Why Doesn't McKinsey Recruit at My School?

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McKinsey sends droves of consultants to the world's best undergrad, MBA, and other programs in search of new talent and future consultants.  It can be frustrating if you're an intelligent, hard-working, high-performing student who does not go to one of those programs.  In this post I'll explain why McKinsey focuses its recruiting efforts at certain schools...

It's a Numbers Game

Even though McKinsey is a large Firm with thousands of active consultants, it can only send interviewers to a finite number of schools each season.  For interview days at big MBA programs that send many graduates to McKinsey (e.g., HBS, Wharton, Kellogg), the Firm will send dozens of consultants, often at the expense of client engagements.  So, the Firm fishes where the fish are.  In other words, McKinsey focuses its efforts on the programs that are likely to have the best candidates and the most potential hires as a percentage of candidates interviewed.

Track Records of Success

Performance in past years can inform how much attention a school gets from McKinsey.  Schools that have candidates who do well in interviews, accept their offers, and do well at the Firm can create a virtuous cycle.  Those successes can then encourage McKinsey to return to campus to recruit more candidates who will go on to do well at the Firm, encouraging more interviews, and so on.  This results in a robust pipeline of talent that can be relied upon to provide good hires year in and year out.

The reverse can also happen.  While I was at the Firm, a McKinsey office complex dropped a certain Top 5 MBA program from its list of "core" schools after too many that b-school's students accepted McKinsey WCO job offers, then reneged.

Pre-screened Candidates

Most companies, including McKinsey, benefit from the de facto pre-screening that top schools provide via their admissions process.  First, they only admit high-potential, high-performing, high-character applicants - the kinds of students who could make great McKinsey consultants.  Second, only the brightest, hardest-working students - grade inflation aside - will earn the kinds of GPAs that will earn invitations to interview.

The Firm knows there might be great candidates at less selective programs.  We also see plenty of bad candidates at good schools.  But, overall, the caliber of candidates we see at the best schools is incredibly high, which encourages a recruiting focus.

Performance Matters, Not Pedigree

Although the Firm tends to focus on programs with sterling reputations, it's because of the quality of candidates, not the name of the school.  I was pleasantly surprised to see how little McKinsey consultants, engagement teams, and leadership seem to care about where someone went to school.  For example, during staffing, I have never heard of a McKinsey Partner or Engagement Manager asking where a potential engagement team member went to school - the questions are always about what their strengths and opportunity areas are and what their semi-annual review ("SAR") ratings have been.

As long as you have what it takes to "clear the bar" during interviews, and are diligent about getting into the interview process at the right time, you can a) can pass the resume screen, b) do well on your interviews, and c) get a job offer strictly based on the merits of your performance, regardless of where you go to school.

McKinsey Interviews - Not All Advice Is Created Equal

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As McKinsey candidates prepare for interviews, they eagerly seek out information and are often bombarded with advice from a variety of sources.  However, it's important to remember that not all interview prep advice is created equal.  In this post I'll discuss which sources are more or less valuable and why...

Focus on Advice from Assessment-Trained Consultants...

The biggest driver of quality and reliability of McKinsey interview advice is whether or not the source has been "assessment trained".  The Firm requires a constant and robust flow of new consultants, so the recruiting, interviewing, and hiring processes are designed to be consistent as they are selective.  Therefore, every consultant who interviews candidates goes through an assessment training program to teach them the McKinsey method for evaluating applicants. 

...Who Have Interviewed Candidates For McKinsey

Assessment-trained consultants understand the process and theory of how candidates get evaluated and hired.  However, unless they have actually conducted interviews and participated in post-interview "decision meetings" for McKinsey, they won't fully understand or appreciate the behind-the-scenes realities and details of how candidates are assessed.  It's the difference between taking a Driver's Ed class and learning by driving, even if it's just with a learner's permit.

Take Advice From Anyone Else (Except Recruiters) With a Grain of Salt

Anyone giving you McKinsey interview advice likely has the best intentions and wants to help you do well.  However, if they haven't been assessment trained and interviewed candidates for the Firm, they really don't know what they're talking about (unless they are McKinsey Recruiters - see the next section for information on advice from Recruiters).  They simply will not know how what they did during their interview process maps to why they got a job offer.

Consider the advice you could give to someone applying to your school (assuming you're currently in business school, APD, or undergrad program).  You know a) what you did, said in interviews, and wrote in your application and that b) got you accepted.  However, unless you've volunteered for your school's admissions office, you don't really know which specific things you did made a difference in getting that acceptance. 

For those reasons, do NOT put too much faith in interview advice you get from the following:

• Business Analysts (BAs)
• Former BAs
• Returning Summer BAs (SBAs)
• Returning Summer Associates (SAs)
• Early-tenure Associates who have not been assessment trained

Go To Recruiters With Questions About the Interview Process

Recruiters are the most knowledgeable sources for information and advice on the interview process - topics like how to apply, when to submit your resume, or how to participate in networking events like coffee chats and the on-campus company presentation.  McKinsey Recruiters also facilitate decision meetings so they know the types of things consultants weigh and debate when deciding whether or not to pass a candidate to the next round or make them a job offer.

Some Recruiters Have Interviewing Experience

Some Recruiters, especially the more senior ones, are former consultants and might have been assessment trained, conducted interviews, and attended decision meetings.  They will have valuable insights into all aspects of McKinsey interviews and the interview process.

McKinsey Interviews - December, 2013 Posts for Aspiring Summer Interns

McKinsey's summer internship recruiting season is right around the corner.  So, in an effort to remain timely and relevant, the posts over the next couple of weeks will focus on networking, resume screen, and interview-related topics.

I will try to consolidate those posts into a short period of time so that a) interview candidates can find them easily and b) others can ignore them easily.

As always, I will post articles as I finish editing them, but they will be dated based on when they were first written.  Apologies for any confusion that causes to folks who subscribe to or follow this blog regularly.

To anyone NOT interviewing with McKinsey:

Apologies if you are already a consultant or looking for tips on how to work with a former McKinsey consultant.  We'll return to the typical mix of content after a couple of weeks.

What It Means to be "Down In the Weeds" at McKinsey

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If you've worked in the food service industry - or watched Top Chef - you're probably familiar with the term "in the weeds".  But that means something very different than the term "down in the weeds" which not a McKinsey-specific term, but one I heard used frequently at the Firm.  In this post I'll explain the difference and what you should do if your McKinsey boss asks you to not be so down in the weeds...

