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Explain a team overspend from a ledger in three labeled lines

  • For Managers and team leads
  • You practice Catching mistakes and made-up facts
  • Time about 5 minutes
  • Level Intermediate

About this exercise

Explain the overspend to your team in exactly three lines in plain text, starting "Total over plan:", "Biggest driver:" and "Next step:". Total over plan gives the dollar overage and the percent over plan, rounded to a whole percent. Biggest driver names the category with the largest overage, its dollars and its share of the total overage as a whole percent. Next step is the review meeting on Nov 20. Under 60 words.

Common mistakes when you ask AI for this

  • Netting wrongly. The AI ignores categories that came in under plan. Try: Say: "Total is actual minus plan across all categories."
  • Wrong share. The AI divides by the plan total. Try: Say: "Share is the category overage divided by the total overage, whole percent."
  • No percent. The AI gives only dollars. Try: Say: "Give the dollar overage and the percent over plan."
  • Commentary. The AI adds opinions about the team or the license. Try: Say: "Next step is the Nov 20 review meeting; no commentary."
  • Wrong format. The AI writes a paragraph or table. Try: Say: "Exactly three lines starting with those labels."
  • Markdown. The AI bolds labels. Try: Say: "Plain text."
  • 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

  • Three labels
  • Percent rounded
  • Share of overage
  • Next step date
  • Caps words

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