ai-analyst-lab/ai-analyst-plugin/drop-off-format

Skill: Drop-Off Format

Purpose

A percentage without a count hides scale. A count without a percentage hides severity. "We lost 12,000 users" sounds bad until you learn that's 3% of the base. "34% drop-off" sounds bad until you learn that's 850 users out of 2,500. This skill enforces one rule: every drop-off shows three numbers.

When to Use

Before presenting ANY step-to-step drop-off — in a funnel table, in narrative text, in a chart annotation, in a Slack message, or on a slide. This runs on every output that contains funnel or conversion-step data.

The Rule

**Every drop-off must show: entering count, exiting count, and drop-off

percentage.**

All three, every time. The format:

checkout_started (43,490) -> payment_attempted (35,543): 18.3% drop-off

In a table, this becomes three columns:

Either format is acceptable. What is not acceptable is showing only one or two of the three numbers.

Instructions

Step 1: Find every drop-off in your draft output

Scan the response you are about to send. Every place where two adjacent funnel steps are compared — in a table row, a sentence, a chart label — is in scope.

Step 2: Check for all three numbers

For each drop-off, confirm you have:

1. Entering count — unique users at the upstream step
2. Exiting count — unique users at the downstream step
3. Drop-off percentage — (entering - exiting) / entering x 100

If any of the three is missing, add it before sending.

Step 3: Verify the arithmetic

The percentage must equal (entering - exiting) / entering x 100, rounded to one decimal place. Do the division — do not estimate. A wrong percentage is worse than a missing one.

Step 4: Apply to the "biggest leak" callout too

When the readout names the biggest drop-off, it must follow the same rule. "The biggest leak is checkout_started -> payment_attempted" is incomplete. "The biggest leak is checkout_started -> payment_attempted: 43,490 -> 35,543, an 18.3% drop-off" is complete.

Examples

Bad -> Good

Anti-Patterns

1. Never show only a percentage. The reader cannot tell if 34% means 340

users or 340,000.

1. Never show only a raw count. The reader cannot tell if 7,947 lost is

catastrophic or routine without knowing the base.

1. Never round the percentage to a whole number. Use one decimal place.

The difference between 18% and 18.3% matters when comparing steps.

1. Never skip the rule for the "biggest leak" callout. That line is the

most-read sentence in the readout — it needs all three numbers more than any other.