What is a Consultant at & General Intuition?

As a Strategic Consultant at & General Intuition, you are the critical bridge between complex business challenges and actionable, scalable solutions. This role is not just about giving advice; it is about embedding yourself within cross-functional teams to drive transformation, shape product strategies, and optimize operations. You will tackle some of our most ambiguous problems, translating high-level corporate goals into clear, executable roadmaps that directly impact our users and our bottom line.

The impact of a Consultant here is immense. Operating primarily out of our Sunnyvale, CA headquarters, you will partner with senior leadership, product managers, and engineering leads to evaluate new market opportunities and streamline existing workflows. Whether you are assessing the viability of a new product feature or restructuring an internal operational process, your insights will dictate where we invest our time and resources.

Expect a highly dynamic, fast-paced environment where no two days are the same. & General Intuition values consultants who are not only analytically rigorous but also deeply empathetic to user needs. You will be expected to command the details of data while keeping the big picture in sharp focus. This role requires resilience, intellectual curiosity, and the ability to influence without direct authority.

Common Interview Questions

The questions below represent the typical patterns and themes you will encounter during your interviews. While you may not be asked these exact questions, practicing them will help you build the mental muscles required to succeed. Focus on your structure, clarity, and the business logic behind your answers.

Strategy & Case Studies

These questions test your ability to break down complex business problems and build actionable frameworks.

• How would you evaluate whether & General Intuition should build, buy, or partner to acquire a new technological capability?
• Walk me through how you would price a brand-new SaaS product targeting enterprise customers.
• If our main competitor suddenly drops their prices by 20%, how should we respond?
• How would you assess the risk of cannibalization when launching a lower-tier version of our flagship product?
• Design a strategy to improve the operational efficiency of our customer support centers by 15% over the next year.

Behavioral & Leadership

These questions assess your past experiences, your emotional intelligence, and your cultural alignment with our team.

• Tell me about a time you led a project that was failing and how you turned it around.
• Describe a situation where you had to make a critical decision with less than 50% of the data you wanted.
• How do you handle a stakeholder who continually moves the goalposts on project requirements?
• Tell me about a time you identified a strategic opportunity that others missed. How did you capitalize on it?
• Describe a time you failed to gain alignment on a key initiative. What did you learn from the experience?

Analytical & Operations

These questions dive into your comfort with numbers, metrics, and process optimization.

• What are the top three metrics you would look at to evaluate the health of a subscription-based business model?
• Estimate the number of smartphones sold in the US last year. Walk me through your assumptions.
• Tell me about a time you built a complex financial or operational model. What were the key drivers and how did you validate them?
• How would you identify the bottleneck in a multi-step user onboarding process?
• If a key performance dashboard shows a sudden, unexplained drop in daily active users, what steps do you take to investigate?

Getting Ready for Your Interviews

Preparation is the key to demonstrating your readiness for the Consultant role. We design our interviews to simulate the actual challenges you will face on the job, meaning you should prepare to showcase both your analytical horsepower and your interpersonal finesse.

Focus your preparation on these key evaluation criteria:

Strategic Problem-Solving – This is your ability to take a massive, unstructured problem, break it down into manageable components, and build a logical framework to solve it. Interviewers at & General Intuition evaluate this by observing how you structure case studies, identify key drivers, and prioritize solutions over edge cases. You can demonstrate strength here by thinking out loud, validating your assumptions, and clearly connecting your conclusions back to the core business objective.

Analytical Rigor – We rely heavily on data to make decisions. This criterion measures your comfort with numbers, metrics, and financial or operational modeling. You will be evaluated on your ability to quickly size a market, interpret performance dashboards, or calculate ROI during a case prompt. Show your strength by asking for relevant data, performing quick estimations confidently, and recognizing when data might be skewed or missing.

Stakeholder Management & Leadership – As a Consultant, your ideas are only as good as your ability to persuade others to adopt them. We assess how you navigate conflict, align differing opinions, and communicate complex concepts to non-technical audiences. You can excel in this area by sharing structured behavioral examples where you successfully influenced leadership, managed pushback, and drove consensus across disparate teams.

Adaptability & Culture Fit – & General Intuition thrives on agility and continuous learning. Interviewers want to see how you handle ambiguity, pivot when new information is introduced, and collaborate under pressure. Demonstrate this by remaining calm when a case prompt changes mid-stream, showing a willingness to iterate on your ideas, and highlighting your collaborative nature in past projects.

Interview Process Overview

The interview process for a Consultant at & General Intuition is rigorous, immersive, and designed to evaluate how you think on your feet. You will begin with a recruiter phone screen to assess baseline qualifications, followed by a deeper behavioral and experience-based interview with a hiring manager. This early stage is highly focused on your past impact, your motivation for joining our team, and your fundamental understanding of our business model.

