Opened by the facilitator · Fictional case
The recommendation, examined with the four questions
The sum is right. The four questions show what the recommendation did and did not do. Nothing here is a fact the case did not give you.
The four questions
What KessidAI answered, and what it did not ask
S
Structure
What is the real decision here, and what is fixed?
What KessidAI answeredKessidAI answered: is 43,200 larger than 12,000?
What the recommendation did not askThe decision Meridian has: what will we do with 120 hours a month if they are released, and which of these reports do we need at all? Fixed: the Monday report cannot be late, and the money is paid a year in advance.
T
Test
What would show this answer is wrong, and have I checked it?
What KessidAI answeredKessidAI used the vendor's 60% from one sample report, and valued every released hour at the full rate.
What the recommendation did not askA released hour becomes money only if it stops overtime, avoids a hire, or produces work that earns. One check that costs less than signing: ask the vendor to run Meridian's own weekly report through the tool, count the staff hours that takes, and ask finance how a released hour turns into money here.
E
Engage
Who must agree, who must know, and what must I not hand over to AI?
What KessidAI answeredKessidAI addressed the owner only.
What the recommendation did not askThe five people who prepare the reports and the three who read the Monday report have views the figures do not show. Finance set the costing rate; the case does not say who must approve the 12,000, so ask. Two staff already put work into a free AI assistant on their own accounts: which company data may go into a tool the company has not chosen is the owner's question, not the tool's. When the recommendation goes to the owner, say that KessidAI drafted it.
P
Perform
What will I commit to, on what basis, and what would change my mind?
What KessidAI answeredKessidAI recommended approval this week.
What the recommendation did not askApprove, do not approve, or pilot can each be a decision. A decision has an action, a reason, an owner, the evidence it rests on, a condition that would change it, and a date to check.
Judgment is how well a person decides once AI has given the answer. The answer is not the decision.
One completed decision
Three decisions, each defensible
Three decisions, one for each option, written in full. They disagree with each other and each can be defended.
| Action | Sign the annual subscription, after the vendor has run Meridian's own weekly sales and stock report through the tool and the owner and the sales managers have accepted the result. |
|---|---|
| Reason | The Monday report is used and the people who read it say they cannot run the week without it; 200 hours a month is a measured load; the subscription is less than a third of the capacity value even if the vendor's 60% is half right. |
| Owner | The owner, on the finance manager's figures. |
| Evidence | Last quarter's timesheets; the vendor's run on Meridian's own report; finance's answer to how a released hour turns into money at Meridian. |
| What would change it | If the first month's reports need more than two hours of correction a week, stop before month three. A cancellation window is asked for before signature; the case does not say the vendor will give one. |
| Check on | Day 30 and day 60. |
| Action | Run the tool for eight weeks on two reports: the weekly sales and stock report and one other recurring report the owner names. |
|---|---|
| Reason | The 60% is a vendor estimate from one sample; the value of released hours is not known; the money is paid a year in advance. |
| Owner | The finance manager, with one of the five staff. |
| Evidence | Time to prepare falls by at least half; the sales managers accept the report without asking for a manual version for four consecutive weeks; set-up work on Meridian's side stays under 20 hours. |
| What would change it | Any Monday report late or wrong stops the pilot. If the three conditions hold at week eight, approve for the tested reports. |
| Check on | Week four and week eight. |
| Action | Do not sign. First find out which of the recurring reports are still read, and stop the ones that are not. |
|---|---|
| Reason | Part of the 200 hours may disappear at no cost. The tool question is better asked once the real reporting load is known. |
| Owner | The owner. |
| Evidence | A two-week count of who opens or asks for each report. |
| What would change it | If the review shows the reports are needed and the load stays near 200 hours, return to decision one or two. |
| Check on | In two weeks. |
Exercise
KessidAI's second recommendation
Switch your packaging supplier to Eastern Carton.
Eastern Carton has quoted unit prices 12% lower than Lim Brothers Packaging on your top 20 lines. Recommend moving the top 20 lines to Eastern Carton from the next order cycle.
Quoted price difference, top 20 lines12% lower
Estimated annual saving (last year's volumes)USD 58,000
Delivery lead time, Eastern Carton7 days
Delivery lead time, Lim Brothers3 days
KessidAI's conclusion: the saving is large and immediate. Recommend switching at the next order cycle.
Facts in the case
- The quote is based on last year's order volumes and is valid for 60 days.
- Lim Brothers has supplied Meridian for eleven years and holds printed stock for Meridian's two largest customers, whose cartons carry their own designs.
- Meridian promises next-day delivery on stock lines to its customers.
- Eastern Carton's quality samples have not been tested.
Not known
- Minimum order quantities at Eastern Carton, and what a 7-day lead time does to Meridian's own next-day promise.
- How the two customers' printed stock would move, and who pays for new printing plates.
- Payment terms at Eastern Carton.
- What Lim Brothers would offer if shown the quote.
Answer the four questions on page three of the workbook, then write your decision in full.
Eight weeks later
The pilot report
Pilot report: expand ReportFlow AI to all recurring reports.
The vendor agreed an eight-week pilot on two reports at no charge before the annual contract. The two pilot reports now take about a third of the time to prepare and have arrived on schedule for eight weeks. The sales managers accepted every report without asking for a manual version.
Time to prepare the two pilot reportsDown by two thirds
Monday reports on time8 of 8
Set-up work on Meridian's side16 hours
What a released hour earnedNot measured
KessidAI's conclusion: the pilot succeeded. Recommend expanding the subscription to all recurring reports.
The sales managerThe sales manager: "The pilot worked. Expand it to everything and release the hours."
The operations managerThe operations manager: "The pilot covered two routine reports. The expansion includes the stock-discrepancy exception reports we use to decide customer credits and re-deliveries. Those were never tested, and an error there costs money every time."
What does this pilot justify approving?
- The evidence supports a conclusion about the work that was tested: two routine reports.
- The exception reports are different work with a different cost of error. Test them the same way before including them, or approve the tested scope only.
- The pilot did not measure what the released hours earned, which was the open question at the start. Every figure in the report was true. The question is what it measured, and what it did not.