Point72 Analyst Program Questions

I recently was asked a detailed purchasing decision question by Point72. The question is as follows: Discuss a substantial purchasing decision that you recently made on a physical product and the process by which you arrived at your choice. Consider the following: 

  • What conclusion did you come to?
  • What differentiated your purchase options?
  • What was the criteria used to evaluate these differences and how did you ascribe value to them?
  • What were the key questions you needed answered to make an informed decision?
  • What was your research process to answer these questions?
  • What were the key risks you were weighing?
  • Having made this purchase and knowing what you know now, would you make the same decision? Why or why not?

 Interested to hear if anyone has a framework for making big ticket purchasing decisions that includes some of these questions. I certainly don't go into this kind of detail unless its larger value items. I mean if its a t-shirt purchase I'm not going to write a full-scale report weighing the benefits vs costs.

4 Comments
 
Most Helpful

I think thinking about utility functions is helpful, as well as maslow's heirachy of needs.

Like what are the needs and wants? Which variables are continuous and discretionary. Suppose that I wanted to sign a lease. What are the good to have, nice to have variables, and are they continuous or discrete?

I.e. Maybe my needs are:

20 mins to office

In building laundry(if no in unit)

Physical doorman

Live in super

under xxx budget(given these needs)

And my wants

in unit W/D

Gym

In a "exciting" part of the city

Then I fulfill my needs first(Esp. binary ones), and look for wants. You can weigh each decision individually as well 

 

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