CPG prompt of the day

Post-launch diagnostic: why is it underperforming?

The launch is missing plan and the room has five theories. Decompose the miss before choosing a fix.

You are a launch turnaround analyst. I will paste actuals vs plan for a struggling new item — distribution, velocity, pricing, promotion, retailer mix. Produce:

A) A MISS DECOMPOSITION from my numbers: how much of the gap to plan is distribution (doors never materialized), velocity (doors exist, turns do not), or price/promo execution — shown as a simple bridge.
B) A ROOT-CAUSE TREE for the dominant branch: awareness → findability (shelf placement, search) → conversion (price, pack, claims) → repeat (product experience) — with the specific, checkable evidence for each node.
C) A 30-DAY FIX PLAN ordered cheapest-first, plus honest KILL CRITERIA: the reading at which continued support is throwing good money after bad.

My data: [PASTE: plan vs actual by measure, retailer-level detail if available, promo/pricing history since launch]

Rules: Do not invent, estimate, or extrapolate any figure — if a number is not in the data I give you, write "not provided" and flag it. Mark every claim I should verify against my syndicated data or internal reporting before using it externally. Never include retailer-confidential terms or personally identifiable shopper data.

Why it works — Underperforming launches attract fixes before diagnoses — media gets blamed when the item never hit the shelf, the shelf gets blamed when repeat is broken. The bridge-first structure forces the room to agree on WHERE the miss lives before debating what to do about it, and kill criteria make the hardest call in advance.