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Explain a budget overage to an operations manager
Practice: Saying who it's for. About 5 minutes.
About this exercise
The warehouse operations manager asked why her department is over budget. Explain it in under 60 words. The first sentence gives the amount over and the main cause, then say what changes going forward, and end with what she'll see in December's report. No finance jargon ('variance', 'unfavorable', 'run-rate', 'accrual'). Write a prompt that gets that.
Common mistakes when you ask AI for this
- Trusting the AI to count words. AI is bad at counting. Ask for "under 60 words" and it often lands well over. Try: Cap each part: "3 sentences, each under 18 words."
- Using the draft number. The notes show $12,400 before payroll's correction. Try: Say it: "Sentence 1: $14,200 over, from overtime covering 2 open forklift jobs."
- No forward look. The AI explains the past and stops, so she still doesn't know if it's fixed. Try: Add: "Say both jobs are filled and end with what December will show."
- Finance-speak. AI says "unfavorable variance" and "run-rate", which she won't follow. Try: Ban them: "No variance, unfavorable, run-rate or accrual."
What a strong prompt includes
- Sets a word limit
- Leads with the number and cause
- Says what changes
- Ends with December
- Bans jargon
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