case library / growth and strategy
Willow Diner Co.
A medium growth and strategy case, candidate-led, built for live practice with an AI interviewer that grades like a coach.
- Growth strategy options
- candidate-led
- medium
- ~35 min
- 3 exhibits
Your client owns Willow Diner Co., a single-location breakfast-and-brunch diner in Portland, Oregon, open since 1978 and known for its sourdough pancakes and biscuits & gravy. The diner has a loyal local following and is at or near full seating capacity every weekend morning. The owner wants to grow revenue but isn't sure how, and has asked for help thinking through her options and picking the best path forward. How would you approach this?
What happens when you run it live
Your interviewer holds answers to 4 clarifying questions candidates usually ask, so opening the case correctly gets rewarded. The case unfolds over 7 phases, with 3 exhibits handed to you at the right moments. You structure, do the math out loud, and close with a recommendation. Then you get a graded report across structure, quant, insight, synthesis, and communication, with the specific moments that cost you points. The exhibits, numbers, and answer key stay inside the live session, the way a real interviewer keeps the case packet on their side of the table.
How to approach a growth and strategy case
Growth cases hand you a target (grow revenue, fix a stalled business, monetize a product) and an open field of options. The test is structure under ambiguity: lay out the realistic levers (existing products to existing customers, new products, new segments, new channels, pricing), then prioritize by impact and feasibility rather than listing everything.
These cases often carry a curveball midway: a constraint changes, a competitor moves, or the data contradicts the obvious story. Interviewers are watching how you absorb new information without abandoning structure. A crisp final recommendation with a first move and a risk to watch scores far better than a balanced essay.
Run Willow Diner Co. live, free. About 35 minutes, graded in the same sitting.
Start practicing freefree · no card · graded in minutes