Asking Questions

Tips for writing effective prompts in Formula Bot, with example questions for sales, marketing, finance, and operations analysis use cases.

Getting great results from Formula Bot starts with asking good questions. This guide shares tips and examples to help you get the most out of your analysis.

Be Specific

The more specific your question, the better the answer. Compare these examples:

Less EffectiveMore Effective
"Show me sales""Show me monthly sales for 2024 by product category"
"What's trending?""What are the top 5 growing products by revenue this quarter?"
"Analyze this""Calculate the average order value by customer segment"

Use Natural Language

Ask questions the way you'd ask a colleague. Formula Bot understands:

  • Questions: "What was our best-selling product last month?"
  • Commands: "Create a bar chart of revenue by region"
  • Requests: "I need to see customer retention rates over time"

Example Prompts by Use Case

Sales Analysis

  • "What were total sales this quarter compared to last quarter?"
  • "Show me the top 10 customers by lifetime value"
  • "Which products have the highest profit margins?"
  • "Create a funnel showing lead to customer conversion"

Marketing Analytics

  • "What channels are driving the most traffic?"
  • "Compare email campaign performance over the past 6 months"
  • "What's the ROI on our paid advertising?"
  • "Show user acquisition trends by source"

Financial Reporting

  • "Calculate month-over-month revenue growth"
  • "Show expenses by department as a pie chart"
  • "What's the year-to-date profit margin?"
  • "Identify any unusual transactions over $10,000"

Operations

  • "What's our average delivery time by region?"
  • "Show inventory levels for products below reorder point"
  • "Calculate capacity utilization by facility"
  • "Identify bottlenecks in the order process"

Follow-Up Questions

Formula Bot remembers your conversation context. After getting an initial response, you can:

  • Drill down: "Now break that down by month"
  • Filter: "Show only the top 5"
  • Change visualization: "Make that a line chart instead"
  • Ask for more: "What's causing that trend?"

Specify Time Ranges

Be clear about the time period you're interested in:

  • "Last 30 days"
  • "This quarter"
  • "Year over year"
  • "January through March 2024"
  • "Since we launched the new product"

Request Specific Outputs

Tell Formula Bot what format you want:

  • "Create a pivot table..."
  • "Show this as a bar chart..."
  • "Give me a summary in bullet points..."
  • "Export this as a CSV..."

Pro tip

If the AI misunderstands your question, try rephrasing it or providing more context about your data.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

  1. Being too vague - "Analyze everything" won't give useful results
  2. Assuming context - Mention which columns or metrics you mean
  3. Asking multiple unrelated questions - Keep each message focused
  4. Not reviewing the data first - Check your column names and data types

When Results Aren't Right

If you get unexpected results:

  1. Check your data - Make sure the right files/tables are selected
  2. Clarify terminology - Your "sales" column might be named differently
  3. Provide context - Explain what you expect to see
  4. Ask the AI to explain - "Why did you calculate it that way?"

Next Steps