means that there is presumably a good chance we’ll see them as scored additions in future.

Notably, these alternative scenarios are generally variations on a fairly consistent theme and tend to share a good deal of the character of the Ecosystem Building game. Usually, candidates will be given a whole slew of information on how an animal population has changed over time. They will then have to wade through that information to figure out either which kind of natural disaster or which disease has been damaging that population - the commonality with the Ecosystem Building game being in the challenge of dealing with large volumes of information and figuring out which small fraction of it is actually relevant.

Join thousands of other candidates cracking cases like pros

What does the solve assessment test for.

Whilst information on the Solve assessment can be hard to come by, Imbellus and McKinsey have at least been explicit on what traits the test was designed to look for. These are:

• Critical Thinking : making judgements based on the objective analysis of information
• Decision Making : choosing the best course of action, especially under time pressure or with incomplete information
• Metacognition : deploying appropriate strategies to tackle problems efficiently
• Situational Awareness : the ability to interpret and subsequently predict an environment
• Systems Thinking : understanding the complex causal relationships between the elements of a system

Equally important to understanding the raw facts of the particular skillset being sought out, though, is understanding the very idiosyncratic ways in which the Solve assessment tests for these traits.

Let's dive deeper:

Process Scores

Perhaps the key difference between the Solve assessment and any other test you’ve taken before is Imbellus’s innovation around “process scores”.

To explain, when you work through each of the games, the software examines the solutions you generate to the various problems you are faced with. How well you do here is measured by your “product score”.

However, scoring does not end there. Rather, Solve's software also constantly monitors and assesses the method you used to arrive at that solution. The quality of the method you used is then captured in your “process score”.

To make things more concrete here, if you are playing the Ecosystem Building game, you will not only be judged on whether the ecosystem you put together is self-sustaining. You will also be judged on the way you have worked in figuring out that ecosystem - presumably, on how efficient and organised you were. The program tracks all your mouse clicks and other actions and will thus be able to capture things like how you navigate around the various groups of species, how you place the different options you select, whether you change your mind before you submit the solution and so on.

You can find more detail on these advanced aspects of the Solve assessment and the innovative work behind it in the presentation by Imbellus founder Rebecca Kantar in the first section of the following video:

Compared to other tests, this is far more like the level of assessment you face from an essay-based exam, where the full progression of your argument towards a conclusion is marked - or a maths exam, where you are scored on your working as well as the final answer (with, of course, the major advantage that there is no highly qualified person required to mark papers).

Clearly, the upshot of all this is that you will want to be very careful how you approach the Solve assessment. You should generally try to think before you act and to show yourself in a very rational, rigorous, ordered light.

We have some advice to help look after your process scores in our PDF Guide to the McKinsey Solve Assessment .

A Different Test for Every Candidate

Another remarkable and seriously innovative aspect of the Solve assessment is that no two candidates receive exactly the same test.

Imbellus automatically varies the parameters of their games to be different for each individual test taker, so that each will be given a meaningfully different game to everyone else’s.

Within a game, this might mean a different terrain setting, having a different number of species or different types of species to work with or more or fewer restrictions on which species will eat which others.

Consequently, even if your buddy takes the assessment for the same level role at the same office just the day before you do, whatever specific strategy they used in their games might very well not work for you.

This is an intentional feature designed to prevent test takers from sharing information with one another and thus advantaging some over others. At the extreme, this feature would also be a robust obstacle to any kind of serious cheating.

To manage to give every candidate a different test and still be able to generate a reliable ranking of those candidates across a fundamental skillset, without that test being very lengthy, is a considerable achievement from Imbellus. At high level, this would seem to be approximately equivalent to reliably extracting a faint signal from a very noisy background on the first attempt almost every time.

(Note that we are yet to confirm to what extent and how this also happens with the new Redrock case studies, but it seems to be set up to allow for easy changes to be made to the numerical values describing the case, so we assume there will be similar, widespread of variation.)

Preparation for the McKinsey Solve assessment

Understanding what the Solve assessment tests for immediately begs the question as to whether it is possible to usefully prepare and, if so, what that preparation should look like.

Is it Really Possible to Prepare for the McKinsey Solve Assessment?

In short, yes you can - and you should!

As noted previously, there has been a lot of disagreement over whether it is really possible to prep for the Solve assessment in a way that actually makes a difference.

Especially for the legacy version, there has been a widespread idea that the Solve assessment functions as something like an IQ test, so that preparation beyond very basic familiarisation to ensure you don’t panic on test day will not do anything to reliably boost your scores (nobody is going to build up to scoring an IQ of 200 just by doing practice tests, for example).

This rationale says that the best you can do is familiarise yourself with what you are up against to calm your nerves and avoid misunderstanding instructions on test day. However, this school of thought says there will be minimal benefit from practice and/or skill building.

The utility of preparation has become a clearer with the addition of the Redrock case study to the new version of Solve. Its heavily quantitative nature, strong time pressure and structure closely resembling a traditional business case make for a clearer route to improvement.

