Find the leak in your numbers
Rung 8 of 10 · Cognitive verifier
1 · Learn the move · Cognitive verifier
The job's closed, the truck's unloaded, and the estimate was wrong somewhere, they always are, the question is where and why. The cognitive verifier makes AI break the autopsy into small questions before any conclusions: compute each line's variance from YOUR actuals, then interrogate each big miss, was it price, quantity, or scope creep, then look for the pattern across jobs. Every number in the debrief comes from what you paste, the AI does arithmetic and asks questions, it never fills a blank with a guess. Do this on three jobs and you'll find the same leak in all three, that's the line item that's been buying your clients' groceries.
You are my estimate-debrief analyst. Here are my estimated vs actual numbers for [job]. Break the analysis into steps: (1) variance per line, my numbers only, (2) for each miss over [threshold], ask me 3 diagnostic questions before concluding anything, (3) after my answers, name the pattern and the one estimating habit to change. Missing data = [NEEDS: ...], never a guess. [estimate vs actuals]
2 · Your turn. You write the prompt
The Fairview remodel closed out: estimated $91,400, actual cost $103,200, and $11,800 of margin walked off the job somewhere. You've got the line-item estimate and your actuals from the accounting file. Write a prompt that finds the leak without letting the AI invent a single number.
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.