Reporting upward: turning data into a story for leadership

I'm preparing a monthly report for leadership. Help me frame it
before I start writing.

My area: [customer support / sales / manufacturing / IT]
Primary reader: [CEO / CFO / COO]
What I think they care about most: [cost / capacity / customer satisfaction]
Period: [July 2026]
Key numbers for the period:
[paste 10-15 numbers, with the prior period and plan if you have them]
What happened that was out of the ordinary: [a system outage, two departures…]

Give me:
1. Three candidate headline messages for the report — each one
   sentence, each from a different angle (performance / risk /
   opportunity).
2. For each candidate: which numbers support it and which
   contradict it.
3. One decision or ask that logically follows from each candidate —
   what I'd want from leadership if I went with that angle.
4. What's missing from my numbers to actually back up the claim.

Don't write any report text yet.

Here's the header from my export out of [the helpdesk], the first
5 rows, semicolon-delimited, UTF-8 encoding, comma as decimal
separator:

[paste 5 rows including column names]

Write a Python script (pandas) that computes this monthly reporting
set from the file:
1. total case count and count by category, compared to last month
   in absolute numbers and percent,
2. median and 90th-percentile resolution time (median, not mean —
   I want a number a few outliers can't drag around),
3. share of cases resolved within [24 hours] by week,
4. the five categories with the largest month-over-month increase,
5. a variance-from-plan table, plan loaded from [plan.csv].

Save the results to output.csv and also print a readable summary
to the console. Comment each step explaining why it's computed
that way. The script needs to handle empty cells and cases with
no closing date.

Here are my department's results for [period] and brief context:

[paste the computed numbers, compared with the prior period and plan]
Context: [what happened during the period — team changes, campaigns, outages]
Reader: [role]
What I want from leadership: [decision / resource / acknowledgment]

Write three versions of an executive summary using the BLUF
principle — conclusion on the first line, then evidence. Each
version max 5 sentences and must include: status, cause, what
we're doing about it, what I need from leadership.

Vary the versions by level of urgency:
A) matter-of-fact, no emotion
B) more forceful, with the cost of inaction quantified
C) as short as possible — 3 sentences, for a reader on their phone

Use the actual numbers from the brief. Don't write anything that
isn't in the brief, and don't use words like “significant,”
“critical,” or “substantial” without a number next to them.

Here's the draft of my executive summary and the numbers it's
based on:

Summary: [paste]
Underlying numbers: [paste]

Go through the summary sentence by sentence and sort the claims
into three groups:
1. SUPPORTED — follows directly from the numbers; say which ones.
2. HYPOTHESIS — reads like a fact but is really an interpretation;
   note what other explanations are equally plausible and what
   data would settle it.
3. UNSUPPORTED — the numbers give it no backing at all.

For group 2, suggest a rewording that doesn't kill the claim but
signals the right level of confidence (for example, “the most
likely explanation is…”). Don't rewrite the whole thing — just
flag and propose a replacement for the sentence in question.

I have an executive summary and the underlying numbers. Write the
body of a leadership report in these four blocks, in this order:

1. What happened — facts and comparisons, no judgment. Key metrics
   in a table with columns: metric, actual, plan, prior period,
   percent change.
2. Why — for every variance over [10] percent, one sentence of
   cause. Where you don't know the cause from the brief, write
   “cause not determined” — don't make one up.
3. What we're doing about it — only actions that are in the brief;
   each with an owner and a deadline. Where those are missing,
   write TODO: fill in.
4. What I need — asks for leadership, each with the impact of not
   approving it and a decision deadline.

Summary: [paste]
Numbers: [paste]
Actions already underway: [paste]
What I want from leadership: [paste]

Max [500] words total, excluding the table. Plain, direct
language, no phrases like “continuing to monitor” or “the
situation is complex.” Use short sentences. Don't add an intro
or a closing summary.

I have these numbers for [period] and want a maximum of three
charts for the leadership report.

Numbers: [paste]
Main message of the report: [paste, one sentence]

Propose three charts. For each one, tell me:
1. what single question the chart answers for leadership,
2. what chart type (bar, line, waterfall, scatter) and why that
   one,
3. what's on the X axis and what's on the Y axis, including units,
4. a chart title phrased as a conclusion, not a description,
5. what comparison needs to be visible in the image (target, plan,
   last year),
6. what will deliberately be left out of the chart so it can be
   read in ten seconds.

At the end, tell me which of the three matters most and why, and
which of my numbers shouldn't go into a chart at all.