However, as we explain in more detail in our PDF guide to the Solve assessment, the idea that any aspect of either version of Solve can't be prepared for has been based on some fundamental misunderstandings about what kind of cognitive traits are being tested. Briefly put, the five key skills the Solve assessment explicitly examines are what are known as higher-order thinking skills.

Crucially, these are abilities that can be meaningfully built over time.

McKinsey and Imbellus have generally advised that you shouldn’t prepare. However, this is not the same as saying that there is no benefit in doing so. McKinsey benefits from ensuring as even a playing field as possible. To have the Solve test rank candidates based purely on their pre-existing ability, they would ideally wish for a completely unprepared population.

How to prep

We discuss how to prep for the Solve assessment in full detail in our PDF guide . Here, though, we can give you a few initial pointers to get you started. In particular, there are some great ways to simulate different games as well as build up the skills the Solve assessment tests for.

Playing video games is great prep for the legacy Solve assessment in particular, but remains highly relevant to the new Redrock version.

Contrary to what McKinsey and Imbellus have said - and pretty unfortunately for those of us with other hobbies - test takers have consistently said that they reckoned the Problem Solving Game, and now the Solve assessment, favours those with strong video gaming experience.

If you listened when your parents told you video games were a waste of time and really don’t have any experience, then putting in some hours on pretty much anything will be useful. However, the closer the games you play are to the Solve scenarios, the better. We give some great recommendations on specific games and what to look for more generally in our Solve guide - including one free-to-play game that our clients have found hugely useful as prep for the plant defence game!

PST-Style Questions

The inclusion of the Redrock case studies in the new version of Solve really represents a return to something like a modernised PST. Along with the similar new BCG Casey assessment, this seems to be the direction of travel for consulting recruitment in general.

Luckily, this means that you can leverage the wealth of existing PST-style resources to your advantage in preparation.

Our PST article - which links to some free PST questions and our full PST prep resources - is a great place to start. However, better than old-fashioned PDF question sets are the digital PST-style questions embedded in our Case Academy course . Conducted online with a strict timer running, these are a much closer approximation of the Solve assessment itself. These questions are indeed a subset of our Case Academy course, but are also available separately in our Course Exercises package .

Quick Mathematics With a Calculator and/or Excel

Again, specifically for the Redrock assessment, you will be expected to solve math problems very quickly. The conceptual level of mathematics required is not particularly high, but you need to know what you are doing and get through it fast using a calculator nand/or Excel, if you are already comfortable with that program.

Our article on consulting math is a great place to start to understand what is expected of you throughout the recruiting process, with our consulting math package (a subset of our Case Academy course) providing more in-depth lessons and practice material.

Learn to Solve Case Studies

With the Redrock case studies clearly being ecology-themed analogues to standard business case studies, it's pretty obvious that getting good at case studies will be useful.

However, the Solve assessment as a whole is developed and calibrated to be predictive of case interview performance, so you can expect that improving your case solving ability will indirectly bring up your performance across the board.

Of course, this overlaps with your prep for McKinsey's case interviews. For more on how to get started there, see the final section of this article.

Learning About Optimal Strategies for the Games

The first thing to do is to familiarise yourself with the common game scenarios from the Solve assessment and how you can best approach them to help boost your chances of success.

Now, one thing to understand is that, since the parameters for the games change for each test taker, there might not be a single definitive optimal strategy for every single possible iteration of a particular game. As such, you shouldn’t rely on just memorising one approach and hoping it matches up to what you get on test day.

Instead, it is far better to understand why a strategy is sensible in some circumstances and when it might be better to do something else instead if the version of the game you personally receive necessitates a different approach.

In this article, we have given you a useful overview of the games currently included in the Solve assessment. However, a full discussion with suggested strategies is provided in our comprehensive Solve guide .

With the limited space available here, this is only a very brief sketch of a subset of the ways you can prep.

As noted, what will help with all of these and more is reading the extensive prep guidance in our full PDF guide to the Solve assessment...

The MCC Solve Assessment Guide

Preparing for the Solve assessment doesn’t have to be a matter of stumbling around on your own. This article is a good introduction. From here, though our new, updated PDF guide to the McKinsey Solve assessment is your first stop to optimise your Solve preparation.

This guide is based on our own survey work and interviews with real test takers, as well as iterative follow-ups on how the advice in previous editions worked out in reality.

Does it make sense to invest in a guide?

Short answer: yes. If you just think about the financials, a job at McKinsey is worth millions in the long run. If you factor in experience, personal growth and exit opportunities, the investment is a no-brainer.

How our guide can help you ace the test

Don't expect some magic tricks to game the system (because you can't), but rather an in-depth analysis of key areas crucial to boost your scores. This helps you to:

As noted, the guide is based on interviews with real recent test takers and covers the current games in detail. Being familiar with the game rules, mechanics and potential strategies in advance will massively reduce the amount of new information you have to assimilate from scratch on test day, allowing you to focus on the actual problems at hand.

