CASE LOG · READING THE PROMPT

What the prompt is telling you

A case prompt is two or three sentences, and almost every word is doing a job. The client names the business, one phrase names the decision, and one loaded word hints at what the interviewer already knows. Hearing those parts before asking anything is the gear shift: the prompt decides the case type, the case type decides the table to draw, and the table decides the first question.

Part of the case log. Back to the worked case →

The gear shift, on the worked case

The prompt below opened the worked case in the case log. Press the button to hear it the way an experienced caser does: three signal phrases light up in order, then the table that the signal implies draws itself before any numbers arrive.

Our client is Caesars, one of the largest gaming and resort companies in the world. Penn and Teller have headlined at the Rio Hotel since 2001 and are the longest-running headlining show in Las Vegas history. Caesars owns the Rio, where the duo performs in the 1,500-seat Penn and Teller Theater, and is wondering whether the act has become stale. The duo's annual contract is about to expire. Before Caesars meets with them, it has asked for a recommendation on whether or not to re-sign the act for another year.

The odd word. Stale is the interviewer telling you profit has plateaued; it earns a clarifying question.
A contract with a term. The horizon is one year, and a renewal decision is coming.
The decision. Re-sign or replace: a renewal case, which means current economics against an alternative.

Gear shift Renewal case. Current economics first, then an alternative on the same one-year horizon.

The table to pre-draw · Renewal, a profitability case against an alternative
Seats or units	Fill (%)	Price ($)	Events (per year)	Revenue ($M per year)	Cost ($M per year)	Profit ($M per year)	Switching payback (years)

The caser in the room did exactly this. He replayed the prompt, picked on stale, asked about the objective and the time frame, and had a seats, fill, price and shows table waiting before the interviewer read out the first number. Read the worked case from the prompt onward →

How to listen

The prompt is read once. Nothing else in the case is as dense, so the first minute is spent capturing it rather than reacting to it.

Write as the interviewer speaks. Short phrases, not sentences. The client, the industry, every number with its unit, and any adjective that sounds chosen. The notes area on the left of the first sheet is for this, and nothing else goes there.
Replay it back. Client, situation, the question in their mind, in that order: what I heard from you is. The replay confirms nothing was missed and buys the thinking time needed to choose which questions to ask. In the worked case there were about seven seconds of silence and then half a minute of replay.
Check the four reminders. Business, geography, objective, time frame, written beside the notes before the case starts. Objective is asked about every time. The other three are checked silently and asked only when the prompt leaves them unclear; asking about geography when the client runs one theater in Las Vegas is a filler question and does not land well.
Name the case type out loud. Once the objective lands, say what kind of case it is: this is going to be a profitability case, so that will inform the framework. The sentence commits the structure before the framework is written and tells the interviewer where the thinking is going.
Ask for a few moments. One line, the same every time: I think I have what I need, I am going to take a few moments to jot down some thoughts, then I will come back to you. Then the framework, with the table already sketched for the first bucket.

The four reminders beside the notes

Business

Ask only when the prompt names a company without saying what it sells or how it makes money.

In the worked case. A gaming and resort company that owns the theater. Not asked.

Geography

Ask only when the client operates in several markets and the prompt does not say which one matters.

In the worked case. One theater in Las Vegas. Not asked.

Objective

Ask every time, even when it seems obvious. What exactly is the client solving for, and what matters most?

In the worked case. Asked first. The answer, total bottom-line profit, ruled out brand and property questions for the rest of the case.

Time frame

Ask whenever a contract, investment, launch or payback is in play. Over what period does the answer have to hold?

In the worked case. Asked second. The contract term, one year, became the horizon for comparing the alternative.

Eight shapes a clarifying question takes

Three or four questions, then stop. Burning time up front shortchanges the math and the brainstorm at the back. The shapes below are the ones that earn their place; each one has a moment it fits and a moment it wastes.

Objective and metric

What exactly is the client solving for, and what matters most as they weigh this decision?

In the worked case. Asked first in the worked case. The answer was total bottom-line profitability, nothing else.

When it fits

Every case, first. Even a prompt that says profit can mean margin, growth or cash, and a client that says growth may care about share.

When it wastes a question

Once the answer is clear, do not ask it again in different words. One objective question, then move on.

Time frame

Is there a time frame to keep in mind, or is it the foreseeable future?

In the worked case. Asked second. The one-year contract term set the horizon that later made a four-year payback look long.