It's also worth nothing that McKinsey interviewers also view being down in the weeds negatively, so aspiring consultants should also be mindful of not getting down in the weeds during interviews, especially when breaking down the case.

"In the Weeds"...

This is a term restaurant workers both in the front of the house (e.g., hosts/hostesses, servers) and back of the house (e.g., cooks, chefs) use when they get overwhelmed and are in danger of falling hopelessly behind.  While I have heard McKinsey consultants - likely those with food industry backgrounds - use this phrase in this context.  However, it's not as universal across the Firm as the slightly different phrase that I've heard multiple engagement teams, consultants, and Principals use...

...vs. "Down In the Weeds"

This phrase is used to describe someone who is being way too nitpicky and focused on minute details, especially relative to their role, phase of the project, or workstream goals.  It might also be phrased as being too tactical instead of sufficiently strategic.  McKinsey bosses can get down in the weeds by taking on tasks their teams should be handling and consultants can get down in the weeds by having too narrowly focused on details of their workstream(s).  Here are some examples:

• Role:  Sometimes a Partner or Director will fixate on something very specific like fine-tuning an Excel model or tweaking the formatting of a PowerPoint (PPT) exhibit.  It could be because they have a passion for the task or they're not good at delegating, but regardless, there are more important things to the engagement team that they can be focusing on.
• Timing:  Early in an engagement or workstream, teams and consultants should be applying T-shaped problem solving and looking broadly for potential topics to investigate before deep diving into the few with the most potential impact.  Sometimes, people will go too deep too soon at the risk of wasting time the wrong lever or missing other, more important sources of impact.
• Goals:  It's not uncommon to lose sight of the overarching purpose of an engagement or workstream by getting sucked into a particular task that's part of the broader effort.  For example, one might spend too much time working on a single PPT page or exhibit and not get enough done on the overall deck or storyline.  While preparing an industry overview, one might become fascinated with a particular competitor or industry dynamic at the expense of understanding the big picture.

How to Get Up Out of the Weeds...

...or Avoid Getting Down There In the First Place

Fortunately, there are some basic principles you can apply to get yourself up out of the weeds.  These include identifying and focusing on the critical or vital few by applying the 80/20 rule and using the previously mentioned T-shaped problem solving approach.  Remind yourself to apply top-down thinking whenever possible and going bottom-up only when appropriate.

Unfortunately, getting McKinsey leaders to get up out of the weeds and out of your hair is significantly more challenging.  But, you can leverage the Firm's culture of 360 / upward feedback and obligation to dissent to speak up, but be tactful and think of positive ways to deliver the message that feel like you're offering solutions rather than just pointing out problems.  For example, "I appreciate you showing me how I can improve my model - why don't I take it from here so I can learn first-hand and free you up to help the client(s) and the rest of the team?"

Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up Problem Solving Approaches at McKinsey

There are typically two primary ways to approach problem-solving - "top-down" and "bottom-up".  In this post I'll explain the differences as well as why the top-down approach is preferred by McKinsey bosses and interviewers...

McKinsey takes a structured approach to solving problems that includes breaking down larger issues into smaller pieces.  Those components of the problem are arranged into an "issue tree" with the biggest, overarching issues at the top.  Those are then supported by additional, increasingly specific, tactical, broader levels of supporting details.  I will devote a future post to these issue trees.

Top-Down Approach

This means the problem solving begins at the "top" or with the highest-level, overarching question or theme, also known as the governing thought.  From there, the problem is broken down, identifying and developing the elements the next level down, with special focus on the critical or vital few drivers of impact.  Only after those key elements have been determined does the focus shift to tactical details.  The process is repeated, adding additional levels down the tree the tree is exhaustive.

Bottom-Up Approach

This is the opposite of the top-down approach and, as the name implies, begins with the tactical, granular, specific details.  In this case, the work focuses on starting with a laundry list of issues, then organizing them into like groups, or "buckets".  Those buckets can often be grouped further, building levels up the tree, until, finally, the key drivers and governing thought are reached.

Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up Thinking

The simplest way to summarize the difference is this:  working at the top is considered strategic, while working at the bottom is tactical.  McKinsey consultants are encouraged to think strategically vs. tactically.  Here are some reasons why...

Why the Top-Down Approach is Preferred

There is a strong bias toward top-down thinking at McKinsey because it a) is logical, with a structured approach and b) starts by defining the most important questions and issues first.  The assumption is that if enough smart, experienced, hard-working consultants and clients align on the governing thought, the rest of the work that follows will be directionally correct.

Working top-down helps ensure that the questions asked and issues raised are completely exhaustive.  Less relevant ones might eventually get trimmed, but they will at least have been considered.  Top-down thinking also limits wasted work because only those topics deemed relevant and important to the governing thought need to be developed in detail.

Why the Bottom-Up Approach is Not Preferred

Starting at the bottom introduces several challenges.  First, it's not immediately clear - and might never be - if important details or areas have been missed or under-represented.  Second, items can be bucketed in a variety of ways that might all seem correct, but could be sub-optimal and/or lead to very different governing thoughts.  Finally, there's just a lot more work to be done at the bottom of the tree where there are countless details that can be considered and developed.

A Common Exception - Excel Modeling

One noteworthy exception when the bottom-up approach is often seen as superior to the top-down approach is in Excel modeling.  While a top-down approach to quantitative questions is helpful at the beginning of an engagement or workstream to get a directional sense of what the final answer will be, using that approach with clients and/or a final answer runs the risk of coming across as naive or just plain wrong.  Instead, a bottom-up model is required to confirm and support the final answer.

What Is the "Obligation to Dissent" at McKinsey?

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If your McKinsey boss knows that you disagree with something, you will be reminded of your "obligation to dissent".  In this post, I'll explain what that means...


"Dissent" is a strong word, but in this context it simply means speaking up you disagree with something being done or discussed.

The "obligation" comes from the fact that at McKinsey, voicing your dissent is not optional, it is required.

The Firm believes that every consultant - even the least-tenured, greenest Business Analysts (BAs) and Associates - is intelligent and has valuable insights to offer.  On McKinsey engagement teams and in collaborative problem solving sessions, everyone is supposed to have an equal voice and is expected to contribute to discussions - that includes exercising the obligation to dissent.

This is so engrained in the problem-solving culture at McKinsey that even if you work for a former McKinsey consultant, it's likely that your McKinsey boss still wants to know if you disagree with something.

It can be over minor things like how to word a phrase or apply an Excel function.  But it also applies to the biggest questions on a client engagement like the overall answer or the storyline for a critical deck.  Even if your dissent is not acted upon, any good McKinsey teams and leaders will hear you out, consider your opinion, and appreciate your contribution to the discussion. 