Despite the innovative environment, the Solve assessment tests candidates for the same skills evaluated in case interviews, albeit on a more abstract level. Our guide breaks these skills down and provides a clear route to develop them. You also benefit from the cumulative experience of our clients, as we have followed up to see which prep methods and game strategies were genuinely helpful.

A clear plan of how to prepare is instrumental for success. Our guide includes a detailed, flexible preparation strategy, leveraging a whole host of diverse prep activities to help you practice and build your skills as effectively as possible. Importantly, our guide helps you prioritise the most effective aspects of preparation to optimise for whatever timeframe you have to work in.

Overall, the MyConsultingCoach Solve guide is designed to be no-nonsense and straight to the point. It tells you what you need to know up front and - for those of you in a hurry - crucial sections are clearly marked to read first to help you prep ASAP.

For those of you starting early with more time to spare, there is also a fully detailed, more nuanced discussion of what the test is looking for and how you can design a more long-term prep to build up the skills you need - and how this can fit into your wider case interview prep.

Importantly, there is no fluff to bulk out the page count. The market is awash with guides at huge page counts, stuffed full of irrelevant material to boost overall document length. By contrast, we realise your time is better spent actually preparing than ploughing through a novel.

If this sounds right for you, you can purchase our PDF Solve guide here:

McKinsey Solve Assessment Guide

• Full guide to both the legacy version of the Solve assessment and the newer Redrock Case Study versions
• In-depth description of the different games and strategies to beat them
• Preparation strategies for the short, medium and long-term prep
• No fluff - straight to the point, with specific tips for those without much time
• Straight to your inbox
• 30 days money-back guarantee, no questions asked. Simply email us and we will refund the full amount.

The Next Step - Case Interviews

So, you pour in the hours to generate an amazing resume and cover letter. You prepare diligently for the Solve assessment, going through our PDF guide and implementing all the suggestions. On test day, you sit down and ace Solve. The result is an invitation to a live McKinsey case interview.

Now the real work begins…

Arduous as application writing and Solve prep might have seemed, preparing for McKinsey case interviews will easily be an order of magnitude more difficult.

Remember that McKinsey tells candidates not to prepare for Solve - but McKinsey explicitly expects applicants to have rigorously prepared for case interviews .

The volume of specific business knowledge and case-solving principles, as well as the sheer complexity of the cases you will be given, mean that there is no way around knuckling down, learning what you need to know and practicing on repeat.

If you want to get through your interviews and actually land that McKinsey offer, you are going to need to take things seriously, put in the time and learn how to properly solve case studies.

Unfortunately, the framework-based approach taught by many older resources is unlikely to cut it for you. These tend to falter when applied to difficult, idiosyncratic cases - precisely the kind of case you can expect from McKinsey!

The method MCC teaches is based specifically on the way McKinsey train incoming consultants. We throw out generic frameworks altogether and show you how to solve cases like a real management consultant on a real engagement.

You can start reading about the MCC method for case cracking here . To step your learning up a notch, you can move on to our Case Academy course .

To put things into practice in some mock interviews with real McKinsey consultants, take a look at our coaching packages .

And, if all this (rightfully) seems pretty daunting and you’d like to have an experienced consultant guide you through your whole prep from start to finish, you can apply for our comprehensive mentoring programme here .

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PROBLEM STATEMENT

Learn everything you need to know to develop a Problem Statement by an Ex-McKinsey consultant . Includes best practices , examples, and a free problem statement template at the bottom.

“A problem well stated is a problem half solved.”

– Charles Kettering, Early 1900s American Inventor

I remember my first day on my first project at McKinsey, the partner got the team in a room for us to spend a few hours “defining the problem statement.” At first, I thought to myself, “man, what a dumb idea…this client is paying us millions of dollars, and we don’t even know what we are trying to solve?” But, as we started to debate the context of the client, the issues they faced, and the reasons why they brought us on, I started to appreciate defining the problem statement and the ability for the right problem statement to frame and focus problem solving .

What is a problem statement?

A problem statement is a clear description of the problem you are trying to solve and is typically most effectively stated as a question. Problem statements are subtly critical in effective problem solving. They have an uncanny ability in focusing the efforts of brainstorming , teamwork, and projects .

To understand this better, let’s go through some examples of how you can position a brainstorming session on various topics.

Beyond brainstorming, problem statements should be used at the beginning of any project to frame and focus on the problem. A good problem statement defines the “who” the problem involves, and defines the scope of the problem. Since problem statements guide much of the problem solving of a project, it is important not to be too narrow or broad with the problem statement.

How do you create an effective problem statement?

As stated before, every McKinsey project starts with the development of a problem statement. Once we landed on a strong problem statement, then we had to align the client with the problem statement. The easiest way for a project and team to get off track is if the team and the client are trying to solve different problems. A good problem statement aligns the expectations of the client with the team’s activities and output.

