
Be MECE in profitability cases to split costs and revenue in an issue tree
A group of people below 50 years and another group with people from 40 to 70 years is not MECE, as people from 40 to 50 years belong to both groups - they are not mutually exclusive – and people above 70 are in neither one of the groups – they are not collectively exhaustive. No person can be in both groups - mutually exclusive - but every person is in either one of them – collectively exhaustive A group of people below 50 years and another group of 50 years and above is MECE. Learn the difference between MECE and non-MECEĪnother example for a MECE breakdown is dividing the population into subsets of age: For example, if you need to make “means of transportation” MECE, don't start just collecting “per foot, train, plane, bicycle, bike, etc.” Try to find categories, because this practice will prevent you from forgetting important options: wheels vs. The trick is to divide a problem into categories with a finite number of general groups. Exhaustive means that all possible options have been considered. Proving exclusiveness forces you to carefully look at each option, consequently leading you to a much deeper understanding of the issue.Ĭollectively Exhaustive: aims at ensuring a comprehensive collection without leaving alternatives. You need to make sure that the possible solutions or groups are not accidentally considered twice. Mutually Exclusive: aims at reducing complexity by avoiding overlaps. Doing so will help you avoid dependencies between different branches of the tree and thus sub-problems can be properly isolated. MECE as a method should be used when you craft an issue tree for your case structure. be distinct, and should “exhaust” the relevant field, i.e. MECE is a way of segmenting information into sub-elements that are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive. In other words, elements should “exclude” each other, i.e. Next article MECE – A Guide to the MECE Principle With Applied Examples MECE is a best practice method to lay down a robust structure for your case interview