Case Study Interview at Director Level
How Senior Cases Are Set, What Assessors Score and a Six-Step Method

The key insight:

A senior case study is not a maths test. It is a test of whether you can reach a defensible recommendation on incomplete information and say what would change your mind.

At director level, the case study is rarely the consulting-style exercise you may have sat as a graduate. It is closer to a piece of real work: a pack of papers about a business that is losing margin, a proposed acquisition, a stalled programme or a market entry, and a request to tell the panel what you would do. The hiring team is not looking for the answer. It is looking at how you get to one.

This guide covers the analysis and recommendation. It sets out how senior cases are set, what assessors score, a six-step method, a worked example and the mistakes that sink strong candidates. The presenting side, including how to structure and defend the delivery, has its own guide in our piece on the interview presentation at director level. If you want to see where your natural strengths will help or hurt you under time pressure, you can take the free Leadership Psychometric, a 50-question leadership profile scoring five dimensions.

Start with the practice material. The free question banks cover judgement and pressure questions, with example answers, the commercial role questions and the finance role questions, and the index of all banks shows the rest. Case studies usually sit alongside questions like these, and the same reasoning is being tested.

How senior cases are set

Public guidance describes the same range. The University of Cambridge Careers Service says that written tests usually reflect the kind of work the role involves and typically last 40 to 60 minutes, that for senior roles presentation material may be sent in advance, and that in-tray exercises look at how candidates prioritise and decide. The Cabinet Office's Success Profiles candidate overview notes that the Civil Service uses a range of assessment methods depending on the role and level, and that an assessment centre usually combines several, for example an interview, a presentation and an online test. Ask the recruiter exactly which you are facing and what the panel will be scoring.

What assessors score

Panels rarely score the answer. They score four things that sit underneath it.

Framing. Did you identify the real question, or answer the one that was easiest? The strongest candidates restate the problem in a sentence before they start.

Analysis. Is the reasoning sound, and are the numbers used to decide something rather than decorate a page?

Recommendation. Is there a clear position, with a reason and an order of steps? A panel will forgive an imperfect answer long before it forgives an absent one.

People and risk. Did you consider who has to change what they do, who will resist and what could go wrong?

JOH Partners makes a related point from the hiring side: its note on the chief strategy officer role observes that standard case exercises test analytical rigour well but rarely test whether a candidate has held a contrary position under pressure. Expect a good panel to push back on your recommendation to see whether you hold, adjust or abandon it, and why. Our guide to what a senior panel is testing covers the wider picture.

A six-step method for a senior case

1. Restate the question. One sentence: what decision are you being asked to help make, and by when?
2. State your assumptions. Write down what you are assuming and which you would verify first. Missing data is the test, not an obstacle.
3. Find the two or three numbers that matter. Do not analyse everything. Choose the figures that would change the decision.
4. Generate two or three options. Include the option of doing little. Say what each costs and what each risks.
5. Recommend one and say why. Commit early, in one sentence, and then support it.
6. Cover people, risk and next steps. Who has to change, what could go wrong, what you would do in the first 30 days and what would change your recommendation.

This sequence works in a 30-minute live problem and in a take-home pack. In a take-home you have time to polish; the structure is the same.

A worked example

This is an illustrative brief, not a real company.

The brief. A distribution group has seen operating margin fall by four points over two years while revenue has grown. You have a three-page pack and 45 minutes. The board wants a recommendation on whether to cut cost, raise price or restructure the portfolio.

Framing. "The decision is where to act first on margin, given that revenue growth is not producing profit."

Assumptions. "I am assuming the margin fall is mix and cost driven rather than a one-off. I would verify that first, by splitting margin by customer segment and by product line."

The two numbers that matter. Gross margin by segment and cost to serve by customer. If a small number of large customers account for most of the margin erosion, price and terms are the lever. If the fall is spread evenly, the issue is cost.

Options. Reprice and renegotiate terms with the lowest-margin customers; cut cost to serve by simplifying delivery routes; exit the two weakest segments. Do-nothing is not an option, but waiting 60 days for better data is, if the first test is cheap.

Recommendation. "Start with price and terms on the bottom quartile of customers, because it is the fastest and the most reversible. In parallel, run a 60-day review of cost to serve. Defer any portfolio exit until the segment data is clear."

People and risk. "Sales leaders will resist repricing because they own the relationships. I would ask them to nominate the accounts, not impose a list. The risk is losing a large customer; I would cap the first wave to limit exposure."

Notice the shape: a position within the first few minutes, two numbers and not twenty, and an honest account of what could go wrong.

The mistakes that sink strong candidates

• Over-analysis with no recommendation. The most common. If you run out of time with no position, you have failed the exercise whatever the quality of the analysis.
• A framework instead of the problem. Reaching for a model because it feels safe, instead of thinking about this business.
• Ignoring people. Senior cases are rarely solved by a spreadsheet alone. Who has to do something different is half of the answer.
• Hiding the assumptions. Assessors can accept an assumption they can see. They cannot give credit for one they cannot find.
• Defending every point. When pushed, change your view on good evidence. A calm change of position counts in your favour.

In the Gulf

At government-related entities, case exercises tend to sit inside a structured, scored process with a panel and a defined set of criteria, often alongside a presentation. Family groups are more likely to give a live conversation about a real problem the business faces. In both, the principal or chair may attend, so the recommendation needs to be clear enough to be repeated by someone who was not in the room. Our guide to final interview questions at senior level covers the last-round conversation that often follows.

What to do next

The question banks are free, and with Pro you can practise on your own CV and get candid written feedback on every answer. If you want a view of how you are likely to behave when the clock is running, the Leadership Psychometric overview sets out what the 50-question profile covers, and you can create a free account and take it. The wider Career Strategy collection covers the rest of the process.

Key takeaways

• A senior case study tests judgement on incomplete information, not arithmetic. It is a piece of real work, not a graduate-style puzzle.
• Cases come as take-home packs, live problems, board papers and in-tray exercises. Ask the recruiter which and what is being scored.
• Assessors score framing, analysis, recommendation, and people and risk. A clear position beats a perfect analysis with no conclusion.
• Use a simple method: restate, assume, find the numbers that matter, generate options, recommend and cover people, risk and next steps.
• The free question banks cover judgement, commercial and finance questions, with example answers. Pro adds practice on your own CV with written feedback.

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