If you advance, you will move to the core of our evaluation: the onsite (or virtual onsite) loop. This typically consists of four to five distinct rounds, heavily weighted toward interactive case studies and advanced behavioral assessments. We emphasize collaboration, meaning your interviewers will act as your partners during case prompts. They want to see how you brainstorm, how you handle course corrections, and whether you are someone they would trust in front of a critical client or senior executive.

What makes our process distinctive is our focus on realistic, company-specific scenarios. Rather than generic market-sizing questions, expect prompts that mirror the actual strategic dilemmas currently facing & General Intuition. You will be pushed to provide actionable recommendations rather than purely theoretical frameworks.

This visual timeline outlines the typical progression from initial screening to the final onsite loop, highlighting the mix of behavioral and case-based evaluations. You should use this to pace your preparation, ensuring you build your case-structuring endurance for the multi-round onsite stage. Keep in mind that specific panel compositions may vary slightly depending on the exact business unit you are interviewing with.

Deep Dive into Evaluation Areas

Strategic Case Studies

This is the most critical component of the Consultant interview loop. Case studies evaluate your ability to synthesize information, apply business logic, and deliver actionable recommendations under time constraints. Strong performance looks like a well-structured approach, clear hypothesis generation, and a poised, confident delivery of your final recommendation.

Be ready to go over:

• Market Entry & Expansion – Assessing whether & General Intuition should launch a new product or enter a new geographic region.
• Operational Efficiency – Diagnosing bottlenecks in our current supply chain or service delivery and proposing scalable fixes.
• Profitability & Growth – Identifying root causes for declining margins or brainstorming innovative revenue streams for existing products.
• Advanced concepts (less common) –
  • M&A target evaluation and integration strategy.
  • Pricing strategy overhauls for legacy services.
  • Competitive response modeling.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Our core software product has seen a 15% decline in user retention over the last two quarters. How would you determine the root cause and what strategies would you propose to reverse this trend?"
• "We are considering expanding our enterprise services into the European market. Walk me through the framework you would use to evaluate this opportunity."
• "Imagine you are tasked with reducing our customer acquisition cost by 20% without impacting total sales volume. Where do you start?"

Data-Driven Decision Making

As a Strategic Consultant, your intuition must be backed by hard data. This area tests your quantitative fluency and your ability to extract meaningful narratives from raw numbers. A strong candidate does not just calculate accurately; they explain what the numbers mean for the business.

Be ready to go over:

• Metric Identification – Selecting the right KPIs to track the success of a new initiative or product launch.
• Estimation & Sizing – Quickly calculating market sizes, potential revenue, or operational costs using logical assumptions.
• Data Interpretation – Reading provided charts, graphs, or data tables during a case to pivot your strategy.
• Advanced concepts (less common) –
  • Basic statistical significance and A/B testing principles.
  • Financial statement analysis (P&L impact).

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Estimate the annual revenue of a hypothetical new subscription tier for our mid-market clients."
• "If the data shows a spike in user engagement but a drop in overall revenue, what conflicting metrics might be at play?"
• "Walk me through a time you used incomplete or messy data to make a critical business recommendation."

Client & Stakeholder Communication

Your analytical work is useless if you cannot communicate it effectively. This evaluation area focuses on your executive presence, your ability to distill complexity, and your talent for managing difficult conversations. Strong performers are concise, empathetic, and capable of adjusting their communication style based on their audience.

Be ready to go over:

• Executive Summaries – Delivering the "bottom line up front" before diving into supporting details.
• Handling Pushback – Defending your recommendations constructively when challenged by a senior stakeholder.
• Cross-Functional Alignment – Bridging the gap between technical teams (engineering) and business teams (sales/marketing).
• Advanced concepts (less common) –
  • Crisis communication and managing project delays.
  • Facilitating high-stakes strategy workshops.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Tell me about a time you had to convince a highly technical stakeholder to adopt a strategy they initially opposed."
• "How would you deliver a presentation to our VP of Product indicating that their pet project is no longer financially viable?"
• "Describe a situation where you had to align three different departments with conflicting priorities behind a single goal."

Key Responsibilities

As a Strategic Consultant, your primary responsibility is to lead high-impact strategic initiatives from ideation to execution. You will spend your days conducting deep-dive market research, analyzing internal performance data, and synthesizing these findings into comprehensive strategy decks. These deliverables are frequently used by our executive team in Sunnyvale to make multi-million dollar investment decisions.

Collaboration is at the heart of this role. You will rarely work in isolation. Instead, you will partner closely with product managers to understand technical constraints, with the finance team to build robust ROI models, and with operations leaders to ensure your strategies can be practically implemented. You are the connective tissue that ensures all departments are moving toward the same strategic north star.