When it fits

Any decision with a contract, an upfront cost, a launch, a payback or a comparison between options. The horizon changes the answer.

When it wastes a question

When the prompt already states it: over the next three years, by the end of the fiscal year. Repeating a given fact reads as not listening.

The odd word

You said the act was stale. Can you say more about why the client believes that?

In the worked case. Asked third. Stale meant no change in profit for five years, which became the hypothesis.

When it fits

A prompt carries one chosen adjective: stale, struggling, considering, concerned. It is the interviewer pointing at the hidden fact.

When it wastes a question

When the word is ordinary. Picking on largest or recently wastes a question. One odd word per prompt, rarely two.

Scope

Are we looking at all products and regions, or one business, segment or geography in particular?

In the worked case. Not needed in the worked case; one show in one theater.

When it fits

The client is named as a conglomerate or a company with several lines, markets or customer groups, and the prompt does not narrow it.

When it wastes a question

When the prompt already draws the boundary, or the client sells one thing in one place. Asking about geography there is the filler question facilitators warn about.

Baseline numbers

Do we know roughly what the business earns today, revenue and cost, before we go further?

In the worked case. Not asked up front. The caser drove to the financials himself after the framework, revenue first, and the data came then.

When it fits

Profit has declined, costs are rising, or a target has to be beaten: knowing the current number sets the scale for everything else.

When it wastes a question

As a request for all the data before structuring. The interviewer hands numbers when a bucket is reached, not before. Ask for one anchor figure at most.

Constraints

Is there a budget, a capacity limit or a regulatory constraint that bounds what the client can do?

In the worked case. Implicit: the alternative act came with a fixed switching cost and the same 240 shows.

When it fits

Investment, market entry, capacity and launch cases, where the answer depends on what the client can afford or is allowed to do.

When it wastes a question

Pure diagnosis cases such as why profit fell. The constraint question belongs in the recommendation stage there, not the opening.

What has already been tried

Has the client already tried anything to address this, and what happened?

In the worked case. Not asked; the prompt gave no history of attempts.

When it fits

Declining or flat performance, turnarounds, competitive response. Knowing what failed rules out buckets and shows the interviewer the case is being treated as real.

When it wastes a question

New ventures, market entry, market sizing. There is nothing to have tried yet, and the question sounds borrowed.

How success will be judged

A year from now, how will the client know this worked?

In the worked case. Not needed; the objective answer, bottom-line profit, already said how success would be judged.

When it fits

The objective is qualitative or shared across several stakeholders: a public body, a nonprofit, a brand decision, an employee program.

When it wastes a question

When the objective is already one number. Asking how success will be judged after hearing total profit is the same question twice.

Breakout facilitators added one habit worth carrying into every question: say areas or segments, never buckets. Interviews are run the way practice is run.

Twelve signals and the table each one implies

Semantic analysis, in practice: a phrase in the prompt names the case type, the case type tells you what the interviewer is likely holding, and that tells you which table to draw before the numbers arrive. Each card is one signal. The pre-drawn table is a row of column headers with units; the numbers get written in as they are handed over.

should we invest / acquire / buy

Investment or acquisition

What you will likely be handed

A purchase price or upfront cost, the target's or project's revenue and cost, and a horizon. Sometimes synergies, usually optimistic.

The table to pre-draw

Price ($)
Volume (units per year)
Revenue ($M per year)
Variable cost ($M per year)
Fixed cost ($M per year)
One-time cost ($M)
Horizon (years)
Payback (years)

Zeros rule for any table with money in it: write in millions, 22.8M not 22,800,000, and keep one unit per column. A column that mixes dollars and thousands of dollars is where the arithmetic goes wrong.

First clarifying question

What return does the client need from this, and over what horizon?

should we enter

Market entry

What you will likely be handed

Market size and growth, competitor shares, the client's likely price and unit cost, and an entry cost. Occasionally a choice of entry mode.

The table to pre-draw

Market size ($M or units)
Growth (% per year)
Reachable share (%)
Price ($)
Variable cost ($ per unit)
Entry cost ($M)
Break-even (units)

First clarifying question

Why does the client want to enter, and does the new market have to stand on its own profit or support the core business?

profits have declined

Profitability

What you will likely be handed

Revenue and cost for the last few years, often split by product, segment or region, and sometimes a competitor benchmark.

