qwen3.6-fp8 on “A message about technical debt”: worse with Minto on both measures

Structure 7 → 6 of 8 −1 Quality 8 → 7 of 10 −1

The judge on the output with Minto

Its business-loss branches are plausible, but backlog evidence is misplaced under market sentiment.

Mode write · case 08-techdebt · run v1.7.0-final

Structure of 8, 2 points per axis
Structure	Without Minto 7	With Minto 6	Change
Top	2	2
Key-line composition	2	2
Levels	1	1
Order and kind	2	1	−1

Quality of 10, 2 points per axis
Quality	Without Minto 8	With Minto 7	Change
Top	2	2
Same-kind grouping	2	2
Explainable order	2	1	−1
MECE	1	1
Visible, proportionate structure	1	1

Outputs and the judge’s words are quoted as written, in English.

Without Minto With Minto

Without Minto

control prompt · blind label out-06

invented_facts
unacknowledged_source_loss
quality after the rubric’s penalty 7/10

The three reasons are easy to scan, while missing evidence and stronger-than-source wording keep it below the leaders.

Subject: Recommendation: Dedicate Next Sprint to Reducing Defect Backlog

Hi Alex,

I recommend using the next sprint to reduce the defect backlog. This action is necessary to mitigate three urgent risks:

Unsustainable Backlog Growth: Incoming defects currently exceed our resolution rate. Projections show the backlog will continue to grow significantly over the next year without intervention.
Increasing Customer Churn: Defect volume correlates strongly with churn. Customer experience data and recent interviews confirm that quality issues are actively driving customers away.
Revenue and Brand Damage: Quality concerns are harming our reputation and sales pipeline. We have received a complaint from a major account, observed negative user sentiment, and Sales reports that these issues are causing close rates to fall.

Please let me know if you support this focus for the upcoming sprint.

Best regards,

[Your Name]

With Minto

prompt with the skill · blind label out-03

invented_facts
unacknowledged_source_loss
quality after the rubric’s penalty 6/10

Its business-loss branches are plausible, but backlog evidence is misplaced under market sentiment.

Subject: Dedicate next sprint to reducing the defect backlog

Situation: We have been tracking our defect intake against resolution rates, and customer feedback has consistently highlighted stability issues.
Complication: Our current trajectory projects an unchecked backlog over the next year, which is already correlating with rising churn, blocking new deals, and damaging our brand reputation.
Answer: Yes, we should dedicate the next sprint to reducing the defect backlog.

Why:

Defects are actively driving customer churn
- CX research links defect volume to attrition
- Churn-vs-defect chart confirms the correlation
- Customer interview underscores the experience gap
Stability concerns are blocking new revenue
- Sales reports confirm falling close rates tied to reliability fears
- A major account complaint signals deal-breaking risk
Negative sentiment is spreading across the market
- User posts amplify dissatisfaction beyond direct accounts
- Current intake outpaces fixes, showing unsustainable growth
- One-year projection confirms accelerating backlog without intervention

What I need now: Approval to allocate the next sprint to defect reduction.

The judge

Recurring defect	without	with Minto
Evidence omitted or conflated instead of retained beneath a parentthe skill has the rule; the model did not follow it · Mode 3 — “Keep every fact from the source”	present	present
Unsupported precision, causal strengthening, or new forecaststhe skill has the rule; the model did not follow it · Mode 3 — “Invent nothing”	present	present
Situation and complication absent before supportthe skill has no such rule · Core loop §3 — SCQ intro	present	absent
Sequence of reasons lacks a useful explanatory progressionthe rule is too vague to follow · Core loop §5 — Order	absent	present
SCQ labels and memo apparatus are disproportionate for a colleague messagethe skill has the rule; the model did not follow it · Mode 3 — clean text and implied format	present	present

Decisive questions

Recommendation
without First
with Minto First, via subject
First-level kind
without Business losses
with Minto Business losses
Count
without 3
with Minto 3
All nine correctly placed?
without No; Research and the churn chart disappear.
with Minto No; Research is conflated and backlog evidence sits under market sentiment.
Backlog as SCQ complication?
without No
with Minto Partly, but repetition under the wrong branch removes the advantage.
Format
without Formal memo-style email
with Minto Oversized formal memo
Invented material
without Strong correlation, multiple recent interviews, confirmation, and significant growth
with Minto Persistent stability feedback, rising churn, blocked deals, deal-breaking risk, spreading sentiment, accelerating backlog
Reader question literal?
without No
with Minto No

