A Real-World Use Case of ChatGPT in Stakeholder Communication

It was one of those classic “what just happened?” moments.

Order charges in production were off — not wildly wrong, but wrong enough to raise eyebrows.

As someone who’s been around tech for 20 years, I’ve seen enough to not panic immediately. But this one smelled fishy. What followed was a cross-system investigation, a classic ownership gray area, and finally — a surprisingly powerful use case for ChatGPT.

🔍 The Initial Clue

The problem: incorrect order charges were getting inserted into the system via our SQL job.

My first thought — bug in our job logic?

But after reviewing the code and test cases, nothing stood out.

Until we found this 👇

A separate SQL job from another system, managed by a different team, had silently started pushing additional data into our database. Our job wasn’t built to handle that new data. So the output? Messed-up charges.

That job wasn’t in our radar — no change intimation, no handshake.

So yes, technically we owned the job that failed. But in reality, the rules had changed, and no one told us.

⚙️ The Fix

Once we nailed the root cause, the fix was straightforward: handle the new data format, update the logic, test, validate, and deploy.

But the next question was harder:

“How do we explain this to the business stakeholders?”

They don’t care about SQL jobs, legacy integration rules, or data flow between systems. They just want clarity — preferably in one slide or one sentence.

💡 That’s When I Turned to ChatGPT

I knew what the issue was. I also knew how to explain it — eventually. But time was short, and I wanted to get to a clean business-level narrative quickly.

So I opened ChatGPT and fed it the problem.

But I didn’t just throw the error message or SQL snippet at it.

I designed my prompts carefully — like setting up a consulting call.

🧠 The 3 ChatGPT Prompts I Used

🔹 Prompt 1: Set the context

You are a senior business consultant helping a tech team explain a production issue to non-technical business stakeholders. The issue involved incorrect order charges due to a SQL job failing because of unexpected data pushed from another system. This other system was modified by a different team, which started sending new data that wasn’t handled by our logic.

I need a short and clear business-level explanation of this issue — suitable for senior leadership — that focuses on the impact and resolution. Avoid technical terms and keep the tone professional and accountable.

🟢 ChatGPT Outcome (excerpt):

"Due to a change in one of the upstream systems, some new data formats began flowing into our platform. Our existing process didn’t expect this new format, which led to a miscalculation of charges. We've now updated the system to adapt to this new data source and ensure accuracy going forward."

I was like — YES. This is clean, crisp, and speaks their language.

🔹 Prompt 2: Tighten the tone & add ownership

That’s helpful. Now, rewrite this to also reflect a sense of responsibility — not blame-shifting — and briefly mention the proactive steps we’ve taken to fix and prevent this in the future.

🟢 ChatGPT Outcome:

“A recent change in an upstream system introduced new data into our platform that our charge calculation logic didn’t initially account for. As a result, some charges were computed incorrectly. We've since updated our system to handle this new data and introduced validation steps to prevent such issues going forward.”

Perfect. Clear, mature tone. Shows ownership. No finger-pointing. Just the kind of message you want in stakeholder conversations.

🔹 Prompt 3: Personal clarity outline

Now give me a brief outline I can use in a 2-minute stakeholder conversation — not to say it word-for-word, but just as a mental model or flow for structuring my explanation.

🟢 ChatGPT Outcome:

• Start with the observed issue (incorrect charges)
• Explain it stemmed from unexpected data changes in an upstream system
• Highlight that our process was not designed for this new data
• Emphasize that the issue is fixed
• End with steps we’ve taken to prevent recurrence

Exactly the outline I needed. No fluff, no jargon, and it gives me just enough structure to stay sharp in the meeting.

🧩 Was ChatGPT Really Needed?

To be honest, I could have translated the issue into business language on my own. I’ve done it many times before.

But tools like ChatGPT help me get there quicker. It’s like working with a smart assistant that takes care of first drafts, lets me stay sharp, and saves my time — especially when things are moving fast.

It’s not about whether I “need” ChatGPT. It’s about whether using it is the smart thing to do when you want to be faster, sharper, and more structured.

And yes, I didn’t say the exact words ChatGPT gave me in the meeting. That’s not the point.

The point was — it gave me an outline. A flow. Something to start from. Something I could trust and adapt.

🧠 Why It Matters

In a cross-functional world, your job isn't done when the code is fixed.

You need to translate that into something business people can understand — cleanly and confidently.

And for that, ChatGPT — if prompted well — can be a real booster.

✍️ Final Thought

Using ChatGPT for communication isn’t cheating.

It’s working smart — especially when clarity matters more than complexity.

So the next time you're staring at a messy incident and wondering how to phrase it for your COO…

Try prompting ChatGPT like a partner, not a magic wand.

And see what happens.

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