Here are the best practices when creating an effective problem statement:

Use the 5 Ws and one H

One of the most useful tools when developing a problem statement is the 5 Ws and one H, which is simply utilizing who, what, why, where, when, and how questions to frame the problem statement. Simply thinking through these questions as they relate to the problem can help you create a strong problem statement.

Ask the most crucial question, “What are we trying to solve?”

We’ve all been in those brainstorming sessions, meetings or on those projects, where you’re just scratching your head, as the conversation or directions are more like an Olympic ping-pong match going from one topic to the next. The most effective question that I’ve used in over a thousand meetings and conversations is simply “what are we trying to solve?” It cuts through the clutter, confusion, and misalignment, and quickly centers the focus and energy of everyone.

Frame the problem statement as a goal

Some of the best problem statements are simply goals formatted as questions. If you need to increase sales by 10%, a good problem statement is, “Within the next 12 months, what are the most effective options for the team to increase sales by 10%?”

Force the prioritization 

Often, the most effective problem statements force the prioritization of issues and opportunities. Using phrases such as “the most important for the customer” or “the best way” will force prioritization.

DOWNLOAD THE PROBLEM STATEMENT POWERPOINT WORKSHEET

To get you going on defining a strong problem statement, download the free and editable Problem Statement PowerPoint Worksheet.

Correctly defining a problem statement at the beginning of a project or initiative will dramatically improve the success of the project or initiative. Problem statements help guide problem solving, analysis , hypotheses , and solutions.

Developing a problem statement is an iterative brainstorming process. Get the major stakeholders in a room for a few hours and start the process by having everyone write down what they think the problem is on index cards. Collect the index cards and post them on a whiteboard. You can either discuss each one or have the group pick the top 3 and then discuss them. You can use the Problem Statement Worksheet to further define the problem by answering the 5 Ws and 1 H. The key is to find the right problem statement all stakeholders feel strongly about, in that, if the problem statement were solved, the problem would be solved.

NEXT SECTION: HYPOTHESES

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The McKinsey’s way of Problem Solving — Part 1

Omoniyi Akinpelumi

A summary of lessons learnt from the McKinsey’s Forward Program

Problem solving is central to what we do. Everyday, we are faced with finding solutions to issues that could require our immediate or future response. The ability to make sound decisions and ultimately solve problems regardless of the timeline is key to one’s effectiveness in a job place.

Problem solving is the answer to the question — “What should I do”.

According to McKinsey , problem solving requires a structured, deliberate approach of knowing the right scope of work. It also requires you to understand how you are going to implement the solutions and quantify the success of the solution whilst taking account of the level of resources, stakeholders requirements and problem constraints.

Benefits of using a structured problem-solving approach are;

• You save more time
• You are more confident about your solution strategy
• You know where you are in the process of solving the problem

Absolutely, not all problems are identical; therefore, varying problem-solving approaches or a combination of several strategies may be required depending on the specific context of the problem. In the McKinsey’s Forward program, I acquired specific knowledge on utilizing the hypothesis-led approach to problem-solving.

Hypothesis-led Problem-solving Approach

This approach acts as the go-to framework for addressing a wide array of problems, serving as a versatile tool in problem resolution.

• Define the problem

A good first step to tackle any problem is to properly — Define the problem. This is important because it ensures you are solving the right problem, irrespective of time pressure. An excellent model to use in defining problem statement is to ask the right questions in the context of SMART Goals . This technique would help you uncover blind spots and systematically guide you in structuring your problem-solving efforts.

2. Structure the problem

Every problem has some uncertainty that would require you to disaggregate the problem into different parts. For example the use of logic trees is a model for breakdown the root-problem into key problem elements. Prioritization should be used as a leverage in constraining the problem statement to a scope that is most important and impactful.

3. Develop Work plan

Problem solving is iterative. Hence, it is important to develop a plan that incorporate what the expectation are and what the deliverables are. It is also useful in mitigating biases, accountability of resources and ensuring all stakeholders are carried along with the progress of work.

4. Conduct analyses & Synthesize findings

Depending on the nature of the problem it may be important to conduct data analysis and evaluate your findings statistically, whilst capturing the impact of your results in terms of metrics based on a level of uncertainty. This would give a level of clarity and confidence in your results.

Other Problem-solving Approaches

There exists a variety of other distinct problem-solving methodologies that can be fused with the hypothesis-led approach in addressing different challenges. Brief explanations of some of these approaches are given below:

• Domain IP-led Approach

This approach requires you to leverage on pre-existing Intellectual Property (IP) and domain knowledge or expertise in accelerating the solving the problem. For me I believe this saves a lot of time and condenses the typical process of solution-finding based on presumptions and experience. However there is high danger of introducing bias to the new solution and been close-minded to other solutions.

• Advanced Analytics Approach

This strategy is useful when you have data, large data. This approach helps you to uncover insights using analytics and machine learning modelling solutions that may not be visible by merely looking at the data. It requires a bit of time and a lot of expertise. This is approach is compelling to me on a personal level as a data scientist, as I have been able to solve societal problems using this approach.