At least, that's how it's supposed to work!  In a later post I will discuss a couple of caveats to the obligation to dissent.

Top 5 Internal McKinsey Resources for Consultants

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McKinsey consultants are focused on delivering impact to clients.  The Firm doesn't want things like research, making PowerPoint pages, and debugging Excel models distracting from that goal.  So, McKinsey provides many valuable resources to its consultants.  These are also among the top things former McKinsey consultants miss most about the Firm.  In this post I'll cover the Top 5 McKinsey resources...

McKinsey consultants are notoriously overworked, spread thin, and stressed out.  Fortunately, the Firm provides many resources to help consultants and engagement teams.  In particular order, here are the Top 5.

Research and Information ("R&I") / Know Portal

Impact requires insights that are found using good data.  McKinsey has an entire organization - R&I - dedicated to helping consultants find useful, relevant information from a wide range of sources.  They go far beyond "let me Google that for you" and have access to subscription, obscure, and/or proprietary data beyond what engagement teams and clients can access themselves.  R&I's work can only be as good as the R&I request submitted, so it helps to be clear and thoughtful when asking for information

The Know Portal ("Know") can be thought of as the self-service version of R&I.  Know provides access to third-party sources like Hoovers and Factiva as well as the Firm's library of Practice Documents ("PDs"), McKinsey PowerPoint (PPT) decks on a wide range of industry, function, and client topics.

R&I allows access to more information than Know and does not require knowledge on where to look for data.  However, Know provides real-time access to information, while R&I lead times can be long.

Experts

McKinsey has incredibly knowledgeable experts on nearly every industry and function an engagement team would need.  Some are consultants who happen to have worked deeply on a particular topic and have built hands-on, client experience.  Others are hired specifically for their expertise and work in the McKinsey Practice aligned with their field.

Experts can be leveraged in many ways.  The most common are:

• Email - ideal for quick questions that can be asked and answered easily
• Phone interview - usually 30 or 60 minutes long, better for more complicated topics and/or issues requiring many follow-up questions
• Engagement - in some cases, an Expert might join the team for a time.  An example would be an Expert on Market Research designing, launching, and analyzing the results of a survey for a couple of weeks

Production (e.g., VGI)

Although McKinsey consultants communicate via PPT decks, the Firm doesn't want them wasting a lot of time actually creating and editing them.  That's where "Production" resources like Visual Graphics India ("VGI") and Visual Graphics Americas ("VGI") come in.  You can send them (usually via fax or scan/email) information on what you want and they send back brand new PPT pages.  Top uses of VGI / VGA include:

• Cleaned-up pages:  production can add a valuable "extra set of eyes" to go through a deck and look for and correct mistakes including typos, grammatical errors, and formatting issues
• Revised pages:  consultant will often repurpose existing PPT pages, templates, and frameworks.  And old page with new data written on it will be turned into a new page
• Brand new pages:  if no existing reference material can be found, sketches of the pages and/or exhibits, along with descriptions and notes on the desired output are enough for production to create your page
• High-end pages:  even if the content is spot-on, a deck might need some polishing and visual interest.  High-end production can make it client-ready, especially for high stakes meetings with senior clients or workshops with many clients, but the lead times are longer as fewer production folks have these capabilities

McKinsey provides teams with 24-hour production support, although holidays and peak demand can cause lead times to increase.  I'll post other articles on a) how to optimize time using production and b) tips on working with production.

Excel Advanced Analytics ("AA")

If PPT is how consultants communicate, Excel is how consultants think.  Excel "models" are critical components of most McKinsey engagements and they can often be incredibly complex.  The Firm has a team of Excel wizards available to assist McKinsey teams.  The most common reasons teams reach out to Advanced Analytics, in increasing order of difficulty are:

• Setting up an Excel function:  Excel has many powerful tools, but they can be complicated to use.  Even experienced modelers will have difficulty with the more obscure, unfamiliar functions
• Debugging an Excel model:  Nothing is more frustrating than combing through a spreadsheet trying to figure out why it's not working.  Although it will take time - primarily while AA deciphers your approach and design - they can find errors and fix your model
• Design and build an Excel model:  Often, a McKinsey consultant or team will know what their model needs to do, but not how to build that functionality - especially if the needs are complex.  As long as someone can clearly articulate to AA what the model needs to do and what the data sources look like, they can build the model.

Executive Assistants ("EAs")

They are the underappreciated stars of McKinsey and keep the Firm up and running.  Without them, engagement teams would get stranded, Partners wouldn't know where to go, and client meetings wouldn't happen.  The list of how EAs help the Firm, engagement teams, and consultants is endless, but here are some of the more visible ones:

• Access to McKinsey leadership:  EAs are the gatekeepers to important people at the Firm and can help you get on their calendars.  Several EAs working together are vital to scheduling meetings requiring multiple Directors or Principals
• Working with client EAs:  If you think trying to schedule a meeting with multiple McKinsey partners is difficult, trying throwing some senior clients into the mix.  McKinsey EAs can work with client EAs to resolve the most challenging scheduling conflicts and make critical client meetings happen
• Expense reports:  This might seem like a trivial thing, but when you consider how much a typical McKinsey consultant travels, help with expenses can free up many hours each month.

4 Ways to "Streamline" a PowerPoint Page or Deck at McKinsey

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Your McKinsey boss might give you feedback that your work needs to be "streamlined".  In this post I'll explain what that means and provide four common ways to accomplish it...

What does it mean to "Streamline" a document?

Feedback that your work needs "streamlining" usually means that your PowerPoint page or document (aka "deck") is too busy or complicated.  In consulting, it is often true that less is more, so your McKinsey boss is asking you to make your document more effective by making it leaner and/or clearer.

How do I streamline my document?

The overall approach should be to make sure that the focus or point of your document "pops".  Here are four common ways to accomplish that:

1.  Edit down

Make sure your work is focused on the critical or vital few.  Apply the 80/20 rule to make sure you're highlighting the most important things and not wasting PowerPoint real estate on lower priority topics.  Extra information doesn't always add to your presentation - often, it will distract from the key takeaways.

2.  De-word

Even if the "so what?" of your document is clear and the storyline is effective, your point can get lost if it's buried under too many words.  This is especially true of the page titles and headlines - they should be concise yet informative. The body of your page can also be streamlined, especially if verbal clutter is causing you to drop the font size to 10 or lower.

