Write an anomaly memo on a one-day revenue dip

About this exercise

Finance Director Omar Haddad asked about Sunday's low revenue. Write exactly 3 labeled lines in plain text, under 90 words: Headline, Explained and Unexplained. Show the arithmetic, treat only the confirmed outage amount as explained, and keep the unconfirmed theory out of the Explained line.

Common mistakes when you ask AI for this

• Blaming everything. The AI lists outage, slow pages and competitors as causes. Try: Add: "Explained: only the confirmed payment outage."
• No arithmetic. The AI says 'partly explained' without numbers. Try: Add: "Show $41,000 - $29,000 = $12,000 and $12,000 - $9,000 = $3,000."
• Repeating the rumor. The AI repeats the competitor theory. Try: Add: "Don't mention the competitor idea; unmeasured items are not causes."
• 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

• Names the reader
• Gives the three labels
• Asks for the arithmetic
• Separates confirmed from open
• Drops the rumor

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