Sustainable Futures Lab

McKinsey Lab Leader: the 95-minute Sustainable Futures Lab format

McKinsey now runs two versions of the Sustainable Futures Lab and gives each candidate one of them. Lab Leader is the three-day team-management version. This guide walks through each of its four daily stages, what each one is testing, and how to practise it.

Last updated: September 2026

The Lab Leader island with its four Workstations
Walk through the four stages Read the original SFL guide
On this page

What Lab Leader is

Lab Leader is the newer of the two Sustainable Futures Lab formats. Instead of answering a sequence of judgement questions, you take charge of a small research team for three simulated days and make the decisions a team leader would make: who to ask, where to put people, how to respond when they get stuck, and how they are holding up.

Each day runs the same four stages in order. Information, placements, and what your team told you all carry forward, so the game rewards continuity and punishes treating each day as a fresh start.

Lab Leader is the name Solve Games Guide uses for this format. McKinsey has not published an official name, and candidate reports describe it only as the version that appears in 95-minute invitations.

Duration
Approximately 30 minutes, inside a 95-minute total Solve invitation
Structure
Three simulated days, each with Explore, Assign, Support, and Reflect
Your team
Four Researchers with different specialisms and four Workstations
Core skills
Deploying people against a live problem, spending limited attention well, and reading how a team is doing
Main challenge
Everything carries forward, and the board is shuffled every morning

How it differs from the original SFL

Original SFLLab Leader
Invitation length85 minutes95 minutes
Time on SFLAbout 20 minutesAbout 30 minutes
ShapeOne ranking, then 12 multiple-choice questionsThree days, four stages each
What you controlWhich option you pickWho you ask, where people go, how you answer them, how you read them
MemoryEarlier choices shape later contextNotes, placements, and team signals persist across all three days

Which version you will get

Candidates receive one SFL version, not both. The only reliable signal is the total duration on your invitation email.

65 min

No SFL

Redrock and Sea Wolf only.

85 min

Original SFL

Practise the 20-minute, 13-question format.

95 min

Lab Leader

Practise the three-day format on this page.

Your invitation and on-screen instructions take priority over this or any other guide. The pattern above comes from candidate reports collected through September 2026.

The four stages, every day

Each day opens with a goal. Day one is about the Researchers, day two about the Workstations, and day three about balancing both. Then the same four stages run in order.

Explore

Spend a small number of Explore Requests asking Researchers and Workstations about the day. Everything you learn is saved to Notes, which carry across all three days.

What it tests: Whether you buy information that changes a decision, or spend requests confirming what you already believed.

  • The day goal tells you who to ask. On the Researcher-needs day, ask Researchers what they need and where they want to be. On the Workstation-needs day, ask Workstations what work has to happen. On the balance day, both count.
  • You have three requests on days one and two, and only two on day three. You cannot ask everyone, and you are not expected to.
  • A Workstation you asked about yesterday will not be available today, because it has nothing new to say.

Assign

Drag each Researcher onto a Workstation. Moving someone requires a reason from a short list. Each day starts with the team shuffled, so the board you ended yesterday is not the board you begin with today.

What it tests: Whether you put people where the work actually is, and whether you can tell a placement that is already working from one that needs to change.

  • On day one, put each Researcher where they told you they belong. That is what the Researcher-needs goal is for.
  • From day two, keep them there. Move someone only when a Workstation told you its needs changed, or a Researcher asked to move.
  • Read your Notes before you touch the board. Researchers say where they want to work in their own words, and Workstations say what work has to happen.

Support

Four Researchers escalate a problem, one at a time, and you choose a response. The problems arrive with incomplete data and a deadline, and none of them has a clean answer.

What it tests: Whether you commit to a defensible course and leave the person able to act, or restate the problem and hand it back.

  • Ask what this person could do differently in the next hour because of your answer. If the answer is nothing, it is not a decision yet.
  • Requesting more analysis feels rigorous, but in a three-day project it is usually just deferral.
  • Name the trade-off, choose, and say what would make you revisit it.

Reflect

Rate how each Researcher is finding the work today, from a short scale that changes each day. You can answer that you do not know.

What it tests: Whether you were listening. Every Researcher told you something about their confidence and workload during Explore and Support.

  • Treat it as recall rather than intuition. The signals are in your Notes.
  • Saying you do not know scores better than guessing confidently and being wrong.
  • The signals come from Explore answers and from how people frame their Support escalations. On the Workstation-needs day, when your requests go to Workstations, the escalations are where to listen.