Write a Python script (pandas, matplotlib) that produces these
three charts from output.csv: [description of the charts from the
previous step].

Consistent company style, set in one place at the top of the
script:
- sans-serif font, labels at least 12 points,
- axis labels with units,
- chart title as a conclusion sentence, passed in as a parameter,
- base color gray, one accent color [shade] used only for the
  metric being tracked,
- a horizontal dashed line for the target value, labeled “target,”
- no gridlines, no border, no 3D, no legend wherever a label right
  on the line will do,
- the value at the last point on each line printed as a number,
- export to a charts/ folder as PNG, 200 dpi, white background,
  plus SVG for dropping into a presentation.

Add a code comment on each chart noting what message it carries.

Here's my report for leadership. Turn it into an outline for a
presentation to [the board / the leadership meeting]; I have
[10] minutes.

Report: [paste]

Rules:
- max [8] slides plus one backup block,
- the first slide is the conclusion and the ask, not an agenda and
  not an introduction,
- each slide has one heading phrased as a claim and at most 3
  bullets of 8 words each,
- for each slide, separately write what I'll say out loud
  (3-4 sentences) and what's on screen — the on-screen text and
  the spoken word must not duplicate each other,
- for each slide, note which chart or table from the report
  belongs there,
- the last slide is a specific ask with a deadline,
- backup slides: 4 slides of supporting material for the questions
  most likely to come up.

Don't add anything beyond what's in the report. Where a slide
needs a figure the report doesn't have, write TODO and what to
add.

You're the CFO of a mid-size company. You're direct, allergic to
fluff, and you don't like being sold impressions as facts. You've
just received this report from the head of [department] and have
ten minutes for it.

Report: [paste the full text including numbers]

Tear it apart:
1. The five toughest questions you'd ask — starting with the
   worst one. Ask about specific numbers in the report, not the
   field in general.
2. Where in the report are claims that aren't backed by numbers?
   Quote the specific sentences.
3. Where could the same data be read differently, and worse, for
   the author?
4. What's missing from the report to actually decide on the ask
   at the end?
5. If you had to decide right now, would you approve the ask?
   Answer yes/no and say why — and what specifically would
   convince you.

No pleasantries, no praise. Get straight to it.

Here are five questions I might get asked about my report, and my
numbers:

Questions: [paste]
Underlying numbers and context: [paste]

For each question, write:
1. The skeleton of a good answer in three points — the first point
   is the direct answer, not a windup.
2. Which specific number to use in the answer and where I have it
   in the brief.
3. What an evasive answer to this question sounds like, so I can
   recognize it in myself and avoid it.
4. When the right answer is “I don't know, I'll find out by
   [date]” — and how to say it so it doesn't sound like an excuse.

Keep the answers short, under 4 sentences. No pleasantries.

Read this report through leadership's eyes and judge its tone.
Don't rewrite it.

Report: [paste]

1. Is this a report written for a decision, or in defense of the
   author? Answer clearly and back it up with specific sentences.
2. List every sentence that explains or excuses without carrying
   information — for each one, note what happens if I cut it.
3. List passive constructions that obscure who did what (“a
   decision was made,” “there was a delay”).
4. Is it clear from the report what I want from leadership, and is
   it in one place?
5. Where, on the other hand, is a real problem stated plainly —
   leave that alone and flag it for me so I don't soften it.

Finish with one sentence: what impression does the report leave
about the author?

Build me a metric definition sheet for the monthly [department]
report. For each metric in this list: [list the metrics]

For each one, fill in:
- an exact one-sentence definition,
- what counts toward the number and what's excluded (make it
  explicit),
- data source and the column name in the export,
- unit and how many decimal places it's rounded to,
- target value and who set it,
- common misunderstanding: how people mix it up.

Where you're missing something, write the question I need to
answer instead of inventing a definition. Output as a table.

Set up a recurring task for the first business day of the month at
7:00 AM.

Instructions for every run:
1. Load the output.csv file from [path] — it's the output of my
   analysis script for the past month.
2. Compare the metrics against the definition sheet in [file] and
   against last month's values and the plan.
3. List variances over [10] percent and sort them by size of
   impact.
4. Using my report template, prepare a DRAFT: fill in the “what
   happened” block and the metrics table. Leave the “why,” “what
   we're doing about it,” and “what I need” blocks empty with just
   the headings — I fill those in myself.
5. At the end, attach a list of questions I need to answer before I
   send the report.

Never send anything. Save the output as a draft to [path/file] and
let me know it's ready.