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Report four program numbers to the board against their goals
Practice: Catching mistakes and made-up facts. About 5 minutes.
About this exercise
Your board wants year-to-date program numbers against goals. Write exactly 4 numbered lines in the form "Metric: actual of goal (X%)", with the percent rounded to a whole number, sorted from lowest percent to highest, plain text, under 50 words. Use the reconciled numbers, not the preliminary ones, and add no commentary. Write a prompt that gets you exactly that.
Common mistakes when you ask AI for this
- No fixed shape. The AI builds a table with both columns and commentary. Try: Be exact: "Exactly 4 numbered lines: Metric: actual of goal (X%)."
- Trusting the AI to count words. AI is bad at counting. Ask for "under 50 words" and it often lands well over. Try: Cap each part instead: "each line under 10 words."
- Using preliminary numbers. The preliminary column comes first and looks better. Try: Add: "Use the reconciled Nov 5 column."
- Keeping sheet order. The AI lists metrics in table order, so the weakest isn't first. Try: Add: "Sort from lowest percent to highest."
What a strong prompt includes
- Uses reconciled numbers
- Shows the percent
- Sorts by percent
- Rules out commentary
- Sets a word limit
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