Make sure every word you're using is critical to conveying the key takaway(s) and/or advancing the storyline.  Find ways to say the same things with half as many words - adjectives, adverbs, and articles are often unnecessary and can be cut without consequence.  Consider using punchy, bullet point lists instead of lengthy explanations

3.  Simplify

Consider your storyline and frameworks.  Are all of the complexity and details necessary?  If your storyline has 10 parts, can you get your audience from Point A to Point B with fewer steps or chapters?  If you've applied a complicated, multi-dimensional framework, can you still make the point with a simpler, more elegant approach?

4.  Get visual

The adage that a picture is worth a thousand words also applies to PowerPoint decks.  Graphs, maps, and other exhibits can replace words while making the same point - often more clearly - than a page full of text or dense, complex data tables.  They also add visual interest to pages, helping you keep your audience engaged.

One caveat - although a good graph will allow the data to speak for itself, remember that you might need some text to put the information into context and/or highlight the key takeaway(s) from that data.

"Laundry Lists" at McKinsey and 3 Ways to Fix Them

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Your McKinsey boss might give you feedback that your work reads too much like a "laundry list".  This is also a common error during consulting case interviews.  In this post I'll explain what "laundry lists" are and how you can fix them in 3 easy steps...

What is a "laundry list"?

A laundry list is simply a long, disorganized list of items.  At McKinsey and other consulting firms, the term is used pejoratively.  Some common topics that end up as laundry lists include: a) recommended initiatives, b) possible root causes / sources of impact, or c) next steps.

What's wrong with a comprehensive laundry list?

The major downside of a laundry lists is that they tend to overwhelm and/or bore your audience, causing their eyes to glaze over.  There's simply too much random information for it to be compelling and/or actionable.

In addition, putting a list together isn't that difficult - laundry lists don't show a lot of thought or added value beyond simply collecting information and ideas.  Putting a laundry list in front of your client or McKinsey boss might make you look naive, lazy, and/or incompetent.

How do I fix a laundry list?

Laundry lists are often the result of too much focus on being comprehensive and not enough thought given to organization and efficiency.  There are three ways to take the contents of a laundry list and turn them into something more useful.

1.  Edit

In consulting, it is often the case that less is more.  Trimming a laundry list will make it more manageable and the next two steps easier.  It's likely that you have included a lot of unimportant items in your effort to be comprehensive.  By applying the 80/20 rule and focusing on the critical or vital few items, you can streamline your list and make it easier to organize and digest.

2.  Bucket

If you look at your list, you will find that you have similar items that you can group together.  Each group goes into its own "bucket".  These buckets are then used to organize clusters of related items rather than having to organize many more individual items. 

3.  Prioritize

No two items will have the same priority.  Each will be different in terms of the factors that often define priority, like:

• Potential impact
• Ease of implementation
• Importance to the project
• Urgency to get it done

As a result, you can organize buckets - and items within buckets - by priority, with the most critical ones listed first.  This will help your team and the client optimize the investment of time, effort, and resources to maximize impact.

"Levers" and What It Means to "Pull" Them at McKinsey

Your McKinsey boss might ask you what "levers" you're pursuing or seem most promising on a project or workstream.  In this post, I'll explain what "levers" are at McKinsey...

What is a "lever"?

In consulting terms, "levers" are initiatives that a McKinsey team or client can undertake in order to drive the desired impact.  There is usually a limitless number of things a company can consider trying in order to improve their business.  The options should be narrowed down to include only the levers most relevant to the client and their situation and goals.

From where does the lever terminology come?

If you think of a McKinsey or client team as a machine that generates a desired type of impact, then the levers are the switches that turn on (or off) specific parts of that machine. 

What does it mean to "pull" a lever?

"Pulling" a lever (or levers) means to actually pursue a specific initiative (or set of initiatives).  If each switch represents an initiative in the impact-generating machine, then "to pull a lever" means to activate or pursue that specific initiative.

Why not pull all the levers?

If each lever generates more impact, you might wonder why the team doesn't just pull all the levers.  To take the machine analogy further, assume that it takes a certain amount of fuel (i.e., people, time, effort, and resources) to run each part of the machine once the lever is pulled.  As discussed in previous posts, the "critical" or "vital" few levers will generate the most impact, based on the 80/20 rule.  Therefore, it's most efficient for the McKinsey team and/or client to only pull the most impactful levers and optimize the investment of effort.  Some levers might also be out of the team's control or cause negative side effects that would offset the targeted benefits.

What it means to "get smart" on topics at McKinsey and 5 Key Things to Learn

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Has your McKinsey boss asked you to "get smart" on a topic?  In this post I'll explain what that means and highlight five subjects to focus on...

What does it mean to "get smart" at McKinsey?

To "get smart" means to quickly learn the most important aspects of a new topic.  You can apply a t-shaped approach and learn a little about a lot, then go deep on your specific workstream, but it's not enough to just pick up the basics that you can find on Wikipedia.

What are the critical areas for getting smart?

You can make the most of your time and effort by applying the 80/20 rule and focusing on the vital or critical few subjects when getting smart.  There are a handful of things you can learn that will give you the biggest bang for your buck...

1.  Lingo and acronyms

Every industry has a language that all of the participants use.  Each client also has client-specific terminology that you'll have to learn.  Think about the places you've worked before and all the obscure terms and TLAs (three-letter acronyms) that you used without even thinking about them.  It's not enough to know what these terms mean - you'll also have to add them to your working vocabulary and be able to "talk the talk" of your clients.

2.  Organizational ("Org") Structure

Each client is organized differently and their organizational (aka "org") structure colors the way they see the world and conduct business.  Even if your workstream is focused on a single business unit ("BU"), you'll need to understand how your client's BU fits into the bigger picture.  There might also be differences in how people are organized - no two companies org charts look the same.  For example, in many companies, "Directors" are the layer between Managers and Vice Presidents.  But at McKinsey, Directors are Senior Principals and the most influential people at the Firm.

3.  Company Culture & News

Company cultures are not just unique - they are often sources of tremendous pride for clients.  As a result, missteps in this area can damage credibility and/or the relationship with the client.  It's important to understand what's important to the company, your clients, and other employees.  It can be any number of things including company history, reputation for excellence in something, how they treat customers, or how they treat each other.

Especially if a company is currently in the headlines, current events are going to be top-of-mind for many clients.  Even if there hasn't been big news, you should familiarize yourself with whatever the company has been going through - good and bad.