The thing most candidates miss

The board is shuffled at the start of every day. Where your team ended yesterday is not where they start today, so rebuilding the right placement is an active decision each morning. Day one is where you learn where everyone belongs; days two and three reward putting them back there unless something you were told argues otherwise. The information you need is in your Notes, and it is the first thing most people skip.

How the practice feedback works

McKinsey does not publish a scoring model for Lab Leader. The Solve Games Guide simulator reviews each run against three traits, weighted so that solving the project counts for half. This is our model for giving useful feedback and not an official McKinsey weighting.

It does not expect perfect play. You have incomplete information and fewer requests than targets, and the review is built around that. What it does expect is one rule you can plan around: each day’s goal tells you what counts.

Day goalExplore requests that score fullPlacement that scores full
Day 1: Researcher needsAsking Researchers. A Workstation ask scores at most half.Each Researcher where they told you they belong.
Day 2: Workstation needsAsking Workstations. A Researcher ask scores at most half.Yesterday’s board, changed only where a Workstation’s needs shifted or a Researcher asked to move.
Day 3: Balance bothEither, as long as it is the one carrying today’s problem.Continuity again, with at most one move on a clear signal.

Support and Reflect work the same way every day. A Support response that leaves the Researcher able to act scores full; restating the problem or asking for more analysis scores low. In Reflect, an exact read of how someone is doing scores full, admitting you do not know scores partial, and a wrong read scores nothing.

Delivery

50%

Did the project actually get solved. Measured on where each Researcher ended each day against where the work needed them, and on whether your Support answers left people able to act. This is where handling uncertainty lives: every escalation arrives with incomplete data, and waiting for certainty always costs something.

Prioritisation

25%

Did you spend your Explore Requests where the day goal pointed, and did your placements respond when a Workstation’s needs shifted. Strong prioritisation looks like deliberate neglect: choosing what not to look at.

Team Work

25%

Did you read the people correctly, in Reflect, and did you act on it when a Researcher asked to work somewhere for a good reason. The signals are never stated as status updates. They are in what people volunteer and how they frame a problem.

Lab Leader strategies

Start every day from the bottleneck

Before you touch the board, name the one thing that has to be finished today and who can finish it. Place that person first and let everything else arrange itself around that decision. Starting from the board as it looks, rather than the problem as it stands, is how placements drift.

Let the day goal choose your requests

  • Researcher-needs day: ask Researchers. Workstation-needs day: ask Workstations. Balance day: either.
  • A request that goes against the day goal can score at most half, so it is rarely the best use of a token.
  • Yesterday’s escalations are the most reliable pointer to today’s pressure point. They are in your Notes.
  • With three requests and up to seven targets, what you skip matters as much as what you choose.

Hold placements unless something argues for a move

From day two, continuity is the default. A Researcher who was making progress should usually stay put. Move someone when they asked to work elsewhere for a reason you can see, or when a Workstation’s needs have visibly changed. Churning the board every morning feels like leadership and reads as noise.

Commit under uncertainty

  • A clear call that later needs revising beats a careful non-answer.
  • Name the trade-off, choose, and say what would make you revisit it.
  • Asking for more analysis is the most tempting way to postpone a decision that is already yours to make.

Treat Reflect as recall, not intuition

Every Researcher told you something about their confidence and workload. Reflect asks you to repeat it back. Re-read your Notes before answering, and if you genuinely did not catch it, say so rather than guessing.

How to prepare for Lab Leader

  1. Confirm you are getting this version

    Check your invitation says 95 minutes. If it says 85, you want the original SFL guide instead.

  2. Run one mission in Practice mode

    There is no clock and a pause button. Use it to learn the interface: where Notes live, how dragging a Researcher works, what the reason picker looks like. Do not worry about the score.

  3. Read the review properly

    The results page shows each Support escalation with your answer beside the strongest one, and explains each trait. Read why a placement was right, not just whether it was.

  4. Run a different mission in Assessment mode

    A 30-minute timer, no pause, and a fresh scenario so you cannot rely on remembering answers. This is the run that tells you whether the habits have stuck.

What not to do

  • Replay the same mission until you have memorised it. The habits transfer, the answers do not.
  • Over-prepare Lab Leader at the expense of Redrock and Sea Wolf, which carry more of the total assessment.
  • Study environmental science. The settings supply context, not a knowledge test.

Practise Lab Leader

The Solve Games Guide simulator includes five Lab Leader missions, each a different three-day scenario with the same four Researchers and four Workstations. Practice mode removes the clock and adds a pause button. Assessment mode runs the full 30-minute timer. Both end with a review of your placements and Support answers against the three practice traits.

