A useful case analysis ends with a decision someone could act on. It identifies the choice, uses the available evidence, compares realistic alternatives and explains the downside of the recommendation. A company timeline can provide context, but it cannot do that work for you.
1. State the decision before choosing a framework
Write down who must decide, what must be decided and by when. “The company has an operations problem” is a topic. “The owner must choose how to clear the current backlog without promising delivery dates the team cannot meet” is a decision. The second version tells you what evidence to look for.
HBS describes case preparation as putting yourself in the protagonist's position and analyzing the information available at the time. That is a useful discipline for historical cases: separate what a decision-maker could know then from what a reader knows about the eventual outcome. Our method below is an original practice exercise, not an HBS assignment or grading standard.
Sources: HBS Executive Education: case preparation ↗ · HBS: Case Method Teaching ↗
2. Separate facts from assumptions
Consider Cedar Print, a fictional print shop. Every figure in this worked example is invented for the exercise. The shop has a backlog requiring 120 production hours. Its team can deliver 80 production hours a week, while new orders add 60 hours of work. A contractor offers 40 extra production hours a week for two weeks at $60 an hour.
Do not quietly turn that offer into guaranteed capacity. The quoted price is available evidence. Whether the contractor can meet the shop's quality standard is still an assumption. Keeping those categories separate makes it easier to see where a small check could prevent an expensive mistake.
| Known in this exercise | Assumed for the first calculation | Still to verify |
|---|---|---|
| 120 hours of unfinished work | The backlog estimate is accurate | Whether any orders require unusual rework |
| 80 hours of weekly team capacity | The capacity is usable on these jobs | How much supervision the contractor needs |
| 60 hours of new work a week | Incoming work stays at that rate | Whether the next two weeks differ |
| Contractor quote: $60 per hour | Quoted hours translate into useful output | Quality, availability and any additional costs |
3. Compare alternatives against the same criteria
Cedar Print could continue at its current capacity, temporarily limit new orders, or buy additional capacity. Each option should be judged against the same concerns: customer waiting time, added cost, quality and the ability to deliver new work. Comparing only the benefit of your favorite option with only the cost of another will produce a persuasive-looking but weak analysis.
Keeping the current plan has consequences too. With 80 hours available and 60 arriving each week, only 20 hours remain to reduce the backlog. At that rate, 120 hours takes six weeks to clear. Waiting is therefore an option with a delivery consequence, even if it does not require writing a new check.
Limiting new orders would free capacity but require an explicit rule about whose work is delayed or declined. Adding a contractor protects more capacity for customers, but commits cash and introduces quality and coordination questions. Name those costs before making the choice.
4. Calculate the quantity that could change the decision
Under the exercise's assumptions, the contractor raises weekly capacity to 120 hours. After the 60 hours of incoming work, 60 hours remain for the backlog. The backlog would clear in two weeks rather than six. Buying 80 contractor hours over those two weeks would cost $4,800 before any additional costs.
That calculation does not prove the contractor is worth hiring. We have not been told what delayed orders cost, whether customers can accept revised dates or whether the business can fund the work. It tells us the price and proposed delivery benefit of one option. A recommendation must now connect that trade-off to the shop's actual priorities.
5. Write a recommendation someone can challenge
A defensible memo does not need to pretend the missing information is known. It can state the decision conditionally: “If cash availability is confirmed and a paid trial demonstrates the required net capacity and quality, engage the contractor for two weeks. Otherwise revise delivery dates and cap new commitments while reviewing alternatives.” That is more actionable than “improve operations.”
Give the first action an owner. In this example, the owner checks funding and oversees the trial before promising a new completion date. At the end of the first week, review useful hours delivered and remaining backlog. If the assumed extra capacity does not appear, revise the plan rather than preserve a promise made from an invalid estimate.
- Decision: what you recommend and what must be true first.
- Evidence: the two or three facts doing the most work in your argument.
- Alternative: the strongest option you rejected, and why.
- Trade-off: the cost or risk your recommendation accepts.
- Action: the first step, its owner and a review trigger.
6. Use the same discipline with a historical case
Now take a real case brief and write a memo before reading its outcome discussion. In Tesla's production case, separate factory output from customer delivery. In Airbnb's crisis case, identify who absorbs each loss. The useful result is a recommendation tied to evidence, with enough detail that another reader can disagree with your reasoning rather than guess what you meant.
Sources & further reading
Follow the original materials behind this guide. Our analysis and exercises are The Chair’s interpretation. Read our editorial approach.
- HBS Executive Education: case preparation
First-party preparation guidance on identifying the executive's problem and analyzing case information.
- HBS: Case Method Teaching
Describes considering a historical decision using the information available at the time. Cedar Print and the memo exercise are original fictional examples by The Chair.
USE THE FRAMEWORK ON A REAL CASE