4.  Competitive landscape

It's important to understand both a) who the major competitors are and b) the company's position in the industry.  Your work should always take competitors and relative position into account.  Otherwise, your recommendations could come across as naive or just plain wrong.  For example, your recommendations will be very different if your client is in a monopoly position, competing in an oligopoly, or one of many players in a highly fragmented industry.

5.  Competitive Dynamics & Industry Trends

It's also critical to understand where the company and the broader industry are headed.  Your recommendations will differ if your client rising fast, lagging behind peers, or the entire industry is in a boom or bust cycle.  Competitor incentives will vary, too.  Consider how strategies would need to vary when competing against hungry upstarts who are willing to be aggressive or complacent industry leaders who want to maintain the status quo.

Why is it important to "get smart"?

Clients are paying a lot of money for McKinsey engagements, so they have high expectations for the team and the work performed.  Clients don't want teams who don't know anything about their companies and situations.  So, in order to build and maintain credibility with clients, it's important that McKinsey consultants be able to get up to speed and "get smart" on topics quickly.

Focus on the "Critical Few" or "Vital Few" - Application of the 80/20 Rule

Your McKinsey boss might give you feedback to focus more of your effort on the "critical few" or "vital few". This is so you can achieve maximum impact for a given amount of work - it's another way of saying that your McKinsey boss wants you to apply the 80/20 rule to your work.  In this post I'll explain those terms...


First, it's helpful to understand the source of the concept of the critical or vital few.

What is the 80/20 rule?

The 80/20 rule is a rule of thumb that 20% of anything drive 80% outcomes.  I've covered this concept, examples, and what it means if you're asked to be more 80/20 in a previous post.

A common business example is that roughly 20% of any company's SKUs will drive over 80% of their sales.  A personal example might be that fewer than 20% of your acquaintances cause more than 80% of your headaches.  Now that you know about it, you'll probably start seeing it everywhere.

What are the Vital or Critical Few?

The terms "vital few" and "critical few" are just other names for that important 20%.  They are called that because to be successful in any endeavor, it is vital / critical to address those few sources of the greatest potential impact.  Effective McKinsey teams and consultants are able to identify the critical or vital few and focus their efforts and finite resources on them.

Why is it important to focus on the Vital or Critical Few?

Your McKinsey boss will expect you accomplish a lot at a high level of quality.  Unless you want to spend every waking hour working, it's important to learn how to focus your efforts on the most promising, impactful aspects of a workstream.  Your McKinsey boss is also counting on you for leverage - the more you can get done, the less your McKinsey boss has to do or worry about on your workstream(s).

What it means to "Boil the Ocean" and why it's important to avoid doing it

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The term "boiling the ocean" is used to describe any task that's impossible because it has been incorrectly scoped.  In this post I'll explain what that might look like on a McKinsey engagement - or a project for a McKinsey boss - and what to do about it...

What does "boiling the ocean" look like?

Literally boiling the ocean is impossible because there's just too much water to ever complete the task.  The same applies for figuratively boiling the ocean on a consulting project.  Unless scope is carefully managed, it's easy for a consultant or team to take on more than they can handle in a workstream or project.

The most common example is trying to analyze too much data.  In a world of big data, the ability for clients to collect mountains of data has outstripped their ability to manage, clean, and analyze it to uncover meaningful insights.  There are important answers buried in there somewhere, but the more data you have to dig through, the harder it is to find those impactful insights.

The other common cause of boiling the ocean is taking on too many workstreams.  This is often a result of not trimming enough issues from the "issue tree".  For example, your team might be charged with "finding cost savings" for the client.  In most companies, there are countless places to look for cost savings - if you try to address them all, you might not make significant progress against any. 

Why it's important to avoid boiling the ocean

As you can see in the examples above, boiling the ocean can limit your impact because you have to spread your finite resources thin across too much work or too many worktreams.  You might be able to touch some of the important levers and insights, but you won't be able to go deep on any of them, limiting the impact you can make.

Boiling the ocean also wears down your team.  Inefficiency requires more time and effort be expended to achieve the same amount of impact.  Not only will the team be tired and worn out, but morale will suffer as the results don't match up to the effort.

How to avoid boiling the ocean

Application of the 80/20 rule is the easiest way to avoid boiling the ocean.  By focusing your effort on the "critical few" or "vital few" areas, you can maximize your impact while protecting your team from wasted effort and declining morale.

For data analysis, this means focusing on the most meaningful data sets and cuts of the data.  Are there chunks of data - e.g., business units, geographies, product categories - that can be considered out-of-scope?  For trimming the issue tree and reducing the number of workstreams, can you identify the most promising sources of impact and focus your scope and effort on those?

Delegating some of the work can also help avoid boiling the ocean.  Can you ask the sources of the data (e.g., a client's Finance team) for help on filtering and cleaning some of the raw data?  Do they have reporting tools and/or automated means for reducing the mountain of data without losing sources of insight and impact?  Are there other people who own the sources of impact who can also own the work to maximize the impact captured?

What it means to "Sanitize" a document at McKinsey

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You might hear your McKinsey boss or colleague refer to a document as "sanitized".  Or, you might be asked to "sanitize" a document.  This has nothing to do with hygiene or disinfectant.  It has everything to do with confidentiality.  In this post I'll explain what it means for a document to be sanitized....

What is a "santized" document?

A "sanitized" document has had any sensitive information - data, exhibits, images, names, etc. - removed and/or replaced with place-holder, fake, "dummy" data.  Most often, this is a McKinsey PowerPoint (PPT) presentation or "deck", although occasionally Excel models are sanitized to remove client data but retain functionality.

What does a sanitized document look like?

If the sanitization is done well, the document should, at first glance, look indistinguishable from the original.  Only upon closer inspection will an audience see that some critical and/or confidential information has been redacted.  Some common signs that a document has been sanitized:

• Numbers and data that might not add up or make sense
• Information has been replaced by "XXXXX"s or other "placeholder" text
• Names might be non-specific - e.g., "Division A", "Competitor #1", or "Employee X"
• Images or exhibits might have been removed, blurred, or replaced with placeholders (e.g., a "sticker" or text box that says "logo of Competitor A", a generic graph with no labels or real data)

What's the point of a sanitized document?

Sanitizing a document allows sharing of the relevant content - e.g., frameworks, analyses, approaches - without disseminating sensitive or confidential information.

It can also allow people to focus on the high-level, overall approach or storyline without derailing the discussion with details.  A sanitized example can help a team align on an approach and agree upon what work needs to identify next steps required to fill in the sanitized sections with real data.

