Interview reminders

Question 1

How could one find a trend?

Answer 1

Compare current year metrics to historical

Question 2

How could one understand if a problem is company specific or industry-wide?

Answer 2

Compare company metrics to customer metrics e.g.
—> revenues
—> gross margins
—> unit sales
—> pricing
—> changes in segment mix
—> product mix

Question 3

Why should one segment the metrics?

Answer 3

As totals and averages are very misleading
E.g. total sales are flat but segment A represents 20% of sales and segment B represent 80%. Segment A grew 100% and segment B declined 25% but the total is still flat.. misleading

Question 4

why should one always segment?

Answer 4

“It seems like a more detailed breakdown of revenues would be useful, do we have more detailed data on revenues?”

Question 5

How could one segment revenues?

Answer 5

1. by product
2. by channel
3. by customer type
4. by region

Question 6

How could one calculate with revenues?

Answer 6

1. Total revenues

2. Revenues per unit

Question 7

How could one segment costs?

Answer 7

1. fixed vs variable costs

2. costs within each segment of the value chain

Question 8

How could one calculate with costs?

Answer 8

1. total costs

2. costs/unit

Question 9

How could one segment customers?

Answer 9

1. demographics
2. needs
3. purchasing patterns
4. pricing points

Question 10

How could one segment competitors?

Answer 10

1. channel
2. region
3. product
4. customer segment

Question 11

Why should one think out loud?

Answer 11

usually in response to receiving data and realizing your hypothesis is right or wrong