Typical projects you will drive include designing go-to-market strategies for new product features, leading post-merger integration workstreams, or conducting competitive benchmarking to reposition our existing offerings. You will be responsible for setting project milestones, managing cross-functional working groups, and ultimately taking accountability for the success or failure of the strategic implementation.

Role Requirements & Qualifications

To thrive as a Consultant at & General Intuition, you must bring a blend of rigorous analytical training and exceptional emotional intelligence. We look for candidates who have a proven track record of solving ambiguous problems at scale.

• Must-have skills – Advanced proficiency in logical structuring (e.g., Pyramid Principle), strong financial and operational modeling skills, and exceptional executive-level presentation abilities. You must be highly proficient in building compelling narratives using presentation software and backing them up with spreadsheet-based data analysis.
• Nice-to-have skills – Familiarity with SQL or basic data visualization tools (like Tableau or PowerBI), experience in the specific technology sector & General Intuition operates in, and previous experience managing direct reports or dedicated project teams.
• Experience level – Typically, successful candidates possess 3 to 6 years of experience in management consulting, corporate strategy, or a highly analytical product/operations role. An MBA or equivalent advanced degree is often preferred but not strictly required if your professional experience demonstrates equivalent strategic rigor.
• Soft skills – Unwavering composure under pressure, a high degree of adaptability, active listening skills, and the ability to foster trust quickly with diverse groups of stakeholders.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How difficult are the case study interviews, and how much should I prepare? The case interviews are rigorous and designed to test the limits of your problem-solving abilities. Most successful candidates spend several weeks practicing live cases with peers to refine their structuring and communication under pressure. Focus on quality of practice over quantity.

Q: What differentiates an average candidate from a great one in this process? Average candidates jump straight to solutions. Great candidates take the time to clarify the objective, build a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive (MECE) framework, and constantly tie their detailed analysis back to the big picture. They also treat the interviewer as a collaborative partner.

Q: What is the working culture like for a Consultant at & General Intuition? The culture is highly collaborative, intellectually demanding, and relatively flat. We value good ideas regardless of where they come from. You will be expected to take ownership of your workstreams immediately, but you will also have access to a deep network of supportive peers and mentors.

Q: Is this role fully based in Sunnyvale, CA, or is hybrid work supported? This Strategic Consultant role is based in our Sunnyvale headquarters. While we support flexible hybrid schedules, a strong in-person presence is required to build relationships with key executives and cross-functional partners effectively.

Q: What is the typical timeline from the initial recruiter screen to a final offer? The process generally takes between 4 to 6 weeks. After the recruiter screen, the hiring manager interview usually happens within a week. If successful, the onsite loop is scheduled a week or two later, with final decisions typically communicated within a few days of your final interview.

Other General Tips

• Structure Everything: Whether you are answering a behavioral question or a complex case prompt, use clear frameworks. For behavioral answers, rely on the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result). For case answers, leverage the Pyramid Principle—start with your core recommendation and support it with structured pillars.

• Embrace the Silence: It is perfectly acceptable—and encouraged—to ask for a moment to collect your thoughts after receiving a difficult prompt. Taking 30 to 60 seconds to outline your framework on paper shows maturity and prevents you from rambling.

• Treat the Interviewer as a Client: Approach case studies as if you are leading a working session with a key stakeholder. Read their body language, ask for their input on your assumptions, and pivot gracefully if they guide you in a different direction.

• Quantify Your Impact: When discussing your past experiences, always highlight the measurable results of your actions. Did you increase revenue, reduce costs, or save time? Use specific percentages and dollar amounts wherever possible to ground your achievements in reality.

Summary & Next Steps

The compensation data above reflects the base salary range for the Strategic Consultant position in Sunnyvale, CA. Keep in mind that this range ($130,000 -$200,000 USD) represents base pay only; total compensation packages at & General Intuition often include performance bonuses, equity grants, and comprehensive benefits tailored to your experience level and interview performance.

Stepping into a Consultant role at & General Intuition is an opportunity to be at the forefront of industry-defining strategy. You will be challenged daily, but you will also be given the autonomy and resources to drive meaningful, large-scale impact. The interview process is your first opportunity to demonstrate the clarity of thought, leadership, and analytical rigor that will make you successful here.

Take the time to deeply review the evaluation areas, practice your case structuring, and refine your behavioral narratives. Focused, deliberate preparation will significantly elevate your confidence and performance. For more detailed insights, practice scenarios, and community advice, continue exploring resources on Dataford. We are incredibly excited to see the unique perspective you bring to the table—good luck with your preparation!