• Design Thinking Approach

Design thinking is all about human-centred design. It is focused on understanding the needs of customer, users or stakeholders . It requires you to ask lot of questions and think divergently whilst learning deeply about the user, till you prioritise and narrow down on the hypothesis of the solution. I am currently using this strategy in understanding how climate change is affecting energy access and the social-economic structure of sub-Saharan African countries under the Student Energy Fellowship

• Engineering Approach

Engineering approach allows you to iteratively test solutions in an experimental manner, gather feedback, learn and de-risk key assumptions at every iteration cycle. This problem-solution technique is most useful for problems that do not require immediate decisions. It is also akin to the agile software development used in building digital and data products.

This is the part one of many notes from the McKinsey Forward learning program. Feel free to follow me on twitter and LinkedIn

Written by Omoniyi Akinpelumi

The intersect of data solutions and energy systems are compelling to me on a personal level. Nevertheless, I love to write on anything that catches my fancy.

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Crafting an effective problem statement

Aug 31, 2024

Posted by: Regine Fe Arat

Crafting a clear and concise problem statement is an essential skill in project management. It’s a powerful tool that you can use for effective problem-solving as it guides teams toward innovative solutions and measurable outcomes.

Whether you’re a seasoned project manager or a newcomer to the field, being able to write problem statements can significantly enhance your ability to tackle complex challenges and drive meaningful change.

A problem statement concisely describes an issue or challenge that needs to be addressed. An effective problem statement frames the issue in a way that facilitates a deeper understanding and guides the problem-solving process.

At its core, a well-crafted problem statement should capture the essence of the challenge at hand, providing enough context for stakeholders to grasp the issue’s significance. It helps you find the most appropriate solution and ensures that all team members are aligned in their understanding of the problem’s scope and implications.

In this comprehensive guide, you’ll find out what problem statements are and what types you can use. You’ll also find practical examples and actionable tips to help you create impactful problem statements of your own.

What are the key components of a problem statement?

Here are the three key components of a problem statement:

The problem

You should clearly state the core issue or challenge to be addressed. This is the heart of your problem statement. Articulate it in a way that’s easy to understand and free from ambiguity.

The method used to solve the problem

While the problem statement itself shouldn’t propose specific solutions, it can outline the general approach or methodology you’ll use to address the issue. For example, you might mention the type of research, analysis or problem-solving techniques your team will employ.

The purpose, statement of objective and scope

This component outlines why addressing the problem is important and what the desired outcome looks like. It should clarify the goals of the problem-solving effort and define the boundaries of what you’ll address. This helps focus efforts and set clear expectations for what the project or initiative aims to achieve.

When to use a problem statement

A problem statement is a versatile tool that you can use across various scenarios in both professional and personal contexts. They are particularly valuable in the following cases:

• Initiating new projects: a problem statement helps define the project’s purpose and sets clear objectives from the outset.
• Addressing organizational challenges: it provides a structured approach to tackling complex issues within a company or team.
• Conducting research: researchers use problem statements to focus their investigations and define the scope of their studies.
• Presenting ideas to stakeholders: a well-formulated problem statement can effectively communicate the need for change or investment to decision-makers.
• Personal goal-setting: even in individual pursuits, problem statements can help clarify objectives and motivate action.

Types of problem statements

Understanding different types of problem statements can help you choose the best approach for your specific situation.

Let’s explore three common types:

The status quo problem statement

This type of problem statement focuses on the current state of affairs and highlights the gap between the existing situation and the desired outcome.

It’s particularly effective when you are addressing ongoing issues or systemic problems within an organization.

Example: “Our customer support team currently handles 150 tickets, on average, per day with a resolution time of 48 hours. This prolonged response time has led to a 15% decrease in customer satisfaction scores over the past quarter, potentially impacting our retention rates and brand reputation.”

Destination problem statement

A destination problem statement emphasizes the desired future state or goal.

It’s ideal for situations where you want to inspire change and motivate teams to work toward a specific vision.

Example: “We aim to create a seamless onboarding experience for new employees that reduces the time to full productivity from 12 to six weeks while increasing new hire satisfaction scores by 25% within the next fiscal year.”

The stakeholder problem statement

This type of problem statement focuses on the impact of an issue on specific individuals or groups.

It’s particularly useful when you need to highlight the human element of a problem and garner support for change.

Example: “Junior software developers in our organization report feeling overwhelmed and unsupported, with 60% expressing dissatisfaction with their professional growth opportunities. This has resulted in a 30% turnover rate among this group in the past year, leading to increased recruitment costs and knowledge loss.”

How to write a problem statement

Crafting an effective problem statement takes practice and attention to detail. Follow these steps to create impactful problem statements:

Understand the problem

Before putting pen to paper, invest time in thoroughly understanding the issue at hand. Gather data, conduct interviews with stakeholders and observe the problem in action if possible. This deep understanding will form the foundation of your problem statement.

