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Turn a Slack debate into a metric definition card

  • For Product managers
  • You practice Giving the right context
  • Time about 5 minutes
  • Level Intermediate

About this exercise

Your team finally agreed on how to count an active user, and you need a definition card to paste into the data dictionary. Write exactly these 6 labeled lines: Metric, Definition, Counts, Excludes, Window, Source, in that order, in plain text and under 90 words. The Source line must also say what one row of the source table is. Use the final decision from the thread, not the first proposal.

Common mistakes when you ask AI for this

  • Using the first proposal. The AI grabs Maya's 30-day login idea from the top of the thread. Try: Add: "Use the final decisions only: rolling 28 days, core actions, not logins."
  • Skipping the core actions. The AI writes a vague definition without naming the events. Try: Add: "Counts: list project_created, task_completed, comment_added."
  • Missing exclusions and source. Details buried late in the thread get dropped. Try: Add: "Excludes internal @tallyroom.example emails and bots; Source: events.fct_user_events."
  • Leaving the format to chance. The AI picks its own length and layout unless told the exact shape. Try: Add: "Plain text, no bold or headings."
  • Trusting the AI to count words. AI is bad at counting. Ask for a total word limit and it often lands over it. Try: Cap each part instead, for example "each line under 15 words."

What a strong prompt includes

  • Shows the labels
  • Asks for final decisions
  • Names the window
  • Names the exclusions
  • Names the source table

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