6.6 Adapt and compare outputs for the audience

In everyday life. You tell your boss "back Tuesday" and your team "back Wednesday." One of them plans for the wrong day.

One result often goes to several readers. Dave, the controller, decides, so his memo starts with decisions and totals. Maria, the office manager, acts, so her note lists the invoices to hold back from payment. A system reads the CSV, a spreadsheet file, so it has fixed columns. Adapting for each reader is good work. It changes the order, the length and the words. It must never change the facts.

Facts can change between versions when each version is written separately. Buckeye Office Supply sent invoice BO-22871 twice, first by mail (row 9) and later by email (row 10). The note to Maria said to hold the copy received by mail, row 9. The CSV and the memo held the copy received by email, row 10. Policy 6.1 says to hold the later copy, which is row 10. The note, the short version, had changed the fact. If Maria had followed her note, the duplicate would have been paid and the original would have been held.

To compare versions, list the facts that matter and check each one in every version: amounts, counts, decisions, names. Do not compare the wording. This comparison is an audience check, best done as a small table with one row per fact.

The same method works when you compare two whole outputs: two runs, or the same brief on two AI vendors. If they say different things about the same fact from the same inputs, at least one is wrong, so look there first. Some differences are only in the presentation, such as the order or the words. When the two agree, keep checking. Both can repeat the same mistake from the same input.