{"id":"data2-segment-margin-table-losing-segment","audience":"executives","category":"data","track":"data","technique":"format","level":"advanced","title":"Build a segment margin table that exposes the losing segment","free":false,"task":"Your CEO wants profit margin by customer segment. Make one markdown table with columns Segment, Revenue, Cost and Margin %, sorted by margin highest first, with a Total row at the end, margin as (revenue - cost) / revenue with one decimal and a minus sign when negative. Then one last line 'Only losing segment:' naming it with its margin. Plain text apart from the table, under 90 words.","materialLabel":"Segment results (attached to your prompt automatically)","material":"FY2025 segment results - Ironwood Components ($ thousands)\n\nSegment | Revenue | Cost\nSMB | 400 | 410\nEnterprise | 800 | 520\nMid-market | 600 | 450\n\nNotes:\n- Cost includes allocated overhead for every segment.\n- Total revenue 1,800; total cost 1,380.\n- Margin % = (revenue - cost) / revenue.\n- The sales team wants to keep growing SMB because it brings in many logos.\n- A segment loses money when its cost is above its revenue.","rules":[{"type":"plainText"},{"type":"maxWords","max":90}],"mistakes":[{"title":"Hiding the negative","why":"The AI shows SMB margin as 2.5% with no sign.","fix":"Add: \"Minus sign when negative: -2.5%.\"","checks":["r0"]},{"title":"Wrong order","why":"The AI keeps the input order with SMB first.","fix":"Add: \"Sort by margin, highest first.\"","checks":["r1"]},{"title":"Defending SMB","why":"The AI adds growth arguments for SMB.","fix":"Add: \"Last line only: Only losing segment: SMB (-2.5%). Nothing else.\"","checks":["r2"]},{"title":"Leaving the format to chance","why":"The AI picks its own length and layout unless told the exact shape.","fix":"Add: \"Plain text, no bold or headings.\"","checks":["plainText"]},{"title":"Trusting the AI to count words","why":"AI is bad at counting. Ask for a total word limit and it often lands over it.","fix":"Cap each part instead, for example \"each line under 15 words.\"","checks":["maxWords"]}],"promptHints":[{"label":"Names the columns","patterns":["segment ?\\||margin %"]},{"label":"Asks for a sort","patterns":["sort","highest first"]},{"label":"Asks for the sign","patterns":["minus","negative","-2\\.5"]},{"label":"Asks for a total row","patterns":["total row"]},{"label":"Asks for the closing line","patterns":["only losing segment"]}],"hint":"Margin tables hide losers when they're not sorted and signed. Say the sort order, the sign and the final line.","mission":"Which customer segment is least profitable?","musts":["Sorted table with total","Signed margin percent","Losing segment line"],"rubricLabels":["The segment rows sorted by margin are Enterprise 35.0% ((800 - 520) / 800), Mid-market 25.0% ((600 - 450) / 600) and SMB -2.5% ((400 - 410) / 400)","The Total row shows revenue 1,800, cost 1,380 and margin 23.3% ((1,800 - 1,380) / 1,800)","The last line is 'Only losing segment:' naming SMB with -2.5%, and the table has columns Segment, Revenue, Cost and Margin %"]}