McKinsey Presentations - Anatomy of a McKiney PowerPoint Deck Page

McKinsey consultants use PowerPoint pages and presentations (aka "decks") to communicate with clients and each other.  In this post, I'll explain the three elements of a typical McKinsey page so you can put together your own McKinsey-style deck.  This should be helpful for new McKinsey consultants and anyone working for a former McKinsey consultant...

While every McKinsey deck should be unique, there are common elements that McKinsey decks and pages share.  By including these components and following the advice in the post on client-ready McKinsey decks, you can make pages and presentations in the McKinsey style.

Two Options for Page Titles (aka "leads", "headlines")

A good title or "lead" will concisely and effectively a) capture the audience's attention, b) explain why the page is important, and c) show how the page contributes to the storyline.











Typically, the lead is no more than two lines of relatively larger font.  An alternative format is to separate the title (in larger font) and headline (in smaller font).  The format should be consistent throughout the deck and, ideally, for the entire engagement.

Content and Exhibits that support the leads

The bulk of the page should be allocated to content and exhibits that support the leads / headlines.  Typically, these take the form of graphs, tables, text, maps, or other exhibits that reflect what the team has learned.  The focus should be highlighting value-adding insights and/or synthesizing information, not just repackaging data from the client or other sources.  McKinsey teams spend a lot of time selecting the right frameworks and making sure these exhibits are error-free.

 

Key takeaways or the "So What" of the page

McKinsey decks and pages are often quite dense so it can be helpful to remind the audience of the key point you want them to take away from each page.  These key takeaways often referred to as the "So What?", meaning, "why should I care about these exhibits / data?"

If you can't come up with a compelling "So What" for your page, you might want to consider moving it to the Appendix as a back-up page.

3 Reasons Why McKinsey Interviews Are NOT So Difficult

McKinsey has consistently topped Glassdoor.com's annual list of Top 25 Most Difficult Companies to Interview.  Although getting into McKinsey and other top management consulting firms is challenging (see the companion piece on "Why McKinsey Interviews Are So Difficult"), you can leverage certain aspects of the interview process and make it less difficult to get a job offer.  In this post I'll discuss a few of those factors...


McKinsey interviews are tough, but they are also predictable.  If you understand what to expect, you can prepare properly and increase the likelihood of getting that elusive job offer.

Although these factors are specific to McKinsey, my understanding - from chatting with friends who have interviewed candidates for other firms - is that they also apply at other top-tier consulting firms like Bain and BCG.

1. Transparency

McKinsey is very clear about what will happen during your interviews and what they'll be looking for - they post the details on their webiste.  That means you'll know exactly how you need to prepare.  I've also posted some additional details on what your first-round and final-round interview days will look like.  The Firm wants the best candidates available - it's in McKinsey's best interest to make sure all candidates are well-prepared to able to show their maximum performances in their interviews.

You will be given personal experience interviews (PEI) that are used to probe on what makes you distinctive in terms of:

• Personal impact
• Entrepreneurial drive
• Orientation around achievement
• Leadership abilities

Again, definitions of these dimensions are available on the "What We Look For" page of the McKinsey website.

You will be given case interviews that will test your problem-solving skills.  McKinsey's website clarifies what their interviewers will be looking for during case interviews.  McKinsey also offers several practice cases on their website.

Given all the information on interviews that McKinsey provides to candidates - plus all of the 3rd party sources, including this blog that are available - there's no reason for candidates to put forth anything but their best performance on interview day.

2. Consistency

McKinsey has to interview and hire thousands of candidates each year and the Firm wants to seat a uniformly high bar that new hires need to clear.  To accomplish this, McKinsey has developed a scoring rubric for both PEI and case interviews.  The scoring rubric defines the specific dimensions against which candidates are assessed during each type of interview.  Furthermore, there are clear, objective criteria that must be met to give candidates specific scores on each dimension.

In theory, this takes some of the variability out of the process.  And, having been in dozens of "decision meetings", it does appear to work as long as the scoring rubrics are followed.  As a candidate, you don't have to hope for an "easy" interviewer, pray that you don't get a "tough" interviewer, or hope to avoid someone who's in a bad mood or having a bad day.  You also don't have to worry about how your classmates are doing - on a given interview day, you're "competing" against an objective bar for performance, not your fellow candidates.

3.  You don't have to be perfect

McKinsey interviews have some room for error built into the process.  Unlike figure skating or downhill skiing, one stumble will not take you out of contention.  McKinsey realizes that candidates are human and might make mistakes - the Firm doesn't want to miss a great consultant because he or she flubbed one part of the interview.

You can afford to make a mistake or two as long as you exhibit distinctiveness (also known as a "spike") in other parts of your interview.  The more spikes you show, the more margin for error you have in other areas.

Interviewers are also trained to follow-up on areas where you might have exhibited weakness.  If you make a misstep, you'll likely get a second chance to show that your mistake was an anomaly.  So, shrug off that math error you made early in your case and make sure you knock the next calculation out of the park.

You also don't need to get to the "right answer" in case interviews.  The case interview is less about the answer you reach and more about how you get to your conclusions.  Furthermore, there can often be more than one good, acceptable answer to a given case question.  The case interview is more about how you get to your answers and how well you can communicate and support your recommendations.

3 Reasons Why McKinsey Interviews Are So Difficult

McKinsey has consistently topped Glassdoor.com's annual list of Top 25 Most Difficult Companies to Interview.  Getting into McKinsey and other top management consulting firms is certainly challenging, but there are very specific reasons why these interviews are difficult.  In this post I'll discuss a few of those reasons.  You might also be interested in the companion piece on "Why McKinsey Interviews Are NOT So Difficult"...


If you can understand what makes McKinsey interview tough, you can better prepare yourself, maximize your performance, and increase the likelihood that you'll make it to the next round or get that job offer.  My understanding - from chatting with friends who have interviewed candidates for other firms - is that these factors also apply to other top-tier consulting firms like Bain and BCG.

1.  You have to have a "spike"

Candidates must exhibit distinctiveness (also known as a "spike")in at least one dimension - and preferably more - across the case interviews and personal experience interviews (PEI).  This means it's not enough to not mess up or just do OK in all facets (also known as a "flat read" by assessors) of the interview to pass to the next round or get a job offer.  Bringing your "A" game is insufficient - somewhere in your interview, you have to exhibit some "A plus" game.

2. The bar is high

Just getting to a "flat read" can be tough, achieving a "spike" is even harder and it's not just enough to perform well relative to the other candidates.  There are objective criteria in a scoring rubric that must be met in order to get a passing and distinctive scores.  So, even if you're the best of the batch on a particular day, you still won't get a pass or job offer unless your performance clears a high, standardized bar.

