Every prep list on the internet will hand you the same framework skeletons — profitability, market entry, the four Cs. What none of them can show you is how a consultant builds one: which branch opens the tree, why revenue comes before cost here, and when the “standard” structure is the wrong one. This free lesson builds seven core framework trees branch by branch on the page — each one landing where a real case would use it — then recaps the toolkit on a single card wall you can revise from. Frameworks are commodity knowledge; this is how they become yours.
Start the free lesson → What’s inside Chapter: 3 · Building your structure · Format: interactive, reads like a lesson · Cost: free, no card A sample of the first framework tree in this lesson, shown as it builds in the lesson. /learn · a sample of the lessonFramework 1
Structure phase
Start this lesson →One phase, built in beats: each framework tree grows on the page — branches landing with the beat that argues for them — and a recap wall closes the lesson.
The treesSeven core frameworks — profitability, market entry, and the rest of the toolkit — built branch by branch, with the “why this tree here” reasoning carried in the narration.
The judgementWhere the standard tree bends: which branches collapse, which questions re-order them, and how a tailored structure beats a memorised one.
The recapA card wall of the whole toolkit to close the lesson — the revision surface you will actually come back to.
The other free lessons: How a case unfolds → Case interview math →A framework is a starting set of questions for a type of problem, not an answer. Interviewers have heard every memorised framework many times, and what they mark is whether your structure fits this client. So learn the core trees well enough to take them apart, then rebuild them for each case. Here are the trees the lesson builds and the rest of the toolkit it recaps, with what each is for.
Profit is revenue minus costs. Revenue splits into price and volume, and costs into variable and fixed. Price hides discounting, mix and bundling; volume hides customer numbers, how often they buy and how long they stay. Start on the side the data points to, and look outside the client too: if the whole market fell, the cause is not the client.
Grow the core first (more customers, more from each, keep them longer), then move next to the core (new products for current customers, current products for new markets), and only then into new businesses or acquisitions. The closer to the core, the cheaper and safer the growth.
Four questions: is the market attractive (size, growth, margins), can we win (competitors, our advantage, barriers), do the economics work (entry cost, expected share, payback), and how should we enter (build, buy or partner)? The last one is the one candidates forget.
Close to market entry, but the market may already be ours. Ask who the product is for and what problem it solves, whether customers will pay enough, whether we can make and sell it at that price, and how the launch should be sequenced.
Three views set the range. Cost sets the floor, customers’ willingness to pay sets the ceiling, and competitors’ prices decide where in between you can sit. Then look at the structure (tiers, bundles, discounts) and how competitors and existing customers will respond.
Map the cost base, find the large lines and the fast-growing ones, and benchmark them against peers. For each lever, ask what it saves, what it costs to achieve and what it does to quality. A cut customers notice is not a saving.
Draw the process step by step, find the bottleneck, and test capacity against demand. Then work through people, equipment and suppliers. The slowest step sets the output of the whole system, so fixing anything else adds nothing.
Choose top down (population, the share who buy, how often, at what price) or bottom up (units sold by known suppliers). State every assumption as you make it, round to easy numbers, and sense-check the result against something you know.
The 4Cs (customers, competitors, company, cost) describe the situation; the 4Ps (product, price, place, promotion) describe the response. Use them for marketing and customer questions, not as a default tree for every case.
Porter’s five forces (rivals, new entrants, substitutes, buyer power, supplier power) explain why some industries earn more than others. Use them when the question is about an industry, such as whether to invest in it, rather than about one firm’s problem.
Look at the target’s market, the target itself, the synergies, and the price against the value. For a private equity buyer, add the cash flow, the debt the business can carry and the exit. Ask what the deal is for before valuing it.
When the case gives you several options, score them on impact, feasibility, cost and time to results. A simple two-by-two of impact against effort is often enough, as long as each option has a number behind it.
Who has to do what, in what order, with what money and people, and what could stop it? Interviewers raise this at the end of a case; an answer that cannot be carried out is not a recommendation.
Case Ace’s Structure drills hand you a real brief and mark the structure you build against it — in about two minutes each. There are 221 drills across nine skills, inside 45 lessons and 46 AI-run cases.
The first part of the lesson is open to everyone. Create a free account — ten seconds, email or Google/Microsoft — and the whole lesson opens, your spot is saved, and the drills unlock.