The table to pre-draw

Year
Volume (units)
Price ($)
Revenue ($M)
Variable cost ($M)
Fixed cost ($M)
Profit ($M)
Margin (%)

First clarifying question

Since when, by how much, and is it revenue, cost or both that moved?

revenue is flat while the market grows

Growth

What you will likely be handed

The market growth rate, competitor shares over time, the client's price against the market, and a segment or channel mix.

The table to pre-draw

Segment
Market size ($M)
Market growth (% per year)
Client revenue ($M)
Client share (%)
Price versus market ($)

First clarifying question

Is the whole market growing or one segment of it, and where is the client losing share?

costs are rising

Cost and operations

What you will likely be handed

A cost breakdown by line for two periods, volume for the same periods, and sometimes supplier or wage data.

The table to pre-draw

Cost line
Fixed or variable
Last year ($M)
This year ($M)
Change (%)
Per unit ($ per unit)

First clarifying question

Which cost lines are rising, and has volume changed with them?

whether to re-sign / renew / keep

Renewal, a profitability case against an alternative

What you will likely be handed

The current economics of the arrangement: capacity, fill, price and events per year, the cost of the contract and of running it, then an alternative with its own cost and a one-time switching cost.

The table to pre-draw

Seats or units
Fill (%)
Price ($)
Events (per year)
Revenue ($M per year)
Cost ($M per year)
Profit ($M per year)
Switching payback (years)

First clarifying question

Is the client solving for bottom-line profit alone, and over the length of the contract or longer?

Worked case. The worked case. Revenue came to $95,000 per show and $22.8M a year; costs to $4.8M; the alternative act earned $0.6M more a year but took four years to pay back its $2.4M switching cost.

launch a new product

New product

What you will likely be handed

A target customer count, an adoption or trial rate, a price, a unit cost, a development cost, and sometimes the sales it would take from an existing product.

The table to pre-draw

Customers (count)
Adoption (%)
Price ($)
Variable cost ($ per unit)
Contribution ($ per unit)
Development cost ($M)
Cannibalized sales ($M)
Break-even (units)

First clarifying question

Who is the customer, and does the product replace anything the client already sells?

how should we price

Pricing

What you will likely be handed

Unit cost, competitor prices, willingness to pay by segment, and volume at two or three price points.

The table to pre-draw

Segment
Willingness to pay ($)
Competitor price ($)
Variable cost ($ per unit)
Price ($)
Volume (units)
Contribution ($M)

First clarifying question

Is this a new price or a change to an existing one, and is the goal margin, share or volume?

capacity / backlog / wait times

Operations and capacity

What you will likely be handed

Demand per period, the steps of the process with a time per unit each, how many stations work each step, and current utilization.

The table to pre-draw

Step
Time per unit (minutes)
Stations (count)
Capacity (units per hour)
Demand (units per hour)
Utilization (%)

First clarifying question

Where is the queue forming, and is demand steady or does it peak?

which of two options

Comparison of options

What you will likely be handed

The same inputs for both options side by side, usually with one option carrying an upfront cost and the other carrying a risk.

The table to pre-draw

Option
Revenue ($M per year)
Cost ($M per year)
Profit ($M per year)
One-time cost ($M)
Payback (years)
Main risk

First clarifying question

On what basis does the client want to compare them, profit, risk or speed, and over what horizon?

estimate the size of

Market sizing

What you will likely be handed

Almost nothing. The population, rates and prices are yours to propose; the interviewer confirms or adjusts each step.

The table to pre-draw

Population (count)
Eligible (%)
Adopters (%)
Frequency (per year)
Price ($)
Market ($M per year)

First clarifying question

Is this the total market or the client's reachable share, and in units or dollars per year?

a competitor just

Competitive response

What you will likely be handed

What the competitor did, a price cut, a launch or an entry, which of the client's customers it reaches, and the client's cost position against it.

The table to pre-draw

Segment
Client volume (units)
At risk (%)
Contribution ($ per unit)
Profit at risk ($M)
Response cost ($M)

First clarifying question

What exactly did the competitor do, and which of the client's customers can it reach?

Keep going

Rehearse hearing a promptThe opening drills: a prompt read aloud, a small scratch sheet, labels before explanations. → Industry lenses and the word bankThe framework library: eight case types, what each industry's economics look like, and the terms as they are said in a case. → From business problem to case typeThe case atlas: six buckets, ten case types, each with a diagram and a scratch sheet. → The worked case, start to finishThe case log: the demonstration case in the order it moved, the habits worth copying, and a private log in My Harper. →