Articulate the problem in simple, straightforward language. Avoid jargon or overly technical terms that might confuse readers. Your goal is to ensure that anyone reading the statement can quickly grasp the core issue.

Provide context

Include relevant background information that helps readers understand the problem’s significance. This might include historical data, industry benchmarks or organizational goals that the issue is affecting.

Identify the root cause

Dig deeper to uncover the underlying reasons for the problem. Avoid focusing on symptoms. Instead, strive to identify the fundamental issues that need to be addressed. Tools like the “5 whys” technique can be helpful in this process.

Be specific

Use concrete details and quantifiable metrics whenever possible. Instead of saying, “Customer satisfaction is low,” specify, “Customer satisfaction scores have dropped by 15% in the past quarter.” This precision helps create a clear picture of the problem’s scope and impact.

Use measurable criteria

Incorporate measurable elements that can be used to track progress and determine when the problem has been resolved. This might include specific metrics, timeframes or benchmarks.

Make it feasible

Ensure the problem statement describes an issue the organization can actually address. You’ll need to be realistic.

Consider your organization’s resources and constraints. While ambition is important, an overly broad or unattainable goal can be demotivating and unhelpful.

Avoid solution language

Resist the temptation to propose solutions in the problem statement. The goal is to clearly define the problem, not to prescribe how it should be solved. This approach encourages creative thinking and enables you and your team to consider a range of potential solutions.

Consider the audience

Tailor your problem statement to the intended audience. The level of detail and technical language may vary depending on whether you’re presenting to executives, team members or external stakeholders.

Seek feedback

Share your draft problem statement with colleagues or stakeholders to gather their input. Fresh perspectives can help identify blind spots or areas that need clarification.

Revise and refine

Refine your problem statement based on the feedback you receive. Don’t be afraid to go through multiple iterations to achieve the most clear and impactful statement possible.

Test for objectivity

Review your problem statement to ensure it remains objective and free from bias. Avoid language that assigns blame or makes assumptions about causes or solutions.

Challenges of writing a problem statement

While problem statements can be a powerful tool for problem-solving, you may face several common challenges when writing yours. Being aware of these pitfalls can help you avoid them and create more effective problem statements.

Making it too complicated and lacking detail

One of the most frequent issues in problem statement writing is finding the right balance between detail and clarity.

Oversimplifying the problem can lead to a statement that’s too vague to be actionable. On the other hand, including too much detail can obscure the core issue and make the statement difficult to understand.

To overcome this challenge, focus on the essential elements of the problem. Start with a clear, concise statement about the issue, then add only the most relevant contextual details. Use specific, measurable criteria to define the problem’s scope and impact, but avoid getting bogged down in excessive technical jargon or minute, unhelpful details.

Ignoring stakeholders’ perspectives

Another common pitfall is failing to consider the diverse perspectives of all the stakeholders the problem affects. This can result in a problem statement that doesn’t fully capture the issue’s complexity or fails to resonate with key decision-makers.

To address this challenge, make an effort to gather input from a wide range of stakeholders before finalizing your problem statement. This might include conducting interviews, surveys or focus groups with employees, customers, partners or other relevant parties.

Incorporate these diverse viewpoints into your problem statement to create a more comprehensive and compelling representation of the issue.

Misalignment with organizational goals

Sometimes, problem statements can be well-crafted but fail to align with broader organizational objectives. This misalignment can lead to wasted resources and efforts on issues that, while important, may not be critical to the company’s overall success.

To ensure your problem statement aligns with the organization’s goals, review your company’s mission statement, strategic plans and key performance indicators before you get started. Consider how the problem you’re addressing relates to these broader objectives.

If possible, explicitly link the problem and its potential resolution to specific goals or metrics in your statement.

Failing to review and revise

An effective problem statement often requires multiple iterations and refinements. Many project managers make the mistake of treating their first draft as the final version, missing opportunities to improve clarity, precision and impact.

To overcome this challenge:

• Build time for revision into your problem statement writing process.
• After crafting your initial draft, step away from it for a short period.
• Return with fresh eyes to critically evaluate and refine your statement.
• Share it with colleagues or mentors for feedback. Be open to making substantive changes based on their input.

The last card

Being able to write problem statements is a valuable skill that can significantly enhance your problem-solving capabilities and drive meaningful change within your organization. They enable you to set the stage for innovative solutions and improved processes – but to do this, you’ll need to clearly articulate challenges, provide context and focus on measurable outcomes.

A well-crafted problem statement is a powerful tool for aligning teams, securing resources and guiding decision-making. It’s the foundation for effective problem-solving strategies. As you get better at writing problem statements, you’ll find that complex challenges become more manageable and your ability to drive positive change increases.

At Pip Decks, we’re passionate about equipping professionals with the tools and knowledge they need to excel in their roles. Whether you’re looking to improve your problem-solving skills, enhance team collaboration or develop your leadership abilities, you’ll find the answers you need in our expert-written card decks.

