Oliver Wyman Assessment Tests

Oliver Wyman Situational Judgement Test

1. Question 1 of 10

   You are a market research assistant at Oliver Wyman. A study you worked on is being shown to a new client tomorrow, and the manager running the meeting asks you to spend five minutes on how the pricing analysis was built. You ran the interviews behind it and checked the numbers, but the analysis itself was built by a colleague who has since left the engagement. Which response below would be most effective, and which would be least effective?

   1. Tell the manager today which parts were yours and which were your colleague's, and offer to cover the interviews while somebody who knows the analysis takes that part of the meeting.
   2. Give the five minutes to the interview work you did and move quickly past how the analysis was put together, leaving the client to make their own assumption about who built it.
   3. Present the pricing analysis to the new client as work you built yourself, and answer their questions about how it was put together as though you had.
   4. Tell the manager an hour before the meeting that you cannot cover the analysis, and leave it with them to work out what happens to that part.
   Show the answer

   Most effective: A. Tell the manager today which parts were yours and which were your colleague's, and offer to cover the interviews while somebody who knows the analysis takes that part of the meeting.

   Least effective: C. Present the pricing analysis to the new client as work you built yourself, and answer their questions about how it was put together as though you had.

   B: Lets a wrong impression stand: the client takes the analysis as yours and puts weight on answers about it that you are in no position to give.

   C: Misrepresents your own part: a new client decides how much to trust the study on the strength of an account of it that is not true, and the questions they ask go to somebody who cannot answer them.

   D: Leaves the fix too late to make: an hour before a client meeting there is nobody left to brief, so the five minutes goes ahead badly or not at all.

   The most effective response is to tell the manager today which parts were yours and offer to cover the interviews. It is accurate about who did what, it is early enough for the meeting to be arranged around, and it offers the part you can genuinely stand behind rather than declining the whole thing. It beats giving the five minutes to the interview work and moving quickly past the analysis, because letting the client assume the analysis is yours puts you in front of questions you cannot answer and makes the study look weaker when that shows. It beats telling the manager an hour before the meeting that you cannot cover the analysis, because an hour’s notice is not notice: the manager has no time to find anybody else. The least effective response is presenting the pricing analysis as work you built yourself: the other three all leave the new client able to find out who built what, whereas this one takes a colleague’s work as your own in front of a client deciding whether to trust the study, and every answer you give afterwards rests on that. The principle: describe your own part accurately and early, so the meeting can be built around who actually knows what.

2. Question 2 of 10

   You are a strategy analyst at Oliver Wyman, finishing an options paper for a client’s steering group. The paper was due last Wednesday and was finished yesterday. The manager running the engagement asks you to put last Wednesday’s date on the front of it before it is circulated, so that the steering group reads it as having arrived on time. The client’s project office keeps its own list of what was received and when. Which response below would be most effective, and which would be least effective?

   1. Say you would rather put today's date on it, since the client's project office logs what arrived when, and offer a covering line explaining the delay.
   2. Circulate the paper with today's date on it and say nothing at all about the week it lost, leaving the steering group to notice the gap if they ever look for it.
   3. Ask the manager to put the date on it themselves, and circulate the paper only once somebody else has dated the front page.
   4. Change the date on the report to last Wednesday before circulating it, and let the steering group read the paper as delivered on the day it was due.
   Show the answer

   Most effective: A. Say you would rather put today's date on it, since the client's project office logs what arrived when, and offer a covering line explaining the delay.

   Least effective: D. Change the date on the report to last Wednesday before circulating it, and let the steering group read the paper as delivered on the day it was due.

   B: Leaves the client to find the slip: the date is honest, and the week the paper lost is left for the steering group to work out for itself.

   C: Passes an act you are already part of: the paper still goes out under last Wednesday, and the only thing that changes is whose hand typed it.

   D: Alters a record of when work arrived: the client's own list of what was received stops matching what happened, over a week nobody can get back anyway.

