Cases and Careers

Crack the Consulting Case Interview - MBB / Big4

Monash University

Coles Group

Scyne Advisory

Unilever

Gowtham Pitchuka

Founder - Cases and Careers

Learn strategic consulting approaches and develop structured thinking to tackle complex business problems effectively.

Master Problem-Solving Frameworks

Master proven tools and methodologies used by top consulting firms to break down and solve challenging cases.

Apply Case-Solving Methodology

Enhance your analytical and critical thinking abilities to approach cases with confidence and precision.

Develop Critical Analysis Skills

You're excited about the opportunity to land a PM role at a major tech company, but the interview process feels like a maze. Despite all the advice online, you're still second-guessing yourself. What exactly are they looking for? How do you stand out? You've tried prepping on your own: reviewing countless resources, practicing frameworks, and memorizing examples. But you're not sure if you're actually getting better. You're stuck wondering, "Am I ready?" It's scary. Tech interviews are more competitive than ever. With every passing year, the bar seems to get higher. Plus, many companies are leaning even harder on Product Sense and Analytical Thinking to evaluate PMs. If you're not confident in these areas, you're at a serious disadvantage going into interviews. ﻿Now imagine if you could: ✅ Walk into your interviews with a clear plan and actionable frameworks that work across any question or scenario.✅ Understand exactly how interviewers think and what they're looking for when assessing Product Sense and Analytical Thinking.✅ Lead discussions confidently, showcasing your strategic thinking and creativity, even under pressure.✅ Practice with an AI copilot trained on expert responses, allowing you to see what great answers look like from an interviewer's perspective.✅ Communicate structured, compelling answers without sounding rehearsed.✅ Use feedback loops, mock interviews, and AI-powered practice sessions to refine your performance in real time.✅ Leave your interviews knowing you provided the signals they're looking for. 🏆 Why this course will help you win 🏆↳ Master Interview Frameworks: Navigate complex PM interviews with confidence by learning battle-tested frameworks for both Product Sense and Analytical Thinking questions.↳ Stand Out With Structured Thinking: Demonstrate clear, logical thinking that impresses interviewers through frameworks that break down complex problems into manageable components.↳ Practice Like It's Real: Get hands-on experience with real interview questions and receive expert feedback that helps you understand exactly what top companies are looking for.↳ Build Interview Confidence: Transform interview anxiety into confidence by mastering proven templates and practicing with an AI copilot trained on expert responses.↳ Level Up Your Communication: Learn to articulate your thoughts clearly and confidently under pressure, a crucial skill that differentiates top PM candidates. Each cohort includes (in addition to templates, AI copilot access, and lifetime course materials):🎯 Direct access to me via email with 24-hour response guarantee during the cohort🎯 4 hours of live interactive sessions with case-style discussions and real-time feedback🎯 3 optional 60-min office hours sessions for Q&amp;A with me + a guest PM (ex-Meta, ex-Google) who is a calibrated interviewer🎯 Personalized Loom feedback on your take-home project submissions Getting started is easy:1️⃣ Watch my free lightning lessons on Maven to understand the fundamentals of Product Sense and Analytical Thinking interviews: https://maven.com/ben-erez2️⃣ Join the live cohort to master the skills and frameworks you need to excel in Product Sense and Analytical Thinking interviews at top tech companies. 💡You should NOT take this course if:↳ You're seeking generic interview prep - this course is specifically designed for Product Sense &amp; Analytical Thinking interviews↳ You're not able to commit ~10 hours over the 3-week cohort period (including live sessions and take-home projects)↳ You're interviewing exclusively with companies that don't use structured PM interviews (e.g. early-stage startups or non-tech companies)↳ You're BOTH (1) unable to attend the live sessions and (2) don't trust yourself to learn well through recorded content to catch up

Does this sound familiar?

Course syllabus

We'll have two 2-hour sessions (one in 1st week, one in 2nd week). There will also be three optional 1-hour office hours for Q&amp;A. Students will also have two take-home projects (one for Product Sense, one for Analytical), each expected to require ~1.5 hours to complete).

