The process:
1) Phone screen with recruiter (I had a referral so there may have been another screen with someone on the team if you aren't referred)
2) First-round "interview-blitz", with 4-5 experience and case interviews (45mins each), in a row, in person
3) Final-round panel interview (single 45mins interview) with a handful of team members, presenting an interview "homework" assignment
A few thoughts / pieces of advice:
- Template-based interviews. As a result, very mechanical. "Tell me about a time when you showed .. creativity / team work / dealt with hard client / etc" with minimal or no deviation beyond the pre-written questions, a zero surprises or thinking you will have to do in the interview.. Lack of thoughtfulness in design of the interview structure. In truth, even if the people interviewing are nice and interesting, this format made the interviews painful and cheesy, and fails to give opportunity to build much connection with the interviewers, and gives a strange impression for the profiles they want to hire. These are easy-preparation interviews.
- Final-round interview "homework" asks you a very very broad question, and so is a big time suck. Likely 15+ hours if you want to pull together something that is a good piece of work. So, my suggestion would be just to give some high-level recommendations with high level rationale (i.e., think of this as a school homework not a work project) and practice your pitch rather than arming yourself with facts. Any way you approach it will take a bunch of time, and you will have to be sure of really, really wanting this job to commit to this.
- Also, no step at which you interview with the head of the group. Again, this isn't a junior role (or even really a very big team).
Some nice people interviewing, but a really strange process - everything about it, from the templates to idea of giving a "homework" to the lack of interaction with senior leaders, feels like a basic out-of-college recruiting process for a generic junior role at a generic big company.. even though it's meant to be for strategy people with 5+ years experience. In my view, doesn't feel tailored or aligned to the ambitions of the profiles they want to hire. But regardless, be aware of this if you interview as you can tailor your approach accordingly.