   The most effective response is to say you would rather put today’s date on it and to offer to explain the delay in the covering email. The date is a fact about when the paper arrived, the manager is entitled to a reason and a remedy rather than a refusal, and a covering line costs the engagement far less than a steering group discovering the paper was late. It beats circulating the paper with today’s date and saying nothing about the week it lost, because the steering group is left to work out for itself that a week went missing. It beats asking the manager to date it themselves and waiting until somebody else has done it, because the paper still goes out under last Wednesday and the only difference is whose hand typed it. The least effective response is changing the date on the report to last Wednesday before circulating it: the other three all leave the client able to see when the paper really arrived, whereas this one makes a record say something that did not happen, and the project office’s list stops being worth reading. The principle: a date records when something arrived, so fix the lateness in the covering words, never in the record.

3. Question 3 of 10

   You are a market research assistant at Oliver Wyman, running interviews for a client’s market study. The client’s marketing director rings on Wednesday to ask whether the eight extra interviews they requested will be done before their planning meeting on the fifteenth. Only the manager running the engagement knows what was agreed about those interviews, and they are away until Monday. Which response below would be most effective, and which would be least effective?

   1. Tell the marketing director you will confirm the position on Monday, set out which interviews are already booked, and message the manager about it today.
   2. Tell the marketing director you cannot help until Monday, and that the question will have to wait until the manager is back from leave.
   3. Ring the interviewers, work out how many of the eight can be done before the fifteenth, and give the director that number as the position.
   4. Assure the marketing director that the eight interviews are covered and will be finished before the fifteenth, so the call ends with a clear answer.
   Show the answer

   Most effective: A. Tell the marketing director you will confirm the position on Monday, set out which interviews are already booked, and message the manager about it today.

   Least effective: D. Assure the marketing director that the eight interviews are covered and will be finished before the fifteenth, so the call ends with a clear answer.

   B: Gives the director nothing to work with: some of the interviews are booked and you know which, so a flat wait leaves them planning around an unknown for five days.

   C: Answers a different question: what can be booked is not what was agreed, and a number from you becomes the commitment the director repeats at their meeting.

   D: States as settled something only your manager knows: the director plans their meeting around it, and the one thing you actually hold is that nobody has confirmed the eight.

   The most effective response is to say you will confirm the position on Monday, set out which interviews are booked, and message the manager today. It is honest about what is settled and what is not, it hands over the part you can actually stand behind, and it starts the manager working on the rest while there are still days before the fifteenth. It beats telling the director the question will have to wait until the manager is back from leave, because you know which interviews are booked, and withholding that leaves the director planning around nothing for five days. It beats ringing the interviewers and giving the director your own number as the position, because how many interviews are possible is not the same question as what was agreed, and your number would be quoted as the answer to both. The least effective response is assuring the marketing director that the eight interviews will be finished before the fifteenth: the other three leave the director able to tell what is confirmed from what is not, whereas this one gives a commitment nobody has made, so a client plans a meeting on the strength of an answer you invented. The principle: say what you know, say who holds the rest, and never fill the gap with certainty.

4. Question 4 of 10

   You are a technology analyst at Oliver Wyman, reviewing a client’s new payments system with a colleague from your team. You have each counted the failed transactions in last month’s data and your totals differ by nearly a thousand. Only one of the two counts can be right, and each of you has already sent your own figure to a different person on the client’s side. A joint session with the client’s project team is tomorrow afternoon. Which response below would be most effective, and which would be least effective?

   1. Ask the manager running the engagement to decide which of the two counts the client should be given, and send them both sets of working tonight.
   2. Tell the client's project sponsor in front of the team that your colleague has misread the data, and set out your own numbers as the ones to use.
   3. Sit down with your colleague today and work through both counts against the same data until you can see where they part, then take one agreed number into tomorrow's session.
   4. Recheck your own count once more tonight against the same month's data, and if it comes out the same again, give your figure in tomorrow's session as the one that has been verified.
   Show the answer

   Most effective: C. Sit down with your colleague today and work through both counts against the same data until you can see where they part, then take one agreed number into tomorrow's session.