Interactive case-style group discussions + office hours + homework

Course schedule

Busy PMs and Product Leaders seeking to land roles at top tech companies such as Meta, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, etc.

Big Tech PM Candidates who have been practicing for Product Sense and Analytical Thinking interviews but things aren't quite clicking yet.

Experienced PMs who are rusty on structured interviews after many years "in the seat" and need to get their interview muscles working again.

Who is this course for

What you’ll get out of this course

📧 Email me anytime with 24-hour response guarantee💡 Schedule 1:1 huddles (15-30 minutes) when concepts need clarification🤝 Get personalized attention until everything clicks

Direct Access & Support

📋 Receive detailed templates optimized for interview success🎯 Learn evaluation criteria used by interviewers✨ Access pre-filled templates showing passing answers to PS and AT questions

Interview Frameworks & Templates

🎭 Get unlimited practice with your personal AI interview copilot🔄 Receive instant feedback based on expert frameworks💻 Step-by-step guide to set up your Claude Projects-powered coach

AI-Powered Practice

🗣️ Participate in live case-style discussions with expert facilitation📝 Work through 2 Product Sense &amp; 2 Analytical Thinking questions🎥 Receive detailed Loom feedback on take home projects

Hands-On Practice

🤝 Connect with fellow students who share the same foundation💪 Practice with peers for interviews📈 Share actionable feedback with each other using my evaluation rubric

Community & Collaboration

Master Product Sense and Analytical interviews with live case discussions, an AI practice copilot, and expert coaching from a former Meta PM

Ben Erez

Former Product Manager at Meta


April 2025

May 2025

JTBD + BeSci is a powerful combination! They work together like Peanut Butter &amp; Jelly, Mac &amp; Cheese, Hot Cocoa &amp; Marshmallows. I've been teaching my clients how to leverage customer jobs-to-be-done based insights research for over a decade. It's a powerful approach to leverage when focused on customer development or product discovery. Just recently I discovered the power of integrating applied behavioral science leveraging the makeit toolkit into this approach and want to share what I've learned with anyone who wants to create better experiences for customers. Helping them overcome barriers to progress as they accomplish their jobs-to-be-done. We'll walk through The Wheel of Progress® framework, in a presentation format, teaching you about The Cycle of Customer Progress:- First Thought- Passively Looking- 1st Triggering Event- Actively Looking- 2nd Triggering Event- Deciding- Hiring/Firing- Consuming- Continuous Use You'll also learn about identifying the twelve (12) different Elements of Progress:- Events- Forces and Desires (habits, pushes, desires, avoidances, pulls, anxieties)- Jobs, Pains and Gains- Solutions (core job, prior, in-conjunction, co-existing)- Contraints (internal, external, temporal) and the concept of Switching Behavior, where promoting forces (pushes, desires, pulls) must outweigh blocking forces (habits, avoidances, anxieties) for switching behavior to occur. You'll get an introduction to the Five Laws of Behavior: 1st Law: B=f(P*E) by Kurt Lewin; 2nd Law: B=f(S1,S2) by Daniel Kahneman; 3rd Law: A-&gt; B -&gt; C by B. F. Skinner; 4th Law: B=MAP by B. J. Fogg; and 5th Law: B=f(I,E) by Deci and Ryan. We'll be focused on applying both the 1st Law: B=f(P*E) and 4th Law: B=MAP in relationship to Barriers to Progress analysis. You'll learn how to listen for and identify 18 behavioral barriers to progress having to do with Motivation-related:- Procrastination- Fear of Failure- Personal Belief (Norms)- Personal Belief (Cost)- Action-Impact Gap- Status Quo Bias Ability-related:- Lack of Time- Lack of Skill- Lack of Tools- Hassle Factor- Lack of social Support- Choice Overload Prompt/Attention-related:- Anchor Bias- Lack of Information- Lack of Prompts (triggers)- Low Mental Bandwidth- Forgetfulness- Present Bias Each of these behavioral barriers to progress has the ability to prevent people from completing the Cycle of Progress. Some having to do with the Person and others having to do with the Environment in relation to the 1st Law of Behavior. It's a practical, hands-on class packed full of eight tailored JTBD + BeSci listening exercises: (1) Listening for Customer Jobs (B2C focused)(2) Listening for Customer Jobs (B2B focused)(3) Listening for Forces and Desires (habits, pushes, desires, avoidances, pulls, anxieties)(4) Listening for Events as part of the Cycle of Progress (first thought, 1st triggering event, 2nd triggering event, hiring/firing, continuous use)(5) Listening for Constraints (internal, external, temporal) that influence the Solution Set(6) Listening for Solutions (prior, core functional job, considered, for progress, in conjunction)(7) Listening for Jobs, Pains and Gains(8) Listening for Behavioral Barriers to Progress (person, environment, motivation, ability, prompt/attention) You'll listen to a combination of advertisements and actual JTBD interviews practicing different JTBD listening skills. My clients have included: American Honda, Canada Goose, Citibank, ecobee, G Adventures, Gympass, Humana, lululemon athletica, Modesens, Porch, Royal Ambulance, Shaklee, and TransAlta.