3.  Preparation can only take you so far

Case prep can certainly improve your performance, but it's not a skill that you can master.  There's always a chance that a case will go deep in an area where you're weak or haven't prepared.  And it's rare that a case will perfectly fit a framework you've learned or memorized.  Case interviews are not about what facts or frameworks you know - they are about how you think through, approach, and break down a problem.  So you have to be broad, thorough, and flexible in your study and preparation and during the case interview, you have to be nimble, creative, and spontaneous. 

It's not like a vocabulary test that you can prepare for by memorizing a lot of words and roots.  It's more like preparing for a chess match - you know the rules but don't know in advance which approach your opponent will take or in what situation you might find yourself. 

McKinsey Interviews - 7 Tips for Interview Days

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McKinsey interviews can be challenging and stressful, so here are some tips for the day of your interview that can help you maximize your performance.  Of course, there's no replacement for good personal experience interview (PEI) and case interview prep.



Now you know how first-round and final-round interview days are structured and what to expect.  Here are some additional suggestions to go along with that knowledge...

Give yourself plenty of time

Everyone gives themselves enough time to arrive in time for their interview.  However, I'm always surprised at how many people cut it close and are clearly stressed out and flustered for their first interview because they had to rush and/or arrived just in time.  Remember, even after you arrive at the interview site, you still have to check in.  You'll also want to give yourself some extra time to hang your coat, review your interview packet, and get mentally prepared for your interviews.  In other words...

Get in the right frame of mind

What this means for optimal performance differs from person to person.  The most common forms of mental preparation are:

• Cram with a final review of case and personal experience interview (PEI) prep.
• Calm down, unwind, and relax
• Get pumped up and build up some enthusiasm

Read the interviewer bios

Take a moment to lean about the consultants who will be interviewing you.  Remember, they're not just assessing your performance on the case and PEI, they'll also be asking themselves what they think of you as a potential colleague.  Examples of questions you might want to ask yourself as you read their bios:

• Do you have anything in common?
• Is there anything you can leverage to build rapport?
• Does anything about your interviewers trigger specific questions you might want to ask?

 

Take water when it's offered

There are usually plenty of bottles of water around - always in the check-in area and often in the interview rooms.  Take one.  You'll be doing a lot of talking and under a lot of stress, so you can at least remove dry mouth from the list of reasons you might not perform well.

Bring a pen/pencil and plenty of paper

You'll be doing a case interview.  A writing implement and plenty of paper will come in handy as you jot down the pertinent details of the case, structure your problem solving approach and/or framework, walk the interviewer through public math, and keep track of your findings and recommendations.  You don't want to underperform on the case because you didn't bring enough paper.  Plus, you might want to take notes during any time for Q&A.

Be nice to EVERYONE

Remember, this not just about doing well on case interviews and PEI.  You're being assessed as a potential colleague and representative of the Firm.  If you are rude or cop an attitude toward anyone - a recruiter, the staff at the interview site - it's going to viewed as a reflection of your personality, professionalism, and how you might treat colleagues and clients.  No one wants to work with a jerk or risk putting one in front of a client.

Don't wait for your decision call with other candidates

It's tempting to commiserate with your fellow interview candidates while waiting for your decision calls, but consider how that will play out.  Let's suppose some of you decide to get drinks across the street after interviews - this is especially common during final rounds when candidates are on the road.  It might be great to have company and moral support until the decision calls come in.  Think about how awkward it will be to get your acceptance call while your fellow candidates are getting dinged.  Or how much more that turndown will sting when the person next to you gets called with an offer or pass to the next round.  Better to go your separate ways and be able to celebrate (or sulk) without having to worry about others.

McKinsey Interviews - What Happens on Final-Round Interview "Batch" Days

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Final-round interview (or "Batch") days at McKinsey are, in many ways, very similar to first-round interviews.  This post is a companion piece to an earlier one on what happens on early-round interview days.  Rather than rehash those details, I'll focus on the differences between first-round and final-round interview days.

How Final-Round Interview Days Differ From Earlier Rounds

Location

First-round interviews are typically held on-campus.  Final-round interviews are typically conducted at the McKinsey office location that would hire you.  McKinsey determines where you will interview based on your location preferences and the Firm's needs.

This means travel and McKinsey will make arrangements for you and pay for your trip.  If you have to fly to your final-round interview, McKinsey will pay for your travel expenses, one night of hotel, and meals, so you'll have to decide which option you prefer:

• Fly in the night before, interview the next day, fly back afterward
• Fly in the same day as your interview, interview, spend the night, fly back the next day

Batch days are typically on Fridays so you can elect to stay for the weekend, but McKinsey will only cover your expenses for one night.  If you get an offer, you'll have another opportunity - paid by McKinsey - to visit the office location again and spend an entire weekend having fun, getting wined & dines, and exploring the city.

Check-in

The only major difference is that you'll be part of a much smaller "batch" of candidates than during the first round.  You've already made it pretty far!

The cavernous hotel ballroom or career center waiting room will be replaced by a McKinsey conference room and some have fantastic views of what might become your new home city.

Wait for your interviewers

Instead of being surrounded by classmates you know or at least look familiar, you'll be meeting and waiting with candidates from many different schools.

You will also be waiting to be picked up by more senior interviewers.  Your first-round interviewers were primarily Senior Associates and Engagement Managers.  Second-round interviewers are Directors (Senior Partners), Principals (aka Partners), and Associate Principals.  In a smaller office on a busier batch day you might get an Engagement Manager.

Have your interviews

You will still be asked Personal Experience Interview (PEI) and case questions, but they might feel very different from your first-round experience.  The general tendency seems to be: the more tenured your interviewer, the less structured your interview.  While first-round interviewers select from a library of carefully prepared case questions, Partners tend to favor cases based on past or current client work.  Because they're not working from a standard, pre-written case, your final round interviews might have more unexpected twists, turns, and jumps.

More senior interviewers also tend to rely less on the scoring matrices and rubrics.  In addition to asking themselves "do I want this person on my client team" they are also asking themselves "can I see this person becoming a leader in this office and/or in the Firm (a Partner) some day"?  This may or may not work in your favor, depending on the strengths and weaknesses of your interviewing style.

Transition between interviews

This tends to be more consistent in final-round interviews because the environments - McKinsey office locations - are more similar to each other than first-round interview sites.  Your interviewers will walk you back to the "batch" room, thank you, say goodbye, and pick up their next candidate.

