Written Case Drill
A written case has appeared in product and graduate loops, and it is the stage with the least preparation available anywhere. Candidates rehearse speaking, because mock interviews exist. Almost nobody rehearses writing, and the two are not the same skill. A spoken answer is rescued by the follow-up question. A written one is read once, alone, by someone deciding between you and four other people, and everything you failed to say is simply absent.
Three briefs, a clock, and a check on the parts a written recommendation cannot do without.
Pick a brief
Three notes with three different problems: a decision under a constraint, a diagnosis, and a recommendation your reader has already half-made for you.
Your team has committed to three features this quarter and has capacity for two. A onboarding rebuild the design team has already started, an integration a large customer asked for by name, and a performance fix that affects everyone slightly.
Recommend which one to cut, and make the case in a single note.
250–500 words · 40 minutes
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What a strong note does on this brief
Worth writing your own first. Reading the answer before you write it is the fastest way to learn nothing.
Needs work
Structure only. Open a category to see what each check wants and how to fix it.
- Leads with the recommendationThe first 45 words do not contain a recommendation. Put the decision in the first two sentences. Background, options and reasoning all read better after the answer than before it, and a reader who has to hunt for your position assumes you do not have one.
- Names who is affectedNobody appears in this note. It reads as a decision about features rather than about people. Name the group each option helps or costs. "The customers on the older integration" beats "users", and it is the difference between a recommendation and an opinion.
- Carries at least one numberNothing in this note is quantified. Put a number on the size, the cost or the effect, even a rough one, and label it as an estimate. An estimate you have labelled is credible; an adjective is not. This checks that a number is present, not that it is right.
- Says what you rejected and whyNo rejected option appears. A recommendation with no visible alternative reads as the only idea you had. Name the strongest option you did not choose and say what you gave up by not choosing it. This is the single most common gap in written cases, and the one interviewers most reliably notice.
What this cannot see
Whether your recommendation is any good. A well-structured wrong answer scores highly here. What it catches is the way most weak submissions are weak: no decision in the opening, no rejected alternative, no way to be wrong.
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