If you’re applying for Strategy or BizOps roles in tech, chances are you’ll face a take-home case study.
🟡Good candidates approach these like a consulting case — structured, theoretical, polished.
🟢Great candidates approach them like they already work at the company.Here are 10 tips to help you stand out — not by being the smartest person in the room, but by thinking like an operator.
Somewhere between messy spreadsheets and unfinished slides, there's a quiet test of how clearly you think. These 10 tips are for finding your way through that ambiguity — and coming out with something that actually matters.
1. Know What You’re Actually Being Tested On
This isn’t just a data exercise or a strategy brainstorm. The case is testing whether you can connect the dots. Start by aligning on what the take-home is evaluating:
• Can you structure ambiguity?
• Can you use data to drive business decisions?
• Can you connect strategy to execution?
2. Start with First Principles, Not a Framework
Before jumping into data or slides:
• Understand the business model
• Ask yourself: What’s the real goal here? What’s working? What can be improved?
• Don’t force a framework — think like a general manager of the business
If there’s a dataset, yes — some numbers might have clear answers. But that’s just the baseline. What matters more is what you do with those results.
Spell out the "so what":
• What insight does the data surface?
• What action should the company take as a result?
• How does that action tie back to the business goal?
This isn’t about checking boxes. It’s about building your logic from the ground up based on the specific problem, company, and context
3. It’s Okay to Form Assumptions and Hypotheses
Feel confident to take a stance with limited info.
• Don’t wait for the perfect data. Use external data to back up part of your hypothesis if you see a signal in the case
• If you made assumptions, remember to flag them and that they align with analysis result
Example: Say you’re forecasting 5-year revenue for Spotify based on a new push into audiobooks. You won’t have internal numbers — but you can pull external data, like Deloitte’s forecast for audiobook listenership growth, to ground your assumptions. It’s not about being perfectly accurate — it’s about showing you can make smart, data-backed projections.
That not only improves the quality of your recommendation — it also shows you’re willing to go the extra mile to build a credible, data-backed argument.
4. Clean the Data Before You Dive In
Before any analysis, get your foundation right.
• Scan for missing values, time zone issues, duplicates
• Understand column logic and units
This saves hours of backtracking later. Drop, modify and filter before you are in too deep.
True story — halfway through a DoorDash data analysis, I realized the order timestamps made no sense. Orders were spiking at 3 a.m. in markets where that shouldn’t happen. Turned out I hadn’t aligned timestamps to local timezones. Don’t make the same mistake.
💡ProTip: Spot-check a few rows across different datasets to get familiar with the structure and sniff out quality issues early.
5. Use Data to Find the “So What”
Once data is clean, break down the data into meaningful segments and synthesize the information to gain insights.
Look for Trends, Gaps, and Leverage: Identify patterns, uncover gaps, and find leverage points that can drive strategic decisions.
Focus on Business Outcomes: Concentrate on insights that directly impact business outcomes, rather than just interesting data points.
Example: If you discover underperformance in a client segment, don’t just flag it. Suppose your analysis reveals a need to generate more revenue from a specific client segment. Ask: Would your next step be for new client acquisition, existing client upselling or both? Use data to size the opportunity and prioritize accordingly.
6. Prioritize with Ownership
Distill to the 3–5 highest-impact actions and prioritize based on ROI, feasibility, and confidence
Continuing the example above, we need to assess the potential impact of each tactic on business goals and choose actions that offer the highest return on investment or strategic advantage. Is there evidence to back up stronger needs for new client acquisition than existing client upselling? How would you size the efforts involved in conducting either action?
7. Bridge Strategy and Tactics
Big ideas are easy. Concrete, operational tactics are where most candidates fall short. A great operator shall
define how the business can achieve these 2 strategies with detailed tactic and clear ROI.
Evaluate the impact and cost-effectiveness of each strategy to ensure alignment with business objectives.
By bridging strategy with detailed tactics, you can ensure that high-level goals translate into actionable plans with tangible outcomes.
💡Anyone can say “increase expansion revenue.”
It’s much stronger to say:
“Target mid-market clients in Tier 1 markets who use Feature X, with a bundled upsell tied to renewal cycles — expected to lift Q3 expansion by 10%.”
8. Proofread Like You Mean It
Final polish matters. Typos, broken charts, or inconsistent logic hurt your credibility.
• Spellcheck everything
• Review both when you’re fresh and again when you’re tired
• Check numbers across tabs and slides for consistency
This is your final impression — don’t let small errors distract from strong insights.
9. Think Like an Owner and Get Ready for Follow-up Questions
Your recommendations should feel confident and practical when you present them to the hiring team.
• What would you do if you were on the BizOps team?
• What trade-offs would you call out?
• What results would you expect?
Go back to first principles if you are unsure of how to answer followup questions. Hiring managers might want to dig deeper into execution of a specific tactic or ways to allocate resources if the budget is tight. Be ready to speak to trade offs.
10: Do the Dirty Work Before the Case Starts
Formatting and design shouldn’t eat up your analysis time — so prep your toolkit in advance.
• Set up a clean template (slides or doc) ahead of time with standard fonts, colors, and layouts
• Use clear headings and consistent formatting to improve readability
• Incorporate visuals intentionally — charts, tables, or diagrams that clarify your point
• Guide the reviewer’s eye — bold key takeaways, avoid walls of text, make important insights pop
• Make it skimmable — up to 1 minute per slide for hiring manager review is a good rule of thumb
Bonus Tip: Show You Can Think in Risk-Adjusted Iterations
BizOps isn’t about building the perfect solution on day one — it’s about testing your way to impact. Strong strategy operator considers both short term and long term views where they highlight the opportunity to pilot test before scaling specific tactics to mitigate risk.
In my case study for DoorDash, I outlined a 3 year-vision along with revenue growth projections and immediate steps on what I’d like to achieve in 1 week, 1 month, 1 quarter, and 1 year.
This mindset shows you're not just strategic — you're practical, adaptable, and ready to build on real-world feedback. That’s how BizOps adds value in fast-moving teams.
💬 Found this helpful?
Got a topic you’d love to see next? Drop it in the comments or hit reply — I read every one.
Share this post