Just had a candidate say "I don't feel comfortable segmenting the population by gender" during a practice case interview for a market sizing.

How would you react to this during a real case interview?

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Gender is still a thing last i checked. If they want to extend the definition of gender and actually become more precise, then it's a plus. If it was some grand standing without any basis, then coaching to help understand what the job/profession is about.

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That’s fine as long as they offer an alternate segmentation that still makes sense. I would ask them for their thoughts on why they wouldn’t segment that way or what alternate segmentation they would use. Though honestly it strikes me as strange why they wouldn’t segment by gender and just include a nonbinary bucket

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Suggested that non-binary bucket implementation at the end of the case, i had suggested a gender segmentation in response to them needing help getting through the sizing

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I'd say, "Ok, what more effective segmentation might you propose?"

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If you look at those model weights, I guarantee gender is a highly relevant variable.

If segmenting by gender is the best approach for getting the answer, it sounds like they can’t do the job and would be an automatic “no”.

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*Plot twist* The client’s revenue was shrinking because it was losing customers due to binary gender segmentation of products on shelves!

(Cue audience exasperated gasp)

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Fair enough. I'm a fairly serious person ;).

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I don’t get what’s wrong with this?
If the candidate segmented by something that is more effective shouldn’t that be better?

If I were paying BCG for a consumer strategy I would sure as hell not want them to just segment my market by gender

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B2, your response is a perfect example of why I am so proud to work at BCG. Well done.

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Binary segmentation isn’t always very helpful…is it possible you’re the one missing the forest for the trees here?

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The estimation was jewelry purchases for context

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Bizarre to me that you can simultaneously comment "so?" As though the case topic doesn't matter and also comment on the other comment about tampons saying "it wasn't", implicating that the case topic does matter.

The logic is astounding.

@Mck5

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HAHAHAHAHAHA this is funny
In all seriousness so many ways to segment a population could have 3 genders and boom ya done.

Male Female Nonbinary now divide that 360m/3

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I would have been dumbfounded, pretended to go along and strongly recommended to not hire the candidate.

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What if the case is about tampon sales?

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It wasn’t.

Yeah Itd likely be a no from me if it was the intuitively obvious major segmentation

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Woke culture will be the end of critical thinking and inevitably the end of the US as a thought leader

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To add on those who said “did she have an alternate solution”: I’d be inclined to agree there, pressing that “these are questions our clients ask us to solve” and if she has an alternate segmentation, make her defend that and if she doesn’t, push that like I said these are questions we’re asked to solve, and having those perspectives are fine when not every client has that inclsusive mindset…so long as we can find another solution. But providing anything less than the best solution at BCG doesn’t fly for our clients.

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Yeah seems like the candidate is missing the point of the case interview. The 1% non-binary or whatever is certainly not a key driver in the analysis. I don’t think prioritizing political correctness over practical analysis in an interview bodes well for client engagements.

I would approach the situation with a question and let them sort it out. IE, what do you think would be a better segmentation approach for this problem?

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Had the same point been made post case, in an insightful rather than argumentative way, I would feel the input would be seen as positive and insightful, rather than negative and putting self before team.

I think there are still ways to segment by gender while remaining sensitive to peoples' identity. First, as others suggested, including more than 2 genders. In fact, this could be a good place to demonstrate creativity as you could have multiple nonbinary gender buckets assuming there are differences between them and the buckets are large enough to make a difference.
Second, as for stereotyping genders, it would reaffirm stereotypes if it were applied on the individual level e.g. "she is a woman therefore she buys more jewelry," whereas stating trends of large groups of people "women as a whole spend more on jewelry" shouldn't.
The intent is understandable in wanting to be progressive but more effort could have been put into being both progressive and creating an effective solution simultaneously.

Adding in ‘non-binary’ is great for liberal virtue signaling, but terrible for a case interview. Just about the opposite of 80:20 there given the relative prevalence of identified cis vs non-bin folks out there.

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Can I interview instead? 🙋

So, I am curious. Did you recommend that your company interview this candidate or pre-ding them because of the team dynamic such a person is likely to create?

They're really sharp so i wouldn't have pre dinged them, as taken aback i was

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Wondering if the interviewee will see this post…

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