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Trisha Price on leveraging data to build great products

In this episode of McKinsey on Building Products , a podcast dedicated to the exploration of software product management and engineering, McKinsey partner Rikki Singh speaks with Trisha Price, chief product officer at Pendo.io. Together, they discuss the importance of product instrumentation, gathering the right customer feedback, and using this data to inform critical product decisions. This interview took place in July 2023 as part of the McKinsey Product Academy speaker series. An abridged version of their conversation follows.

Why measurement matters for product managers

Trisha Price: Remember Google Glass and the fanfare and excitement attached to its launch? There was a lot of news and hype around it, but it ultimately failed because very few people bought or used it. It goes to show that applause and fanfare are not the right measures of a successful product. You need to measure the value that your product is delivering to customers and users.

I believe this will be a big area of concern with all the hype around AI right now. I believe in AI, but I also think there are a lot of product managers and C-suite executives who are launching AI for the sake of it. It’s important to make sure that you’re not just trying to get applause and excitement—you’re also delivering real value and solving real problems. Measuring the right data will help you do that.

I also believe that putting your product at the center of everything is important. Product management has changed a lot over the past few years. When I first started in product management, the field was centered on shipping features. Now, product people have become more like business leaders, not just technical resources, and the job is more about driving outcomes. Being product-led is an example of that change.

Creating an experience with a product at the center relies on understanding the customer’s journey, from the time they learn about the product to the time they’re onboarded. Then, after a sale, it’s important to think about how you can help them and allow them to interact with you. The more you can do that and measure it, the more successful you’ll be. Customers don’t want to go to another site for help or learn how to use a product through an academy or a course. They’ll appreciate more-centralized guidance within the product and a curated experience. Again, measuring will help you enhance their experience.

An example of a product where measurement was critical was iRobot’s Roomba. This company really focuses on the “why” and seeks to solve a real problem and drive value for each of its customers. About a year ago, iRobot set out to drive engagement with its mobile app through better personalization. They realized customers scheduled the cleaning times of their Roombas, so iRobot allowed them to do that through a mobile app. They wanted to do this efficiently, without any heavy lifting from their engineering team. So, they started by analyzing existing usage patterns of the mobile app and mapped the ideal customer journey based on that usage. They focused on finding moments that mattered to their customer base and possible friction points in the mobile app.

To create personalized experiences, iRobot created user segments based on usage patterns and other demographic and channel data. This data informed an action plan to send a tailored in-app announcement to their 14 million users, which resulted in a 43 percent increase in engagement. They also met their second goal of reducing engineering effort by 75 percent. This example shows why measurement and a product-led approach matter.

Rikki Singh: Many product managers think about product instrumentation as something they can do as new products get built or rolled out. However, product managers who work for large organizations have often had these products for a while, either on premises or as SaaS [software as a service]. So why don’t they get started right away on the product instrumentation journey?

Trisha Price: I think every company is a software company now, not just a SaaS company or a software company with an on-premise product. What company doesn’t have a digital channel? Even if you work at a bank, for example, you have to worry about the same things that I mentioned. To your question about where to get started, it doesn’t matter what kind of company it is; the first thing a product manager can do is define the business objectives. Let’s say you’re launching your first cloud product—maybe you want 5 percent of your customer base to be moved over to your cloud product in a certain amount of time. Or you’re launching your first SaaS product, and you want to have a certain number of users in your design program and make sure they’re coming back week after week. The best way to start is by writing down the two or three most important outcomes.

The next step is collecting the data. Collecting everything doesn’t necessarily mean measuring or analyzing everything and tying it to your outcomes. But if you’re not collecting data, you can’t measure the outcome or drive the outcome. The third step is to determine which data should be measured. You can experiment to see which data is helping you achieve your goals.

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Deciding what to measure.

Rikki Singh: There are so many things that we could measure. Do you have guiding principles to prioritize the metrics you measure at any point?

Trisha Price: It depends on the maturity of the product that I’m measuring. If it’s an early-stage product and I’m trying to get it launched, I just want people to use it, and I want them to use it frequently. So I have a dashboard for a product that I have in beta that I look at every day to see how many design partners I have, if they come back, and if they used features we think matter in our hypothesis. In that early stage, I’m trying to get to product–market fit, and that’s all I think about.

If it’s a mature product that’s been launched for a while, then it’s more important to track the general breadth of feature adoption, the increase in the number of users of my product, or if the number of users is tracking with the ARR [annual recurring revenue]. For example, if gross ARR is going up but usage is just OK, something’s off. Either these people aren’t getting onboarded quickly or they bought the product in its shelfware and I’m in trouble at renewal time. So, for a mature product, I’m not relentlessly focused on product–market fit, and I’ll start looking at higher-level metrics.

Rikki Singh: Right, I think once you identify the top markers, you’ll more easily begin segmenting and viewing metrics at the next level. I like the idea of choosing two or three trends to watch out for. Then, as you get more data, you can fold in some of the additional metrics.

Trisha Price: And different members on the team will look for different things. For example, I may look at the products’ metrics at an aggregate level, but the portfolio product manager may look at metrics around adoption rates for a new feature she shipped.

