The first hour with a case pack.

The first hour sets the quality of everything after it. Read before you talk, agree on facts before you argue, and leave with a question and a plan.

Why the first hour matters.

Most case competitions hand teams a case pack and a deadline. The pack may include a narrative, financial tables, market data, and a question from the client or the organisers. Teams under time pressure often start talking immediately, splitting the pack into sections and diving into analysis before anyone has a shared picture. The result is usually a recommendation built on half-read facts and a deck that answers a slightly different question from the one asked.

The first hour is where teams avoid that outcome. The routine below works for short and long formats. Scale the minutes up or down to the total time available.

Minutes 0–20: one silent read.

Everyone reads the whole pack individually, in silence. No splitting yet. Each person marks three things as they read: facts that look important, numbers that look surprising, and anything that seems to contradict something else in the pack. Silent reading feels slow when the clock is running, but it is the only way to make sure every teammate can later challenge an argument with evidence from the pack.

Minutes 20–30: a shared fact list.

Go around the table and build one shared list of key facts. Keep facts and interpretations separate. “Revenue fell for three consecutive years” is a fact. “The company is losing customers to a competitor” is an interpretation unless the pack says so. Put interpretations in a separate column marked hypotheses. Note where the pack is silent on something the team will need; those gaps become assumptions you will have to state clearly later.

Minutes 30–40: write the core question.

Agree on the one question the recommendation must answer, in one sentence. Check it against the wording in the pack. If the pack asks whether the client should enter a new market, the core question is not how to grow revenue in general. Write the question at the top of the shared document or whiteboard where everyone can see it for the rest of the case. When debates drift later, point back to it.

Minutes 40–50: a first issue tree.

Break the core question into three or four branches that together cover it without overlapping. For a market-entry question, branches might be market attractiveness, the client’s ability to win, the economics of entry, and risks. Under each branch, list the analyses that would answer it and the data from the pack that feeds each one. This first tree will change, but it turns a vague task into a set of pieces people can own.

Minutes 50–60: assign and time-box.

Assign branches to people based on strengths, and agree on a time when everyone will regroup to share findings. Also agree when the team will stop analysing and start building slides, and protect time for at least one full rehearsal. Write the time plan next to the core question. A team that knows when analysis ends is far less likely to be building charts five minutes before the deadline.

Common first-hour mistakes.

Splitting the pack before anyone has read it all. Arguing about the answer before agreeing on the question. Treating every number in the pack as equally important. Starting slides in the first hour. Not writing down assumptions. Each of these feels efficient in the moment and costs time later, usually in the final hour, when there is no time left to fix them.

Adapting the hour to short formats.

Some competitions give only a few hours, or even less, for the whole case. The routine still applies, but the minutes shrink. In a three-hour format, try ten minutes of silent reading, five for shared facts, five for the core question, ten for the first tree, and five for assignments. The proportions matter more than the exact numbers: reading and agreeing on the question should still come before splitting the work. Skipping them to save time almost always costs more time later.

Who does what in the first hour.

Even before analysis starts, a few roles help. One person keeps time and calls each transition. One person writes the shared fact list and the core question where everyone can see them. One person draws the first issue tree as the team talks. These do not have to be the same people who later lead analysis or presentation. Rotating them in practice cases helps every teammate learn to run the first hour, which matters if a team member is unwell or late on competition day.

What coaches should watch for.

Coaches observing a first hour should watch for three signals. Does everyone finish the silent read, or does someone start talking after five minutes? Does the team write the core question in the pack’s own terms, or drift toward a question they find more interesting? Does the first issue tree name where each piece of data will come from? Give feedback on the process, not the eventual answer. A team that runs a disciplined first hour on a hard case is learning more than a team that guesses the right answer early.

Practise it before competition day.

Run the first-hour routine on a practice case during training, with a timer and an observer who only watches the process. Afterwards, ask the observer where the team lost time. Most teams improve noticeably after two or three practice runs, because the routine becomes automatic and the team stops negotiating how to start. For the next steps after the first hour, read issue trees for student teams, how to structure a business case, and 24-hour case strategy.