Wrap up your McKinsey interview day

This won't be that different from first-round other than the fact that you might be on the road and have a chance to briefly explore the city.

Wait for your decision phone call

Just like after your first-round interviews, you will likely get a decision call later the same day.  The Firm aspires to let candidates know their status as soon as possible.  Since this is now a hiring decision, the stakes are higher and deliberation can take longer, but there are also fewer candidates to review and discuss.  It's uncommon, but some candidates will not hear back on the same day and/or be informed that they'll be receiving a decision on a later date.  That's certainly better than a ding and usually means they feel like they need to assess more candidates (or sometimes re-assess the candidate with follow-up interviews) before making a final decision.

McKinsey Interviews - What Happens on First-Round Interview Days

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Interviewing for any job is stressful, and McKinsey and other consulting firms have some of the toughest interviews you'll ever face.  However, understanding what will happen on your interview day can help you prepare, relax, and improve your performance.  In this post I'll describe how a typical early-round interview day is structured so you'll know what to expect.

I will follow-up this post with two posts - one on what happens on second-round interview days and another with suggestions for how to make the most of your interview days.

The details of the first-round interview process will vary by school.  The biggest differences from school to school are driven by specific interview locations - whether it's on-campus in a career center or off-campus in a hotel - that drive certain logistical differences.  In this post I'll cover what I've seen most frequently across many first-round interview days dozens of MBA and undergraduate institutions.

Location

If first-round interviews are held on-campus, they will typically be in your school's career center, with check-in occurring in the primary common area and interviews conducted in small, private rooms.  If the interviews are off-campus, they are typically held in hotels.  Check-in will be in a large ballroom or conference room and interviews will be conducted, with only a little bit of added awkwardness, in individual hotel rooms.

Check-in

When you arrive at the interview location, you will see signs guiding you to the proper location for check-in.  This is usually a large room that can accommodate the many - often over a hundred - candidates interviewing that day and you'll see many of your classmates waiting for or wrapping up their interview days.  Once you get there, you'll check-in with someone and be given a folder that contains information from recruiting and one-page biographies of your interviewers.  Often, your folder will include a form for selecting office preferences that you'll be asked to fill out and hand in before you leave for the day.  There will be racks to hang your coat and places for you to hang your coat before you find a seat to...

Wait for your first interviewer

There will be plenty of seating for you and your fellow classmates.  Depending on the location, there might be refreshments for candidates waiting for or returning from their interviews.  There is usually at least one consultant assigned to spend time in this waiting area greeting, chatting with, and answering any questions that candidates have.  Most candidates will occupy themselves with small talk with classmates, last minute review of case interview frameworks, or reading interviewer bios.

You will usually have two, sometimes three, first-round interviews.  Your first interviewer will come to the waiting area to find you.  He or she will then escort you to the room where your first interview will be conducted.

Have your first interview

Each interview is scheduled for an hour, but many interviewers will target wrapping up a few minutes early to give themselves time to take care of a few things - like completing their notes on your performance - between interviews.  When I was assessing candidates, I would limit my interviews to 55 minutes.  Since letting interviews run long backs up everyone else downstream, it's best practice for interviewers to wrap-up a bit early and remain on schedule.

I've compared notes with other interviewers and we all managed our time similarly.

• 5 min - Introductions and small talk
• 20 min - Personal Experience Interview (PEI)
• 25 min - Case interview
• 5 min - Wrap-up and Q&A

Your interviewer is primarily assessing your PEI and case performance using a standardized scoring matrix and rubric.  But your interviewer is also asking him or herself, "do I want this person on my engagement team?"

Transition to your next interview

Depending on how the interview environment is set up, you'll either return or be escorted to the waiting area or your next interviewer's room.  Your next interviewer will find you and take you to your next interview location.  This will be repeated if you have a third interview.

Have your next interview

Your second interview (and third, if you have one) will be very similar to your first.  The primary differences will be:

• Interviewer
• PEI question
• Case

Wrap up your McKinsey interview day

After your final interview, you'd be escorted back to the waiting area.  You might have some final paperwork to take care of - like submitting your location preference sheet - before you find your coat and head out to resume your day.

Wait for your decision phone call

Congratulations!  You've now done all you can to earn an invitation to final-round interviews.  Or, if you think you've performed poorly, condolences.  In either case, McKinsey does its best to communicate their decisions to candidates on the same day as interviews.  One of your interviewers will phone you to give you the news so keep your phone handy and if you get a call from a number you don't recognize, answer it!

McKinsey Interviews - What is a McKinsey Case Interview and Why Is It Important?

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If you've done any research into getting a job in consulting, you'll know that the case interview is a critical component of the interview process at McKinsey and other top management consulting firms.  Case interviews are also become more common in non-consulting job interviews, especially for Strategy roles and/or positions reporting to former consultants.

If you're just starting your research or it's not yet clear to you what, exactly, a case interview is, in this post I will answer:

• What is a case interview?
• Will it be a brain teaser?
• Why are case interviews important?

What is a case interview?

The case is one of two types of interviews you'll face when applying for a job at McKinsey - the other is the personal experience interview (PEI).

In the case interview, you'll be presented with a business problem (the "case") to solve in about 30 minutes.  They are meant to be representative of real engagements that McKinsey teams are asked to solve for clients and are often based on real-life examples (that have been "sanitized", of course).

As you might expect given the time allotted to the case interview, you're not just being asked for one answer to one problem.  Typically, the case consists of several components that must be identified and solved in order to support your final recommendation(s).

Will it be a brain teaser?

The simple answer is:  NO.

Examples of "brain teasers" include questions like:

• How much does the empire state building weight?
• How many golf balls would fit into a 747?
• How many pay phones are there in New York City?

At McKinsey, we would not consider these to be "case interview" questions, although my understanding is that brain teasers like these might get asked during interviewers for other firms, especially for more junior, Analyst-type positions.

No, but...

Although McKinsey interviews are not brain-teasers, there are elements of McKinsey case interviews - like market sizing - that will require this type of problem solving.  In the absence of data, how well can you come up with a logical approach for estimating something?

In these cases, you're not being assessed on how close you get to the "right" answer - although you will get dinged if your answer doesn't make sense.  Instead, your interviewers will be evaluating your thought process, how logical your approach is, and how well you explain and defend it.

Why are case interviews important?

Case interviews are important to you because they comprise half of your interview assessment score.  Case interviews are important to McKinsey and other firms because they're used as a way to assess your problem solving abilities and how well you can communicate your answer(s).  The reason the case is structured like a client engagement is so your interviewers can understand how you might perform as a teammate on a client team.