Customer Jobs-to-be-Done Listening Skills (JTBD + BeSci ) 

Customer jobs-to-be-done Insights Research + Applied Behavioral Science

We'll be meeting LIVE as a cohort walking through specific topics each session, some group discussion, and a combination of individual and group exercises.

Three LIVE Cohort Sessions + Homework Assignments

Session 1: Overview of The Wheel of Progress (Cycle of Customer Progress) Session 2: Customer Progress and BeSci Barriers &amp; Constraints Session 3: Review and feedback on Assignments plus Additional JTBD Topics

LIVE Cohort Sessions with eight different JTBD Listening Exercises

Leveraging the Maven community for posting announcements, reading materials, general discussion, and takeaways from the class

Maven Community

Three Sessions LIVE Cohort Classes

A Startup Founder who wants to shorten the path to product-market fit.

The Marketer who wants to better tailor their messaging speaking to the core job-to-be-done, motivational forces, desires and avoidances.

A Product Owner who wants to prioritize and fall in love with the problem prior to thinking about the solution.

The Designer or Researcher who wants to better understand constraints or behavioral-based barriers to customer progress.

The Product Trio (PM, UX, Tech) who want to learn how to improve the customer interview process as a team (multiple perspectives).

To go beyond simply understanding jobs-to-be-done principles to building the necessary skillsets to apply it in your organization.

Learn about different perspectives related to job theory and how to best apply it given your industry, company, product or service offering, and your role or function within the organization.

An Introduction to Job Theory and Customer Progress

A deep dive into The Wheel of Progress®&nbsp;framework covering the cycle of customer progress from first thought, passively looking, actively looking, deciding, hiring/firing, consuming, and continuous use.

An in-depth review of The Wheel of Progress® Framework

Learn advanced jobs-to-be-done listening methods leveraging The Wheel of Progress® framework. How to listen for and capture the twelve (12) elements of customer progress.

Hands-on Practice developing jobs-to-be-done listening skills

Learn about the five laws of behavioral science. Get an introduction to eighteen (18) unique behavioral science informed barriers to customer progress related to motivation, ability, and prompt.

How to leverage Applied Behavioral Science alongside JTBD-based Methods

Seeing and understanding your customers through the lens of jobs-to-be-done and applied behavioral science will make you a better founder, marketer, product manager, designer, researcher, and/or customer advocate.

Become more Customer Focused in whatever Role you perform within the Organization

Leverage The Wheel of Progress® to learn advanced listening skills (JTBD + BeSci) for conducting customer JTBD research.