   Least effective: B. Tell the client's project sponsor in front of the team that your colleague has misread the data, and set out your own numbers as the ones to use.

   A: Sends a question upwards that is answerable here: the manager cannot pick between the counts without doing the comparison the two of you could do today.

   B: Undermines a colleague in front of others: the disagreement is about a number, and it is settled in the client's hearing by discrediting the person rather than by comparing the working.

   D: Checks the wrong thing: repeating your own arithmetic cannot show which of two different methods produced a gap of a thousand transactions.

   The most effective response is to work through both counts with your colleague today until you can see where they part. The client already holds two numbers, only one of them can be right, and the fastest route to a single figure is the two people who produced them sitting with the same data before the session. It beats rechecking your own count tonight and giving your figure as the verified one, because repeating your own arithmetic tests your care and not the difference between two methods. It beats asking the manager running the engagement to decide which count the client should be given, because the manager cannot choose between two counts without the comparison that neither of you has done yet. The least effective response is telling the client’s project sponsor in front of the team that your colleague has misread the data: the other three all end with the client being given one number worked out properly, whereas this one settles a question about data by discrediting a colleague in front of the client’s own people, which leaves the count no better established and your colleague working alongside people who watched it. The principle: reconcile the numbers with the person who produced the other one, and never in front of the client.

5. Question 5 of 10

   You are a process analyst at Oliver Wyman, mapping a client’s claims process. The client’s operations lead has booked you onto a floor walk on Thursday morning. The manager running the engagement has separately put you in a workshop at the same time. Each of them arranged it a week ago and each believes the other knows. Which response below would be most effective, and which would be least effective?

   1. Go to the floor walk, because the client's operations lead booked it first, and read the workshop papers afterwards to catch up on whatever was decided.
   2. Split the morning, doing the first hour on the floor walk and joining the workshop late, so that neither the client nor your manager loses you for the morning.
   3. Ask a colleague who is free on Thursday to take one of the two, and leave them to agree with the operations lead which one they are covering.
   4. Tell both of them today that the two clash, say which you think the mapping needs more, and ask them to settle between them which one you go to, since neither of them knows about the other's booking.
   Show the answer

   Most effective: D. Tell both of them today that the two clash, say which you think the mapping needs more, and ask them to settle between them which one you go to, since neither of them knows about the other's booking.

   Least effective: C. Ask a colleague who is free on Thursday to take one of the two, and leave them to agree with the operations lead which one they are covering.

   A: Decides a priority that is not yours to decide: order of booking is not importance, and the manager finds out on Thursday that you chose the client's meeting over theirs.

   B: Splits effort so nothing finishes: an hour on the floor sees part of a process and a workshop joined halfway through cannot be contributed to.

   C: Passes the clash on to somebody else: a colleague who was in neither conversation now has to explain a double booking they did not make, to a client who thinks it was settled a week ago.

   The most effective response is to tell both of them today that the two clash and ask them to settle which you go to. Both people are working from a wrong picture, only you can see it, and the decision about which is worth more belongs to the two of them once they know. It beats going to the floor walk because the operations lead booked it first, because which invitation arrived first says nothing about which the mapping needs, and it leaves your own manager to discover the answer on the day. It beats splitting the morning between the floor walk and joining the workshop late, because half a floor walk and half a workshop give you neither a process you can map nor a session you contributed to. The least effective response is asking a colleague to take one of the two and leaving them to agree it: the other three all leave the clash with somebody who knows how it arose, whereas this one hands it to a colleague who was in neither conversation and sends them to negotiate with a client about a booking they know nothing about. The principle: a clash you can see and others cannot is yours to surface, and theirs to resolve.

