654. Shankar Ananth, Micro-Casing: A Gamified Way to Practice Case Interviews

Show Notes:

Shankar Ananth shares his background, mentioning his nine years of consulting experience, highlighting his experience at McKinsey and Bain, and his role in building the new app, Micro-Casing.

Bridging the Gap in Case Interview Preparation

Shankar explains the gap in case interview preparation methods, which led him to create Micro-Casing. He also mentions his eight years of experience as a case coach and the usefulness of the app for students. He discusses the target audience of the app, which includes consulting candidates and those looking to improve their consulting thinking.

Micro-Casing - Your Case Partner Reimagined

Shankar explains the homepage of the app, where users can log in through Google or Apple.

Quick start guide

The app is designed as a decision-making tool with a multi-choice game-like interface to mimic case interviews.

Categories

Users can choose from various categories like market entry, growth strategy, profitability, market size, or M&A.

Avoiding AI Hallucinations

Shankar explains the gameplay, where users can pick a category, race the clock, and solve timed cases with two attempts. The app includes a feature where incorrect answers lead to rabbit holes, similar to real-life case interviews. The scoring system involves penalties for viewing hints and entering rabbit holes. Shankar highlights the app's manual case creation process to avoid AI hallucinations, ensuring the cases are accurate.

Mock Case Interviews Demonstration

The app's growth strategy category is described, showing the available cases and their status (completed or not started).

Coaches

Shankar explains the optional feature of selecting a sidekick or coach, which provides tips during the case.

Growth Dilemma

They start a case called "ShopSphere's Growth Dilemma," where a case prompt is read and the process of solving the problem begins.

Case Profitability

The Summary Page

Shankar explains the summary page, which shows the case details, difficulty, pass score, and performance metrics.

Case results and performance review

The summary page includes a growth category readiness score and an overall readiness score, indicating progress and areas for improvement. He explores the view of all hints feature, which provides detailed feedback on each question.

The Quality Control System

Shankar discusses the process of creating and validating cases, involving AI-driven reviews and manual checks by experienced case coaches. The app currently has over 60 cases across various categories, ensuring rigorous quality control. Shankar mentions the potential for users to disagree with answers, which will be tracked for future improvements. The app aims to provide a comprehensive and accurate case preparation experience.

The Leaderboard Feature

Will and Shankar discuss the leaderboard feature, which allows users to compare their progress with others. The leaderboard is based on overall category readiness and overall readiness scores, calculated using various metrics. Shankar explains the option for colleges and consulting clubs to create their own leaderboards and case competitions within the app. The app supports private quizzing clubs, allowing organizations to upload and co-create cases for exclusive use. Shankar shares his experience as a case coach, starting from word-of-mouth referrals and eventually joining platforms to offer his services.

Case Practice for Consultants

He highlights the importance of case practice for consulting candidates, noting that it can take months to prepare. Shankar offers listeners of the podcast two months of free access to the entire app, providing an opportunity to try it out.

Timestamps:

03:07: Overview of Micro-Casing App

06:29: Gameplay and Scoring Mechanism

10:03: Detailed Walkthrough of the App

13:54: Evaluation and Feedback

16:59: Creation and Validation of Cases

20:14: Leaderboard and Customization Features

Links:

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/micro-casing/id6754453873

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microcasing.dev&pcampaignid=web_share

Special link / discount code for the general audience for a free 2 months:

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/redeem?ctx=offercodes&id=6754453873&code=2MOTS

Android:Use the code 'Umbrex' at checkout, not within the app

Special link / discount code for participants in the Umbrex Consulting Fellowship for a free 3 months:

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/redeem?ctx=offercodes&id=6754453873&code=UMB200

Android:Use the code 'UmbrexCore' at checkout, not within the app

This episode on Umbrex: https://umbrex.com/unleashed/episode-654-shankar-ananth-micro-casing-a-gamified-way-to-practice-case-interviews/

Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.

*AI generated timestamps and show notes.