Structuring
MECE
Buckets that do not overlap and together cover everything.
Facts checked against sources onWhat does MECE mean?
MECE stands for mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive. It means you split a problem into parts that do not overlap (mutually exclusive) and that together cover the whole thing with nothing missing (collectively exhaustive). Splitting profit into revenue and cost is MECE. Splitting customers into "young people" and "students" is not, because a person can be both. The idea is usually credited to Barbara Minto at McKinsey.
Where does it come up in case interview prep?
- The case, start to finishLesson in What a case interview is, and how to prepare
- Clean splits: being MECELesson in How to structure any problem
- How government and non-profits work: money, services and the value chainLesson in Government, public sector and non-profits
- Structured brainstorming, and ranking the ideasLesson in Brainstorming and creativity
- Twelve practice prompts with model answersLesson in Brainstorming and creativity
- Revenue growth and growth strategyLesson
- Public, social, and non-profit casesLesson
- Non-standard and creative casesLesson
Related terms
- Issue treeA branching diagram that breaks a problem into smaller parts.
- Driver treeAn issue tree built from the numbers that drive an outcome.
- Pyramid PrincipleAnswer first, then grouped reasons, each backed by facts.
- HypothesisYour best early guess at the answer, which you then test.
- Sensitivity analysisChanging one assumption at a time to see which matters most.
- Pareto principle (80/20)A small share of causes often drives a large share of results.
Learn it in context
See MECE at work in a lesson from What a case interview is, and how to prepare, with checks as you go.
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