6. Question 6 of 10

   You are a reporting analyst at Oliver Wyman, producing the weekly figures a client’s operations meeting runs on. Every set of figures is compared against the source extract by a second analyst before it leaves your team. The client’s operations manager rings an hour before their meeting and asks for this week’s figures now. The comparison has not been done. Which response below would be most effective, and which would be least effective?

   1. Tell the operations manager the figures are still being checked and will reach them within the hour, since the comparison is outstanding, and ask what they need.
   2. Send last week's figures instead, since those have already been compared against the source, and say the current week is not finished yet.
   3. Ask the second analyst to stop their own client work and do the comparison in the next twenty minutes, so the figures can go over before the meeting starts.
   4. Release this week's figures to the meeting straight away, and run the comparison against the source extract afterwards while the meeting is under way.
   Show the answer

   Most effective: A. Tell the operations manager the figures are still being checked and will reach them within the hour, since the comparison is outstanding, and ask what they need.

   Least effective: D. Release this week's figures to the meeting straight away, and run the comparison against the source extract afterwards while the meeting is under way.

   B: Answers a question nobody asked: last week's numbers tell the operations meeting nothing about the week they are meeting about, and the hour is spent on them anyway.

   C: Moves the cost onto a colleague: another client's work is dropped to avoid a one minute conversation about when the figures will be ready.

   D: Breaches a stated check: the meeting takes decisions from numbers nobody has compared against the source, and the client cannot see that the step was skipped.

   The most effective response is to tell the operations manager the figures are still being checked and will reach them within the hour. It gives the operations manager a straight answer inside their own timing, it leaves them to decide what to do with the hour, and what reaches the meeting has been through the comparison the client is relying on without knowing it. It beats sending last week’s figures instead, because numbers from the week before answer a question the meeting is not asking, and this week is still missing. It beats asking the second analyst to stop their own client work and do the comparison now, because another client loses their analyst to save a conversation about timing that takes a minute to have. The least effective response is releasing the figures straight away and running the comparison afterwards: the other three all leave the meeting either waiting or told what it is waiting for, whereas this one puts uncompared numbers in front of people who will decide on them, and the one step that would have caught an error is gone without the client ever knowing it existed. The principle: tell a client where a check stands rather than dropping the check to hit their clock.

7. Question 7 of 10

   You are a research analyst at Oliver Wyman, costing a supplier base for a manufacturing client. Last quarter you built the same kind of cost model for a different client, and the file is in your own folder: it holds that client’s supplier prices as well as the method you worked out. Reusing it would save two of the four days you have. The manager running the engagement is in the office today. Which response below would be most effective, and which would be least effective?

   1. Rebuild the model from scratch, spending the two days rather than asking anybody, so that nothing belonging to the other client goes anywhere near this client's pack.
   2. Copy the file into this week's pack, prices and all, and keep the two days it saves for your own use, saying nothing about where the work came from.
   3. Take the other client's prices out of the file, keep the structure you built, and use it in the pack without mentioning that it started on another engagement.
   4. Ask the manager running the engagement today what may be reused, showing them which parts of the file are the other client's prices and which parts are the method you worked out.
   Show the answer

   Most effective: D. Ask the manager running the engagement today what may be reused, showing them which parts of the file are the other client's prices and which parts are the method you worked out.

   Least effective: B. Copy the file into this week's pack, prices and all, and keep the two days it saves for your own use, saying nothing about where the work came from.

   A: Spends the client's time to avoid a conversation: the method is yours and probably reusable, and two of the four days go on rebuilding something that already exists.

   B: Takes an advantage for your own benefit: the client pays for four days and gets two, another client's prices travel into a pack nobody has looked at, and the person it suits is the only one who decided.

   C: Decides alone what may be reused: the judgement is probably right, and it is made by the one person with two days to gain from it and shown to nobody.

