Case frameworks: know them, then do without them
A framework is a structure prepared in advance for a type of problem: the profit tree for falling profit, two questions for a market entry, four boxes for a portfolio of businesses. Each page of this guide explains one framework, runs it on a case with numbers, then shows where it stops helping. Because in an interview, a recited framework is the first thing an interviewer recognises.
Should you learn the frameworks?
Yes, the way you learn vocabulary, not the way you learn a speech. Knowing them saves you from reinventing what everyone knows: that profit breaks down into revenue and costs, that a price sits between a cost and a value, that an attractive market is not enough if you have nothing distinctive to bring to it. A candidate who lacks these reference points loses time and misses obvious questions.
The problem starts when the framework replaces the thinking. An interview case is built so that a generic structure is not enough: the answer hides in a segment, in one step of a process, in a detail of the prompt that no framework will make you look at. Interviewers hear "I will look at the market, the competitors and the company" several times a day, and it tells them nothing about the candidate.
What firms assess is your ability to build a structure from the question asked. That is the stance of the FrameLab course, designed against recitation: it teaches five reasoning building blocks, the driver tree, the issue tree, segmentation, process mapping and business mental models, which you assemble differently for each case. The frameworks on this page have their place in it, as reference points.
Frameworks by case type
These six frameworks match the prompts you will meet most often. Each gives a starting point, to be rewritten in the client's words.
- ProfitabilityThe profit tree, from revenue and costs down to the driver that explains the drop
- Market entryIs the market attractive, and can we win there: the two questions and what they leave out
- Mergers and acquisitionsStandalone value, synergies, price and risks: up to what point the deal creates value
- PricingCosts, competition, customer value: three reference points to set a price, and what is left to decide
- GrowthThe Ansoff matrix and the revenue driver tree to quantify where growth will come from
- Market sizingEstimating the size of a market with an equation, stated assumptions and a sanity check
Reasoning tools
These tools are not tied to a case type. The first four are used in every interview, to break down a problem, choose where to start and present a conclusion. The next four are classic lenses from strategy and marketing.
- MECEMutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive: the test that validates a breakdown, with examples and exercises
- Issue treeBreaking a question into sub-questions until you can answer them: construction, example and pitfalls
- Minto pyramidThe answer first, then the arguments, then the facts: structuring a recommendation
- Leading hypothesisBetting on a likely answer and looking for the data that confirms or overturns it
- BCG matrixStars, cash cows, question marks and dogs: reading a portfolio of businesses, without trusting it blindly
- Porter's five forcesWhy some industries earn more than others: the five forces, an example and their blind spots
- The 4Ps of marketingProduct, price, place, promotion: checking that an offer is coherent, not justifying it
- The 3CsCustomer, competitors, company: Ohmae's strategic triangle, and why three lists do not make an answer
How to go from a framework to a tailored structure
Three habits are enough to turn a learned framework into a structure that talks about the case.
- Start from the question, not the name of the case. Before choosing a structure, rephrase what the client wants to know. "Why is profit falling" and "should we close this site" both look like profitability and do not call for the same reasoning.
- Rewrite each branch in the words of the prompt. "Number of members times the average fee" instead of "volume and price". If your structure could be used as is for another company, it is too generic.
- Say where you start and why. A structure with no priority is an inventory. A hypothesis, even a wrong one, shows that you are choosing.
The rest is practice, on prompts you have never seen. FrameLab's 180+ real interview cases and the interview questions are there for that, and the market sizing tool is free to use for working on estimates.
Frequently asked questions
What is a framework in a consulting interview?
It is a standard structure that splits a business problem into a few big questions, for example revenue and costs for a profitability case. It serves as a starting point to organise the analysis of a case.
How many frameworks do you need to know?
Few. The profit tree, the logic of a market entry, of an acquisition and of a price cover the vast majority of prompts. What makes the difference after that is MECE, the issue tree and the habit of adapting the structure to the case.
Do interviewers penalise the use of a framework?
They penalise recitation, not knowledge. A classic structure adapted to the case, in the client's words and with a stated priority, is well received. The same structure laid out as is, with no link to the prompt, gives the impression that the candidate did not listen.
Which framework should you start with?
With MECE and the issue tree, because they are used in every case, then with profitability, which is the most common case type. The others are quick to grasp once you master these three.