Market Sizing
Estimate the number of cups of coffee sold per day in San Francisco.
San Francisco population: ~880,000
% coffee drinkers (daily): ~60 % → 0.60×880 000 ≈ 528,000 people
Cups per drinker per day: ~2
Estimate: 528,000×2 ≈ 1,050,000 cups/day
What is between 800,000 and 1,300,000?
What is the gross profit margin of a coffee shop that sells each cup for $5, with COGS of $1.50 per cup?
Selling price: $5
COGS per cup: $1.50
Gross profit per cup: $5 − $1.50 = $3.50
Margin: $3.50/ $5 ≈ 70%
What is 70%?
A legacy insurance firm wants to implement AI for underwriting. What organizational and data-related challenges should they anticipate?
What is legacy data quality, lack of AI talent, regulatory compliance, integration with existing workflows?
A manufacturer’s production line is consistently behind schedule. What areas would you examine?
What is workflow bottlenecks, equipment downtime, staffing, and supplier delays?
When emailing a client for the first time, consultants should always include this at the start of the message to show professionalism. (Hint: Hello _,)
What is addressing the client by name?
Estimate the total number of movie tickets sold in the United States in one year.
US population: ~330 million
% attending movies at least once/year: ~30 % → 0.30×330 M = 99 M people
Average visits per moviegoer/year: ~2
Estimate: 99 M×2 ≈ 200 million tickets/year
What is between 160 million and 240 million?
A freelance designer earns $4,000 in a month. She spends $500 on materials and $800 on marketing. What is her operating profit?
Total Revenue = $4,000
Variable Costs = Materials + Marketing = $500 + $800 = $1,300
Operating Profit = Revenue – Variable Costs = $4,000 – $1,300 = $2,700
What is $2,700?
A retail chain wants a seamless experience across its e-commerce site, mobile app, and brick-and-mortar stores. What strategy should consultants recommend?
What is developing an omnichannel platform that unifies CRM, inventory, and order-fulfillment systems. (Something along the lines of this will work)
A global apparel brand faces inventory stockouts. What’s your approach?
What is demand forecasting, inventory buffers, supplier lead times, logistics?
Before presenting recommendations, consultants should do this to confirm they understand the client’s top priorities.
What is asking clarifying questions?
Estimate the number of Uber (or Lyft) rides taken per day in New York City.
NYC population: ~8,500,000
% of people using ride-hailing weekly: ~40 % → 0.40×8.5 M = 3.4 M rides/week
Convert to daily: 3.4 M ÷ 7 ≈ 500,000 rides/day
What is between 350,000 and 650,000?
A small café brings in $15,000 in monthly sales. Food & beverage costs are 40% of sales; monthly labor is $3,000; rent is $2,000. What is its monthly operating profit?
COGS = 40% of $15,000 = 0.40 × $15,000 = $6,000
Total Expenses = COGS + Labor + Rent = $6,000 + $3,000 + $2,000 = $11,000
Operating Profit = Sales – Total Expenses = $15,000 – $11,000 = $4,000
What is $4,000?
A government agency is undergoing digital transformation but lacks internal stakeholder buy-in. How would you approach change management in this context?
What is stakeholder mapping, internal communication strategy, pilot programs, training, or co-creation workshops? (Something along the lines of this works)
A company wants to cut costs in their logistics process. What would you investigate?
What is transportation routes, warehousing strategy, fuel usage, vendor contracts?
After a project phase ends, consultants should do this within 24 hours to reinforce progress and next steps.
What is sending a meeting summary with action items?
Estimate how many diapers are used per day in Los Angeles County.
LA County births per year: ~120,000
Age‐0–2 cohort size: ~120,000×2 = 240,000 babies
Diapers per baby per day: ~6
Estimate: 240,000×6 ≈ 1,440,000 diapers/day
What is between 1,000,000 and 1,800,000?
A gym reports $120,000 in annual revenue. Maintenance and supplies cost 10% of revenue; staff salaries total $30,000; utilities are $5,000. What is its net income before taxes?
Variable Costs = 10% of $120,000 = 0.10 × $120,000 = $12,000
Total Expenses = Variable Costs + Salaries + Utilities = $12,000 + $30,000 + $5,000 = $47,000
Net Income before Taxes = Revenue – Total Expenses = $120,000 – $47,000 = $73,000
What is $73,000?
A client’s transformation failed because the KPIs focused solely on tech deployment speed. What should you have measured instead to track real success?
What are user adoption, productivity gains, customer satisfaction, process efficiency, ROI on tech investment? (Something along the lines of this will work)
A client’s operations are highly fragmented across regions. What framework helps streamline this?
What is centralization vs. decentralization tradeoffs, SOP alignment? SOP is a Standard Operating Procedure which means that it ensures that people, processes, and tools all follow the same steps to get consistant, compliant, and efficient outcomes.
When handling a client’s sensitive information, consultants must uphold this to protect trust and compliance.
What is confidentiality?
Estimate the annual number of automobile tires sold in the United States
New vehicles sold/year: ~17 million
Tires per new vehicle: 4 → 17 M×4 = 68 M tires
Existing fleet size: ~280 million vehicles
Replacement rate: ~¼ of fleet replaces one tire per year → 280 M÷4 = 70 M tires
Total tires sold/year: 68 M+70 M ≈ 138 million tires
What is between 85 million and 195 million?
A small manufacturer posts $500,000 in annual sales. Materials cost 50% of sales; labor costs 20% of sales; fixed overhead (rent, utilities) is $50,000; depreciation is $20,000. What is the net income before taxes?
Cost = 50% of $500,000 = 0.50 × $500,000 = $250,000
Labor Cost = 20% of $500,000 = 0.20 × $500,000 = $100,000
Total Expenses = Materials + Labor + Overhead + Depreciation
= $250,000 + $100,000 + $50,000 + $20,000 = $420,000
Net Income before Taxes = Sales – Total Expenses = $500,000 – $420,000 = $80,000
What is $80,000?
During our snack-acquisition activity last week, the client relied on spreadsheets to track inventory levels and employee preferences, which led to frequent stock-outs and over-ordering. Which end-to-end digital transformation solution would you propose to automate demand forecasting, trigger replenishment orders, and provide real-time analytics for their snack supply chain?
What is implementing an IoT (Internet of things) enabled inventory management system—fit snack dispensers with weight or RFID sensors, integrate them into a cloud-based platform, layer on an AI-driven demand-forecasting engine, and surface insights in a self-service analytics dashboard. (If along the lines will take, this is very challenging)
A B2B distributor wants to digitize its supply chain. What tech tools might you suggest?
What is predictive analytics, real-time tracking, AI-driven forecasting?
A client that you are working for receives this email at 10:30 PM.
Hey John,
Just attached the final report—LMK your thoughts when you can.
Cheers,
Alex
What are both the issues in this email?
What is sending the email that disregards professional boundaries (too late) and informal slang with client (LMK)?