Junior Consultants, When You Need to Stop Memorizing Frameworks

Last Friday night, I was at a coffee shop in North Park, laptop open, polishing a client presentation. Two college students sitting next to me were prepping for case interviews, and one of them said, "Just throw up Porter's Five Forces, lay down a SWOT, then wrap it up with 3C." I almost burst out laughing, because that was exactly me one year ago.

Before I got into consulting, I collected frameworks like weapons. I had an entire Notion page dedicated to organizing them and even made a table listing when to apply each one. In interviews and on my first project, the first thing that came to mind was always, "Which framework should I use here?" I thought that was analysis.

The Moment Frameworks Fail

My first real project was a small food and beverage chain on the outskirts of San Diego. The client wanted to know why revenue had plateaued. I pulled out Porter's Five Forces like it was the obvious move. Supplier bargaining power, threat of substitutes, potential new entrants. I put the slides together and showed them to my senior, and the response was: "This is a textbook. Can you tell this business owner what they actually need to do?"

Honestly, I couldn't. I'd been so focused on filling in the five boxes of the framework that I hadn't even visited the client's stores. Where are the locations? How many customers come in during lunch? How do the menu prices compare to nearby competitors? None of that had a box in any framework.

That weekend, I went around to three of the locations myself. At one, the parking lot was so small that cars couldn't get out during the lunch rush. At another, the sign was barely visible from the road. These observations don't fit anywhere in the Five Forces. But for the client, "Change the traffic flow in your Store #3 parking lot" was a far more useful answer than a supplier bargaining power analysis.

Memorized Frameworks vs. Developed Instinct

I'm not saying frameworks are bad. The problem is that junior consultants use frameworks not as a starting point for thinking but as the entirety of their thinking. A framework is a map, and a map is not the terrain.

Here's what I've learned from working in the field. Real analytical ability doesn't grow inside a spreadsheet. It grows from watching the expressions on employees' faces in a client's office, from walking into a competitor's store and buying a $12 sandwich yourself, from reading about 200 customer reviews and spotting the patterns in recurring complaints. Instinct is built through that kind of messy, unstructured process.

On a recent project, I knew almost nothing about the client's industry. A year ago, I would have immediately started drawing out a SWOT analysis. Instead, I spent a week subscribing to industry newsletters, digging through related subreddits, and reading the client company's Glassdoor reviews. Without using a single framework, I was able to explain the industry's core tension points in front of my senior. That was the first time I thought, "So this is what it actually means to analyze something."

You Have to Be Uncomfortable to Learn

The reason the habit of leaning on frameworks is so strong is simple: it's comfortable. Filling in the blanks gives you a sense of relief, like you've accomplished something. But that sense of relief is exactly what makes it dangerous. The answer to a truly hard question (for example, "Will this company still be alive in three years?") doesn't fit inside a 2x2 matrix.

I still feel anxious, too. When I'm facing a blank slide with no framework, there are moments when my mind goes completely white. But if I push through that blank moment, sometimes a structure emerges, one that fits the client's situation perfectly and doesn't appear in any textbook. That structure doesn't come from memorization. It comes from wrestling with the problem.

Among the peers who started in consulting the same year as me, one had the thickest framework notes of anyone. That person always showed polished slides in client meetings, but whenever the client asked, "So what should we actually do?" they froze. On the other hand, another peer barely kept any notes but loved going to stores in person and striking up conversations with employees. Their slides were rough around the edges, but the client always nodded along.

I'm not telling you to stop studying frameworks. Just don't fall into the illusion that frameworks alone are enough. Close your laptop, step outside, and spend time observing reality rather than data. That's what makes the difference as a consultant. At least it did for me, and I'm still relearning that lesson every single time.