12/06/2019 PARADE Method

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PARADE Method
 by Victor Cheng

The PARADE Method (tm) is an approach to answering resume-oriented job interview questions.
It is an approach I developed that is tailored for answering these questions in job interviews for
management consulting, as well as interviews for senior executive positions in industry.

It can be used by candidates to prepare concise and powerful answers to commonly asked
consulting resume questions. It can also be used by interviewers to remind candidates to
identify all the key information needed to assess a candidate's career experiences.

For the purposes of this article, I will describe the PARADE method from the perspective of the
job-seeker.
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PARADE is an acronym that stands for:

P roblem
A nticipated Consequence
R ole
A ction
D ecision-Making Rationale
E nd-Result

Let me explain what each of these 6 factors mean:

1)
PROBLEM -- What is the problem you or your organization faced?  Since the business of
consulting (and executive management) is that of solving problems, anytime you explain a career
experience, extra-curricular activity, or academic experience, frame the experience as a problem.

2)
ANTICIPATED
CONSEQUENCE
-- What consequence did you or your organization face if
this problem continued without resolution?

3)
ROLE
-- What was your role in resolving this problem? Interviewers want to know what you
did... not what "we" did. A source of irritation for many interviewers is when the candidate says,
"We faced a $10 million drop in sales, and we fixed this by landing three new clients for $3.3
million each."

The savvy interviewer will immediately ask, "I see... and what specifically was your role in this
situation?" Did you find and close all $10 million in sales? Did you just show up at the sales
meeting? Did you cheer the sales team on from the sidelines?

Save the interviewer the trouble and pro-actively explain what your role was in solving the
problem.

4)
ACTION -- What action did YOU take? What did you do? Be specific. Say, "I did three things:
a) I did X; b) I did Y; c) I did Z."

5)
DECISION-MAKING
RATIONALE - Explain why you decided to take the action that you did.
What other options did you consider? Why didn't you choose the other options? Why
this specific decision? What quantitative data did you consider? What qualitative data did you
consider?

Especially in consulting interviews, it is important that your decision-making rationale include

analytical factors ("I analyzed X, and determined Y was the better choice for Z reasons"). It is
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also important to consider inter-personal factors in your rationale.

"Option A was the best logical option, but it was also a tough sell, given the culture of the
organization. Option B was 80% as good as Option A, but had no cultural resistance. Given the
political environment, I chose Option B."

6)
END-RESULT -- After you took the action that you did, what happened?  What was the
outcome? Be specific -- when possible, cite a quantitativelymeasurable
outcome.

Let me provide two examples so you can see the PARADE Method in action.

EXAMPLE
#1:

The date was November 22, 2000 for XYZ company -- one of the leading start companies in the
eCommerce software services market.

At the time, I was the CEO's "Chief of Staff" and had stepped in as interim Chief Information
Officer. The company was on pace to grow sales by 600% for the year.

1)
Problem:

In doing a walk-by evaluation of our server racks for the first time, I noticed that our servers were
at 85% of capacity.

Traditionally, the Christmas retail season kicks off on November 26th (the U.S. Thanksgiving
Holiday) and runs until News Year's Day -- driving roughly 25% of all U.S. retail sales in only 30
days. Many brick and mortar retailers see a 100% - 200% growth in monthly sales during the
peak season.

2)
Anticipated
Consequence:

Given the Year 2000, this was the industry's very first E-Christmas... and the big season was only
four days away.  I realized our systems did not have the capacity to serve our high-profile clients,
which included the eCommerce divisions of over a dozen Fortune 500 retailers.

We were at serious risk of letting down our highly visible clients on their most important month in
their online histories.

In addition, we had an IPO scheduled for Q1, and if the company failed to deliver, our IPO would
be in jeopardy. The company had $250 million at stake to solve this problem in the next 48 hours.
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3)
Role:

As interim CIO, it was my role to solve this problem using any means possible... and to do it fast.

4)
Action:

* I immediately had our procurement manager contact all of our suppliers to try and buy new
servers. The servers we wanted had a two-week turnaround time. The lower-end servers still had
a ten-day window until we could get them. We also had no spares in stock.

* In asking my staff for suggestions, I discovered we had an old data center with some older
servers still sitting there. They were not perfect, but they would hopefully buy us 7 - 10 days of
time to get the higher capacity servers installed.

* I took one of my managers down to the data center to bring three of the servers back up. Upon
attempting to exit the building, we discovered that our controller had a billing dispute with the
data center company, and they were holding our equipment hostage in retaliation.

* I decided that despite the security guards in the lobby, we would make a "run" for it.  I grabbed
one server under my arm. I instructed my colleague to do the same, and we ran while security
tried to stop us.

* We ran down Canal Street in the nearby China Town of New York City, carrying three servers
amongst us with security on our tail, but ultimately were able to make it back to the office.

5)
Decision
Making
Process:

* We did place orders for permanent equipment -- which I determined was the best medium-term
solution, but we still had a two-week gap to cover.

* I decided re-purposing existing equipment would be the fastest way to get some kind of
capacity improvement quickly.