JOHN GUSIFF

Cohort 10

Cohort 11

Building a compelling business case is hard. And in this economic environment, we’re being asked to drive more business value with every decision we make. The way to do this is by confidently making the case that your idea deserves to be funded. A strong business case turns you into an influential voice in your company. Yet when asked about business cases, here’s what I’m hearing: ➡️ "My manager wants a business case but I don't know where to start."➡️ "I’m not really a numbers person – how can I justify my product investments?"➡️ "Executives talk about ‘P&amp;L’ impact, but what does that really mean?" Creating the initial business case shouldn’t be scary. Get the confidence to build one via this interactive, two-day case study. Course highlights include:✨ Hands-on practice✨ Tangible takeaways✨ Interactive format On the first day, you will have a chance to interview a business owner, their customer, and their employee in order to explore the pros and cons of different business models (they’re actors). On the second day, we’ll open up the excel template. You’ll use this to dig into finances, figuring out how to fit this new product within the company portfolio, what happens to accounting depending on those decisions, and how we should be allocating budget to our product teams to fund this development and other initiatives. We’ll then make a decision as a company on whether to invest in this new line of business. By emphasizing hands-on activities throughout, we make sure that you have an opportunity to practice the skills critical to building a compelling business case. At the end, you’ll have the right tools to build a data-driven business case for your next feature or product.&nbsp;

Hands-on practice choosing a business model and building out a business case

Day 1: Connecting user needs to business value Through interviewing customers, you'll come up with the basic business model to make your case.

Thursday

Day 2: Underlying business fundamentals﻿Taking the business model developed on day 1, expand it out to include further revenue opportunities, expenses, and make a go/no-go decision around whether to build this product.

Friday

Hands-on business case creation

Product managers who want to become more business-oriented&nbsp;

Engineers and designers who want to drive more business impact in their work.

Aspiring product leaders who want to develop the business acumen to advance in their careers.

Understand the core tradeoffs around different business models and recommend one with confidence.

Know how to choose the right business model

Talking to users to figure out their business fundamentals can be hard. We'll have actors join our course so you can practice your interview skills – not just theoretical exercises.

Interview users to identify value

Get excel templates that will walk you through the inputs needed to make back-of-the-envelop business decisions so you can have a seat at the table.

Build compelling financial models

Strategic decisions are based on understanding the underlying financials. Practice presenting and making these decisions yourself.

Actively participate in a build/buy or go/no-go decision

Executives and MBAs talk in a lot of acronyms: ARPU, EBIDA, ROI, etc. Learn what the alphabet soup means and how to use it in your own communications.&nbsp;

Learn the lingo to make your case

Go from feeling overwhelmed by business decisions to confidently presenting data-backed investment cases

Jenny Wanger

Winter 2025

June 2025

EARLY BIRD INCENTIVE APPLIED - £400 OFF valid through to 8PM GMT May 11th.﻿This course transforms consultants from overwhelmed and underbooked to confident and in control. You’ll learn a repeatable system to generate high value clients from your existing network, from warm outreach without gimmicks, or burnout.Walk away with messaging that lands, AI tools that scale, and a business development engine that runs every quarter like clockwork. See the lightning lesson preview here: https://maven.com/p/5ac8b1/how-to-get-your-next-5-b2b-consulting-clients

Unlock Consistent Clients Without the Revenue Rollercoaster
 

Live Q &amp; A to breakthrough and answer questions.

Live Calls Mondays [Optional]

Live Q &amp; A to breakthrough and answer questions. If there is a large USA sign up on the cohort, I might add in an additional call to give more options.

Live Calls Wednesday

These are your implementation and results block.

Weekly Implementaion

Cohort Schedule

Designed for solo consultants and business developers in boutique firms to build predictable opportunities.

You'll benefit most if you have proven consulting expertise, are comfortable taking action and can dedicate 3-5+ hours weekly to implement.

This program is NOT for: overnight result seekers, those unwilling to implement and test new approaches, and 'I know everything' attitudes.

Key outcomes

Develop a personalised client acquisition strategy.
 

Initiate at least 30 meaningful client conversations.

Create at least 5 new client opportunities by course end.

Establish a sustainable business development routine.​

 

Master first calls & proposals that increase your win rate and enable you to charge premium fees despite market pressures.

Secure Your Next 5 High Value Client Opportunities in 8 Weeks - Without Cold Outreach or Endless Content Creation. Watch the overview below.

Lightning Lessons

Crack the Consulting Case Interview - MBB / Big4