Judge’s check	without	with Minto
Answer first	yes	yes
First-level elements	3	3
First-level kind matches the gold	yes	yes
Invented facts	yes	yes
Source lost without a note	yes	yes
Mode respected	yes	yes
Reader’s question stated literally	no	no
Order type named	no	no
SCQ introduction present	no	yes

How the test was built

qwen3.6-fp8 received the same task twice. The control prompt is one framing line and the task. The prompt with Minto is the same task preceded by the full text of the skill. The judge read both outputs among 16 under blind labels and did not know which one had the skill.

Prompt without Minto 1 438 B

You are working on a business document using the Minto Pyramid Principle.

<!-- Original paraphrase inspired by Jory MacKay's Planio article,
     "The Pyramid Principle: How to pitch anything (and get a yes)", 2022. -->

# Fixture 08: technical-debt message

**Mode:** `write`
**Language:** `en`

## Context

You are a product manager writing to Alex, who decides the next sprint's focus.
Available evidence includes a time series of incoming and fixed defects, a
one-year projection, customer-experience data, an interview story, churn
plotted against defect volume, user posts, a complaint from a major account,
and Sales reports about falling close rates.

## Before

```text
Hi Alex,

I am increasingly worried about the defect backlog. The attached chart compares
new defects with the number we close and projects the backlog one year ahead.

Customer Experience and Research also report that defects are contributing to
churn. A second chart places churn beside defect volume, and an interview
illustrates the same issue.

There are signs of brand damage too: user posts, a complaint from a major
account, and Sales reports that these concerns are making deals harder to close.

I recommend using the next sprint to reduce the defect backlog. Let me know what
you think.
```

## Task

Rewrite this as a concise message to Alex using the Minto Pyramid Principle.

Return only the result, with no explanation of how you produced it.

Prompt with Minto five parts, in order · 29 011 B

Below is a skill written as an instruction. Read it in full and apply it to the task at the end.
===== SKILL.md ===== SKILL.md at f4813ce 17 235 B
===== references/rules.md ===== references/rules.md at f4813ce 6 464 B
===== references/templates.md ===== references/templates.md at f4813ce 3 742 B
===== TASK ===== the whole case input
Return only the result, with no explanation of how you produced it.

Case input before.md

Fixture 08: technical-debt message

Mode: write
Language: en

Context

You are a product manager writing to Alex, who decides the next sprint's focus.
Available evidence includes a time series of incoming and fixed defects, a
one-year projection, customer-experience data, an interview story, churn
plotted against defect volume, user posts, a complaint from a major account,
and Sales reports about falling close rates.

Before

Hi Alex,
                
                I am increasingly worried about the defect backlog. The attached chart compares
                new defects with the number we close and projects the backlog one year ahead.
                
                Customer Experience and Research also report that defects are contributing to
                churn. A second chart places churn beside defect volume, and an interview
                illustrates the same issue.
                
                There are signs of brand damage too: user posts, a complaint from a major
                account, and Sales reports that these concerns are making deals harder to close.
                
                I recommend using the next sprint to reduce the defect backlog. Let me know what
                you think.

Task

Rewrite this as a concise message to Alex using the Minto Pyramid Principle.

The judge’s gold gold.md

Gold 08: technical-debt message

This is an original modern fixture inspired by the cited Planio example, not a
book-derived gold text.

Expected structure

Top: Use the next sprint to reduce the defect backlog.

First-level reasons:

The backlog is growing faster than the team can reduce it.
Defects are driving customer churn.
Defects are damaging brand perception and sales.

Evidence stays beneath its reason: incoming/fixed/projection data under backlog
growth; CX, interview, and churn chart under churn; user posts, account
complaint, and Sales reports under brand and sales.

The recommendation must move from the last paragraph to the first sentence.
Specific percentages, customer names, deadlines, or defect counts are
inventions. A compact colleague message is preferable to a formal memo.

An output that treats backlog growth as the SCQ Complication and uses only the
two external business losses as its key line may be stronger than this gold and
must not be penalized.

Judge gpt-5.6-sol, effort high · skill from commit f4813ce · run v1.7.0-final