* I decided that it would be unlikely for us to be arrested for "stealing" equipment that already
belonged to us... so actually running out the door probably posed little legal risk... and I had a
problem to solve.

6)
End
Result:

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* My staff was able to install and re-configure those servers by 1am that night. By 8am the next
morning, the system had a 100% increase in capacity.

* The company ended the year booking a 600% increase in sales for the year.

* Our systems had no downtime during the industry's first big eChristmas season.

* Four months later, the IPO was successful and the company had a market valuation of $250
million.

(Incidentally, this is a true story.  It is probably a better example for use in the senior executive
position that I interviewed for following my McKinsey days... and was intended to convey a "I will
do whatever it takes to get the job done... including getting my hands dirty," which was a point I
wanted to convey at the time.

Hopefully you can see the template provides a simple way to provide a concise and precise
answer.  For consulting jobs in particular, a better example would be one involving more inter-
personal dynamics, cultural factors, bruised egos, major disagreement and controversy.).

EXAMPLE
#2:

(This
example
is
from
my
college
experience,
and
is
intended
to
show
how
the
PARADE
Method
(tm)
can
be
applied
to
extra-curricular
experiences
for
college
students.)

As a freshman at Stanford, I was the Finance Director for the Stanford Solar Car project.

1)
Problem:

Upon joining the organization, I discovered that our #1 corporate sponsor canceled their
sponsorship this year, and we had a 50% budget shortfall.

2)
Anticipated
Consequence:

This was the first time in the five-year history of the student group to have a shortfall this large.

Without an alternative source of funding, the group would for the first time be unable to compete
in Australia for the annual global collegiate solar car competition against MIT, Cal Tech, UC
Berkeley, and others.

3)
Role:
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Since I was the finance director, it was my responsibility and mine alone to find a solution.

4
&
5)
Action
+
Decision
Making
Process:
(I
often
find
it
easier
to
combine
these
two
sections.)

a) I analyzed the expense budget to see how much we would actually have to raise to close the
financing gap. The amount was $15,000.

b) I looked at the amount donated by our other sponsors, and while we had many material
donations, the largest cash donation was only $1,500 -- 90% less than what we were looking for.

c) I concluded that getting corporate cash contributions, while possible, would not be easy. I
decided to look for alternative means of fundraising.

d) I researched how the other student organizations raised money. Even though I had been on
campus for only 30 days, I observed that many student organizations existed, and I figured they
must have been getting their funding from somewhere.

e) In speaking with the finance directors of other student groups, I discovered that there was an
annual election for students to allocate a portion of their annual student fees to various student
groups... with $600,000 to be allocated.

f) I proposed to the Solar Car group leaders that we participate in this year's election. The
leadership team was hesitant, as they were concerned about losing control of the group.

In researching their concerns, I learned that other than keeping accurate financial records, there
were no other on-going restrictions. I argued that since this is an activity we should be doing
anyway (group members consisted entirely of engineers, and I was the first business person to
join the group in the group's history), the current leadership could maintain control of the group
while still getting funding.

g) I registered the Solar Car Project in the election and mounted an advertising campaign to
encourage students to vote to fund the project. Given the election was timed to be near our
school's annual "big game" rivalry with UC Berkeley, I opted to piggyback on this school spirit by
saying that without this funding, "Cal" (UC Berkeley) would likely compete against us this year,
and we would lose by default.

6)
End
Result:

We won the election.  The group got its funding for the rest of the academic year and was able to
compete in Australia -- placing in 3rd place globally.
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-----

Hopefully through these examples, you can see how the PARADE method is able to efficiently
communicate not just WHAT you did, but WHY you did it, HOW you did it... and the IMPACT of
your actions.

As it applies to consulting, the nature of the examples you choose will vary, depending on your
experience level.

If you are an experienced hire, it would be expected that you have more examples leading
initiatives in a corporate setting, company politics, controversial business decisions.

If you are an APD or PhD candidate, perhaps the conflict resolutions you'll be describing will be
in regards to conflicts in your lab or with colleagues.

If you are an undergrad, more of your experiences will likely be extra-curricular driven rather than
corporate experiences.

The thing to keep in mind is you will implicitly be compared to other candidates from a similar
background.  So to some extent there is a relative standard that you are trying to meet or
exceed.

So regardless of which peer group you will be compared against, you want to convey that you
can "lead," "take charge," yet still "work with others" even in awkward, highly-conflicted-type
situations.

A final thought -- if you do not follow the PARADE method in your answers, it is entirely possible
the interviewer will elicit that information from you anyways by interrupting you with specific
questions.

So if you hear the interviewer interrupt you by asking, "And what was your specific role in this
situation?" then you know why
the interviewer is asking.

You won't get penalized for omitting this information, but you will lose time.

It is better to pro-actively state this information to avoid minimizing how many times the
interviewer interrupts you to ask a clarifying question.

Additional
Resources

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 Mar 26, 2019

Tagged as:  case interview questions,  interview questions,  parade method,
 personal experience interview,  resume questions

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