Ultimate
All five Lab Leader missions and all five original-format missions
Sea Wolf + Sustainable Futures Lab
All five Lab Leader missions and all five original-format missions
Express
The first two Lab Leader missions and two original-format missions
Open the Sustainable Futures Lab simulator

Lab Leader FAQ

What is Lab Leader?

Lab Leader is the name Solve Games Guide uses for the newer Sustainable Futures Lab format reported in some 95-minute McKinsey Solve invitations. It is a three-day team-management simulation lasting around 30 minutes, in which you direct four Researchers across four Workstations through Explore, Assign, Support, and Reflect stages each day.

How do I know whether I will get Lab Leader or the original SFL?

Check the total duration in your invitation email. Candidate reports associate 85 minutes with the original 20-minute, 13-question SFL and 95 minutes with the approximately 30-minute Lab Leader format. Each candidate appears to receive one version, not both. Your invitation and on-screen instructions take priority over any third-party guidance.

Is Lab Leader harder than the original SFL?

It is different rather than harder. The original format is a sequence of judgement questions. Lab Leader asks you to run a small team over three days, so decisions carry forward: who you asked yesterday, where you placed people, and what they told you all shape today. Candidates who treat each day as a fresh start tend to struggle.

How is Lab Leader scored?

McKinsey has not published a scoring model for either SFL format. Solve Games Guide scores its Lab Leader simulator on three practice traits, Delivery, Prioritisation and Team Work, with Delivery weighted at half of the total. The logic is simple: each day’s goal tells you what counts, so on the Researcher-needs day ask Researchers and place them where they said, and on the Workstation-needs day ask Workstations and keep the board steady. That model is ours, built to give useful feedback, and it is not an official McKinsey weighting.

Can I practise Lab Leader on Solve Games Guide?

Yes. The simulator includes five Lab Leader missions with the full three-day loop, a Practice mode with a pause button, an Assessment mode with a real timer, and a review that walks through your placements and support decisions. Lab Leader is included in Ultimate and in Sea Wolf + Sustainable Futures Lab, and the first two missions are also included in Express.

Should I prepare for both formats?

If your invitation says 95 minutes, focus on Lab Leader. If it says 85 minutes, focus on the original format. If you have not received an invitation yet, one run of each is enough to understand the difference, and you can commit once the duration is confirmed.

For the 85-minute format, the invitation timing patterns, and how SFL sits beside Redrock and Sea Wolf, read the complete Sustainable Futures Lab guide. The 95-minute format report has the original candidate accounts this guide builds on.

Choose Your Package

Select the package that fits your preparation needs. All packages include 2-week access.

You only get one attempt at the McKinsey Solve Games. This costs less than a single interview coaching session, and prepares you for the actual filter.

Most candidates choose this

Ultimate

The complete toolkit: simulations, solver, cases, and both unique versions of the Sustainable Futures Lab game. Everything you need to prepare with confidence.

  • Sea Wolf Solver
  • Sea Wolf Simulations
  • All 5 known McKinsey Solve formats
  • 20+ full-length Redrock case studies
  • 5 Standard Sustainable Futures Lab Missions
  • 5 Lab Leader Sustainable Futures Lab Missions
  • 50% refund if none of our 5 Redrock formats appear
  • 100% refund performance guarantee
  • Higher Assessment Success Rates

The 3 hour prep

Three-hour prep for candidates who want one Redrock case per template, two Sustainable Futures Lab missions, and the Sea Wolf solver.

  • Sea Wolf Solver
  • All 5 known McKinsey Solve formats (one of each)
  • 5 Redrock case studies
  • 2 Standard Sustainable Futures Lab Missions
  • 2 Lab Leader Sustainable Futures Lab Missions
  • Best last-minute prep

Redrock Cases

Structured practice on 20+ full-length consultancy-style case studies modeled on the 5 known McKinsey Solve assessment formats.

  • All 5 known McKinsey Solve formats
  • 20+ full-length Redrock case studies
  • Best budget choice

Sea Wolf + Sustainable Futures Lab

Master Sea Wolf scoring and simulation, plus both unique versions of the Sustainable Futures Lab game.

  • Sea Wolf Solver
  • Sea Wolf Simulations
  • 5 Standard Sustainable Futures Lab Missions
  • 5 Lab Leader Sustainable Futures Lab Missions

Solver Only

Best for beginners who want to learn scoring logic quickly.

  • Sea Wolf Solver