{"id":"exec-keynote-q-and-a-prep-three-hard-questions","audience":"executives","category":"leadership-work","track":"leadership","level":"advanced","technique":"grounding","title":"Prepare answers to three hard questions using only cleared statements","free":false,"task":"Prepare the CEO's answers to three hard questions at a conference Q&A. Write exactly 3 numbered lines in the form: 1. Q: question - A: answer. Each answer is under 28 words, uses only the cleared statements, acknowledges the concern in the first clause, and says \"I can't speak to that today\" for anything not cleared. Never speculate about litigation, a layoff or a stock price. Plain text.","materialLabel":"Cleared statements and questions (attached to your prompt automatically)","material":"CLEARED STATEMENTS (Comms and Legal, Nov 18)\n- The Q3 outage lasted 3 hours and affected 8% of customers. We issued credits to all affected customers.\n- We have no plans announced for a reduction in headcount.\n- We are investing $12M in reliability engineering over the next 18 months.\n- The previous product recall ended in March; there are no open regulatory actions that we can discuss.\n\nNOT CLEARED\n- Anything about the pending lawsuit, internal causes of the outage, stock price, bonus plans.\n\nQUESTIONS\n1. Your outage hit customers hard in Q3. What happened and what are you doing?\n2. Are layoffs coming?\n3. Is it true that you're being sued over the outage?","rules":[{"type":"numberedItems","count":3},{"type":"maxWords","max":120},{"type":"plainText"}],"mistakes":[{"title":"Speculating about the lawsuit","why":"The AI confirms or denies it.","fix":"Say: \"For anything not cleared say: I can't speak to that today.\"","checks":["r2"]},{"title":"Promising no layoffs","why":"The AI says 'no layoffs will happen'.","fix":"Say: \"Say only: no plans announced.\"","checks":["r1"]},{"title":"No acknowledgment","why":"The AI starts defensively.","fix":"Say: \"Acknowledge the concern in the first clause.\"","checks":["r0"]},{"title":"Wrong format","why":"The AI writes paragraphs.","fix":"Say: \"Format: 1. Q: ... - A: ...\"","checks":["numberedItems"]},{"title":"Markdown","why":"The AI bolds.","fix":"Say: \"Plain text.\"","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 answer: \"each answer under 28 words.\"","checks":["maxWords"]},{"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 12 words.\"","checks":["maxWords"]}],"promptHints":[{"label":"Format","patterns":["q:.*a:"]},{"label":"Cleared only","patterns":["cleared"]},{"label":"Exact phrase","patterns":["can'?t speak to that today"]},{"label":"Acknowledge","patterns":["acknowledge"]},{"label":"No speculation","patterns":["speculat","never"]}],"hint":"Show the line format, restrict to cleared statements, give the exact phrase and the acknowledgment rule.","rubricLabels":["Three numbered lines in the form \"N. Q: ... - A: ...\" in the order of the questions","Answer 1 acknowledges the concern, says the outage lasted 3 hours and affected 8% of customers with credits issued and mentions the $12M reliability investment, and answer 2 says no plans are announced for a reduction in headcount","Answer 3 says \"I can't speak to that today\" without confirming or speculating about a lawsuit, and none mentions the cause of the outage, stock price or bonus plans"]}