Question:
Thank you so much for all the help that you gave us. I am going to sign up with a boutique consulting firm, and wondering can you add me into the loop of F1Y?
I also would love to hear your thoughts on my McKinsey final round feedback. I got the feedback that I was over-structuring, and it was the first time I ever heard of that term. Do you mind share your opinion with me on:
1. What approach will look like over-structuring to you?
2. Will over-structuring kill the creativity?
3. What I can do to avoid that?
Again, really appreciate your time and effort.
My Reply:
For over-structured, it’s a little hard for me to tell without hearing what you specifically said. In general, over-structured means structured, but in the wrong way.
The structure can be wrong in any number of ways, all of which would be described as over-structured.
A few ways include:
1) Using a framework that really doesn’t fit the case very well (a.k.a. forcing the wrong structure)
2) Not recognizing that the specific case requires modifying a framework to accomodate the unusual aspects of that particular case
3) Having structure, but no hypothesis. All structure should extend from a hypothesis. When structure exists without a hypothesis, it can sometimes be perceived as over-structured… because it is structure without a point of focus. The focus of the structure should be to prove/disprove the hypothesis.
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