Student Question:
Recently I came across a book called ‘The Minto Pyramid’, you might know this book, by Barbara Minto, ex-McKinsey. Would you recommend me to use MINTO principle? This way I can show the interviewer I am 100% hypothesis driven and I don’t ask any irrelevant data.
Would you recommend this and what is your view about this as a past interviewer?
I was wondering what your view is on this method to apply to cases, this might help to form a HYPOTHESIS and ASK ONLY data which you 100% need.
Like in these examples
Example 1: Company A faces profitability issues, please come up with strategies.
Minto Method:
Hypothesis 1 – Profitability can be increased
Hypothesis 1.1 – Revenues can be increased
Hypothesis 1.2 – Costs can be decreased
Hypothesis 1.1.1 – Revenue a can increase
Hypothesis 1.1.2 – Revenue b can increase
Hypothesis 1.1.3 – We can introduce a new product
Hypothesis 1.2.1 – Fixed costs can decaise
Hypothesis 1.2.2 – Variable costs decrease
Hypothesis 1.1.1.1 – Price A can be increased
Etc.
Example 2: Carlsberg wants to enter the Italian market shall they do this?
Hypothesis 1 – Carlsberg should enter the Italian market
Hypothesis 1.1 – The Italian market is attractive
Hypothesis 1.2 – The financial analysis indicates a significant profit per year
Hypothesis 1.3 – Carlsberg has the capability to enter the market
Hypothesis 1.4 – There are no significant risks/impact
Hypothesis 1.1.1 – The industry is attractive
Hypothesis 1.1.2 – The threat of competition is ignorable
Hypothesis 1.1.3 – The consumer likes Carlsberg
Etc.
My Response:
Yes, Yes, Yes!
This is what we did every day at McKinsey. On day 1 of an engagement, hour 1 of the first day, we’d draw up an outline (we actually used a visual story board version of the outline) of the final presentation–making lots of assumptions (essentially hypotheses).
Of course, the outline was not yet factually supported. Next, we’d ask ourselves, “What data do we need to test each part of the outline to either validate the hypothesis as correct or incorrect?” Then we’d go to the travel department, book our airline tickets, and go get the data (at the client site, visiting our client’s client to interview them, etc…).
So yes, in general, the structured approach that’s very hypothesis driven is a good one to take.