Rikki Singh: Yes. The parallel is cascading OKRs [objectives and key results]. Similarly, you’d have your overall metrics to guide you, and each person contributing has their own set of metrics based on their area of focus.

Trisha Price: For most CROs [chief revenue officers] and even for salespeople, this approach was very natural; these roles have clear quotas. But in product, OKRs have historically been a little fuzzier. Usage data and these analytics we’re talking about drive the ability to put some operational rigor into product roles.

How data drives alignment

Rikki Singh: It can be difficult for PMs [product managers] to drive cross-functional stakeholder alignment between sales, marketing, and operations. Have you used instrumentation to help with alignment? Otherwise, what are some best practices for doing that?

Trisha Price: I have a product scorecard that shows the success of me and my team over the year, and I share it with the whole cross-functional C-suite. When we set it up for the year, the scorecard is aligned to all my peers’ goals. For example, if my chief customer success officer’s goal is to reduce the number of support tickets that team gets, or if the revenue operations team’s goal is to launch in a new market, then my goals should match those. Product adoption requires sales to have sold what’s on the truck. It requires professional services to onboard your customers and educate them on how to use the product. So goals are often cross-functional in nature.

Rikki Singh: Who should be overseeing product usage analytics? PMs often wonder whether they should advocate for a tool to embed and track usage or if a central team should set up and own usage analytics.

Trisha Price: One pitfall I see is when product managers own the tool, leaders may not know how to use it to drive the outcomes on their team. Say a product manager is using the data to build an amazing experience, but the leader doesn’t understand how to align the outcomes to individual contributors’ work. I’ve heard product managers say, “My manager is obsessed with outcomes but is forgetting the route to get there.” As a leader, it’s our job to help take these outcomes and cascade them so the team can create a frictionless experience. Taking five steps out of a workflow for your customer base makes them happier, helps them get business value out of the product, and makes them want to renew and expand with us.

It’s best not to make analytics too bottom-up. That way, leaders can focus on the most relevant findings from their team to track progress and incorporate goals into everyday dialogue and approval processes [for new products].

The art of connecting with customers

Rikki Singh: How do companies effectively adopt product instrumentation? What is the difference between companies that do it well and those that are struggling?

Trisha Price: It’s not just one thing. Successful companies are bold and have frameworks to describe how the job is to be done. The people who build great products understand their ICP [ideal customer profile] rather than trying to build for every customer who could ever use their product. They understand the job to be done, and they’ve done the research. They take the time to innovate and validate their product. Critically, they can get customers interested in the product quickly. If it takes years to get customers and get feedback, then the company will probably be in trouble. They won’t be able to experiment and meet their goals. That’s where the data piece comes in.

Rikki Singh: What can companies do if feedback from customers is limited or if they don’t have as much access to the end customer?

Trisha Price: There are a lot of ways to get access to customers, but sometimes customers don’t have the time to spend with you, so you have to be thoughtful of their time. But it’s important to validate a product with customers, prospects, and the market. There are many tools and ways to do that at scale. And there are ways to do it that aren’t overly time-consuming for your customer base. It will be difficult to hold yourself and your team accountable to outcomes if you’re not talking to customers.

Leadership in product management

Rikki Singh: How have your experiences shaped your approach to understanding the diverse needs, thought processes, and preferences of your product users? Has this perspective influenced your leadership style with your product teams?

Trisha Price: For many years and at different times in my life, I have been the only woman in the room. It’s important to me that representation at all levels looks like the world we live in. I try to advocate for what is right and fair in every aspect of my life. I believe you get better business results with a diverse group of people in the room. That’s also true for how you use your products, how you conduct research when you’re engaging with people about your products, and how you launch your products.

Rikki Singh: How can middle managers accelerate their career growth?

Trisha Price: First, know what you’re asking for. Each major jump in your career is as much of a lifestyle choice as it is your career choice, especially in terms of what you’re giving up or what the job requires. So make sure you really want it. Second, make sure you have a support system around you. I have two high school–age boys, and I wouldn't have been able to make the choices that I’ve made without my husband. The personal part of making the jump to the next stage in your career is equally important, and it’s often discussed less than the responsibilities you have at work.

Third, be willing to learn, read, and ask questions. Being curious has helped me get to where I am. Getting the job done and driving things forward can look different for different personalities. I don’t think there’s a right or wrong way, but a relentless focus on driving outcomes separates the middle-management layer from the next. It takes being bold, not being afraid to put your opinion out there, and not being afraid of rejection.

Trisha Price is the chief product officer at Pendo.io. Rikki Singh is a partner in McKinsey’s Bay Area office.

The author wishes to thank Akul Vijayvargiya, Chandra Gnanasambandam, Dmitry Gafarov, Martin Harrysson, and Nancy Wang for their contributions to this article.

Comments and opinions expressed by interviewees are their own and do not represent or reflect the opinions, policies, or positions of McKinsey & Company or have its endorsement.

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