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Write a lost-account postmortem that finds the real cause
- For Managers and team leads
- You practice Keeping the AI to your sources
- Time about 5 minutes
- Level Intermediate
About this exercise
Write a postmortem for the CS director, Maya, with exactly these five labeled lines: Account:, Reason:, Warning signs:, Do differently:, Owner:. Base Reason on the timeline, not on the cancel form. Plain text, under 130 words.
Common mistakes when you ask AI for this
- Accepting the form reason. The cancel form and the sales note say budget and price. Try: Say: "Base Reason on the timeline, not the form or the sales note."
- Vague warning signs. The AI lists 'low engagement' with no evidence. Try: Say: "Warning signs: dates and numbers from the timeline."
- Free-form write-up. The AI writes a narrative. Try: Name the five labels.
- Getting markdown back. AI adds bold and headings by default, which show up as stray symbols where this is pasted. Try: Say "plain text, no bold, no headings, no asterisks".
- Trusting the AI to count words. AI is bad at counting and usually runs long, so a vague "keep it short" lands well over the limit. Try: Cap each part instead of the total, for example "each line under 15 words".
What a strong prompt includes
- Asks for plain text
- Sets a length limit
- Names the labels
- Uses the timeline
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