   The most effective response is to ask the manager today what may be reused, showing which parts are the method you worked out. It gets the two days if they are there to be had, it puts the part that is not yours in front of somebody before it moves, and it takes ten minutes on a day the manager is in the office. It beats rebuilding the model from scratch rather than asking anybody, because the method you worked out is your own and rebuilding it burns half the client’s time for nothing. It beats stripping the prices out and using the structure without mentioning where it started, because the same decision is being made either way and only one version of it is visible to anybody but you. The least effective response is copying the file into this week’s pack and keeping the two days it saves: the other three all leave the other client’s prices out of this pack or leave somebody able to check, whereas this one moves them across whole and pockets the saving, so a benefit to you is bought with a risk carried by two clients who never hear about it. The principle: when reuse would save you time, the person who owns the engagement decides what may be reused, not the person who gains from it.

8. Question 8 of 10

   You are a project support officer at Oliver Wyman, keeping the plan for a client’s office move. Over lunch, two of the client’s own staff tell you that their department cannot start packing until a stock count is finished, which will take a month. The sponsor’s plan has packing starting in three weeks, and the sponsor signs the plan off on Monday. The two staff ask you not to make a fuss about it. Which response below would be most effective, and which would be least effective?

   1. Put the stock count into the plan as a risk without naming the two staff, and let the sponsor read it when the plan comes round on Monday.
   2. Go back to the two staff and ask them to raise it with their own sponsor before Monday, leaving it with them to sort it out between themselves inside the client's organisation.
   3. Leave it out of the plan and say nothing to anybody about the conversation, since the client's own staff are the ones who can tell their sponsor if they want to.
   4. Tell the manager running the engagement today what the two staff said and that the sponsor signs on Monday, so that the timing can be checked with the department before then.
   Show the answer

   Most effective: D. Tell the manager running the engagement today what the two staff said and that the sponsor signs on Monday, so that the timing can be checked with the department before then.

   Least effective: C. Leave it out of the plan and say nothing to anybody about the conversation, since the client's own staff are the ones who can tell their sponsor if they want to.

   A: Buries a fact in a document: a risk line arriving on the morning of sign-off is not the same as somebody being told in time to check it.

   B: Relies on people who asked to stay out of it: they have already said they want no fuss, and Monday arrives whether they speak up or not.

   C: Withholds what the sponsor needed: they sign off a plan on Monday whose first task cannot start, and the only person outside their department who knew has decided it is not worth mentioning.

   The most effective response is to tell the manager running the engagement today what the two staff said. It gets a fact that changes the plan to somebody who can check it with the department while there are still working days before sign-off, and it does that without making the two staff the story. It beats putting the stock count into the plan as a risk without naming the two staff, because a risk line the sponsor reads as they sign leaves no time to find out whether it is true. It beats going back to the two staff and asking them to raise it with their own sponsor, because the two staff have already said they want no fuss, so the plan is left resting on a conversation that may never happen. The least effective response is leaving it out of the plan and saying nothing about the conversation: the other three all get the timing problem somewhere it can be tested before Monday, whereas this one keeps it back altogether, so a sponsor commits to a plan whose first task cannot start and later learns that somebody on the engagement had been told. The principle: information that changes a decision belongs with the people who can check it, in time for them to check it.

9. Question 9 of 10

   You are an application support analyst at Oliver Wyman, on a team fixing faults in a client’s ordering system. Most of the hardest fixes have been worked out by a quiet colleague, but in the daily meeting the client’s team lead keeps thanking a louder member of your team for them, and he does not correct it. The next daily meeting is tomorrow morning. Which response below would be most effective, and which would be least effective?

   1. Ask the louder colleague privately to name who did the fixes the next time the client's team lead thanks him for one of them.
   2. Say in tomorrow's meeting, in front of the client's team, that the louder colleague has been taking credit for fixes he did not work out.
   3. Tell your team lead today what your quiet colleague worked out, and in tomorrow's meeting describe the fixes by who did them when you give your own update.
   4. Tell your quiet colleague he should speak up for himself in tomorrow's meeting, and leave it to him to put the record straight with the client.
   Show the answer

   Most effective: C. Tell your team lead today what your quiet colleague worked out, and in tomorrow's meeting describe the fixes by who did them when you give your own update.

