Flag off-track before they ask
Lesson 4 of 6 · The Monday Dashboard
1 · Learn the move · Cognitive verifier
Your executive is going to find the one line that slipped, so find it first. The cognitive verifier splits the work into steps that can't contaminate each other: state the thresholds before looking at the numbers, apply them mechanically, then separately list everything you could not determine. That third list is the one that saves you. Off track with no threshold behind it is an opinion, and an opinion in a dashboard is how you end up defending a number you don't own. Thresholds first, flags second, can't-determine third, and never let the third list hide inside the second.
You are flagging my dashboard. Step 1: restate my thresholds and stop, don't apply them yet. Step 2: apply them mechanically, one line at a time, output ON TRACK / WATCH / OFF TRACK with the arithmetic shown. Step 3: separately list every line you could NOT determine and exactly what's missing. Never guess a status for a line with a missing number. [thresholds + figures]
2 · Your turn. You write the prompt
Your executive scans the dashboard for red before reading a word of it. Two lines are clearly off, one is borderline, and one has no number at all because Billing didn't send theirs. Write a prompt that flags all four honestly.
Remember: the AI sees only your prompt, not this page. If the situation isn't in your prompt, it doesn't exist.
Optional. These shape the output when you run your prompt below, not your score.