Part XIII

PART XIII: The Discover Your Mad Skills Case-Solving Checklist

Before submitting your presentation, work through the following.

DECIPHER

• Do we understand what the case is really asking?
• Have we identified the central problem?
• Have we separated symptoms from root causes?
• Do we understand what kind of case this is?
• Have we identified the decision that needs to be made?
• Do we understand what success looks like?

ANALYZE

• Do we understand the organisation?
• Do we know what business it is really in?
• Have we turned facts into insights?
• Does every major piece of analysis answer a question?
• Are our frameworks being used as lenses rather than checkboxes?
• Can we explain the “so what?”
• Have we considered financial impact?

ALTERNATIVES

• Did our alternatives emerge from our analysis?
• Are they realistic?
• Are they implementable?
• Are they meaningfully different?
• Are they MECE?
• Are our decision criteria clear?
• Are the criteria connected to the problem?

RECOMMENDATION

• Is our recommendation clear?
• Is it obvious why it wins?
• Have we supported it financially?
• Does it fit the organisation’s capabilities?
• Is it realistic?

IMPLEMENTATION

• Do we know what happens first?
• Do we know who owns each step?
• Do we have realistic timelines?
• Have we identified required resources?
• Are the costs realistic?
• Do we have KPIs?
• Do we have leading and lagging indicators?

RISK

• Have we identified the most important strategic risks?
• Have we prioritised them?
• Does every major risk have a mitigation?
• Is the mitigation part of implementation?

COMMUNICATION

• Is our title slide engaging?
• Is the audience clearly defined?
• Is our opening connected to the case?
• Is our executive summary clear?
• Does our story have a logical flow?
• Does our close reconnect to the opening?
• Is our recommendation unmistakable?
• Are we ready for Q&A?