   Least effective: B. Say in tomorrow's meeting, in front of the client's team, that the louder colleague has been taking credit for fixes he did not work out.

   A: Relies on the one person who has not acted: he has sat through several meetings without correcting it, and the client's picture of who solved what is unchanged tomorrow.

   B: Makes it about the person in front of the client: the credit is put right at the cost of your own team's standing, and the colleague you are defending still has to work with everybody in that room.

   D: Puts the fix on the person it is hardest for: he has stayed quiet through several meetings already, so nothing changes tomorrow and he now knows you watched it happen.

   The most effective response is to tell your team lead what your quiet colleague worked out and describe the fixes by who did them. It gets the record right through the two channels that actually carry it, your own update and your team lead, and it does so tomorrow without turning the meeting into an argument. It beats telling your quiet colleague to speak up for himself and leaving it to him, because your colleague has already sat quietly through several of these meetings, and asking him to fix it changes nothing tomorrow. It beats asking the louder colleague privately to name who did the fixes next time, because the person who let the mistake stand for a week is the least reliable route to correcting it. The least effective response is saying in tomorrow’s meeting in front of the client’s team that he has been taking credit for fixes: the other three all correct the record without cost to anybody, whereas this one turns a question of credit into an accusation the client’s people watch, so your team looks divided and the quiet colleague is left working alongside everybody who heard it. The principle: put the credit where it belongs by stating the facts, never by making a colleague the subject in front of the client.

10. Question 10 of 10

    You are a strategy analyst at Oliver Wyman. On Monday you presented findings to a client’s finance team for the first time. Two of your figures were questioned and you could not answer either, and the room moved on without you. You are down to present the next set on Thursday. The manager running the engagement asks how Monday went. Which response below would be most effective, and which would be least effective?

    1. Rework every slide for Thursday on your own and rehearse it several times, without telling anybody how the finance team actually received the figures on Monday.
    2. Assure the manager that Monday went well and that Thursday needs no extra preparation, rather than describing how the finance team took the two figures you were asked about.
    3. Ask the manager to present Thursday's findings instead of you, so that the finance team hear the material from somebody who can answer whatever they ask about it.
    4. Tell the manager which two figures you could not answer, and ask for half an hour before Thursday so that you can work through the questions the finance team are likely to put again.
    Show the answer

    Most effective: D. Tell the manager which two figures you could not answer, and ask for half an hour before Thursday so that you can work through the questions the finance team are likely to put again.

    Least effective: B. Assure the manager that Monday went well and that Thursday needs no extra preparation, rather than describing how the finance team took the two figures you were asked about.

    A: Treats a shared problem as a private one: the effort is real, and it is aimed at slides when what came apart was the questions afterwards.

    B: Reports a session as something it was not: Thursday is prepared for on a false picture, and the one person who could have helped you before it is told there is nothing to help with.

    C: Removes the occasion instead of using it: Thursday goes smoothly and the thing that went wrong on Monday is still waiting for the time after that.

    The most effective response is to tell the manager which two figures you could not answer and ask for half an hour before Thursday. It names the specific failure rather than the general one, it asks for help from the person best placed to give it, and it aims all of that at the session two days away where it will be tested. It beats reworking every slide alone and rehearsing without telling anybody about Monday, because the slides were not the problem and a private rehearsal leaves the questions unanswered. It beats asking the manager to present Thursday’s findings instead of you, because handing Thursday over makes the session go well and leaves you exactly where Monday left you. The least effective response is assuring the manager that Monday went well and needs no extra preparation: the other three all leave somebody able to prepare properly for Thursday, whereas this one gives the manager a picture of Monday that is simply not what happened, so the second presentation is planned on the strength of a session that did not go the way they have been told. The principle: after something goes badly, describe it accurately to the person who can help you before it happens again.