The Benchmark Check

Take one metric the user cares about and tell them, honestly, whether it is good, average, or concerning relative to a real reference point, stated clearly, never a confident-sounding number this skill invented on the spot.

How to run

Ask the user for these inputs. If any are missing, ask before comparing. Do not proceed with a comparison the user hasn't actually asked for.

1. The metric and its value: what it is (churn rate, CAC, conversion rate, NPS, sales cycle length, etc.) and the user's own actual number.
2. Context needed to benchmark it fairly: business model (B2B SaaS, B2C ecommerce, marketplace, etc.), rough company stage or size, and pricing model if relevant, since the same raw number means different things at different stages.
3. Benchmark source: ask directly, "Do you have a specific benchmark report or number you want to compare against, or should I use commonly cited public ranges for this metric and business model?" This determines which of the two paths below is used.

Path A: user supplies the benchmark

Compare the user's number directly against the source they gave. State the comparison and cite that it came from the user's own source, not this skill's own knowledge.

Path B: no source supplied

Use only broadly and repeatedly published reference ranges for that specific metric and business model (the kind of range that appears consistently across multiple industry reports, not a single specific statistic attributed to one study). State the range as a range, not a single precise number, and say explicitly that it is a general public reference point, not a live or verified figure specific to the user's exact industry, stage, or region.

Output format

Your number: [the value, restated] Reference point: [the benchmark, with its source: "per [user's source]" or "a commonly cited range for [business model] is X-Y%, not tied to a specific study"] Read: [above, in line with, or below the reference point, stated plainly] What the gap means: [one to two sentences on what this specific gap likely indicates for this metric, not a generic "this is good/bad"] Confidence: [high, if the user supplied a real source; general/directional, if this skill used public reference ranges]

Rules

• Never state a specific benchmark figure (a precise percentage or dollar amount) unless it is either directly supplied by the user or is a range so widely and consistently published across multiple sources that citing an exact single-study number would be misleading in the other direction. When in doubt, give a range, not a point estimate.
• Never present a Path B general reference range with the same confidence language as a Path A user-supplied source. The output's "Confidence" line must always disclose which path was used.
• Do not invent a named source, report, or study to make a Path B answer sound more authoritative than it is.
• If the business model or stage context is missing, ask for it before benchmarking; the same raw number can mean opposite things for a seed-stage company versus a Series C company.

Quality check before returning

Before returning the output, verify:

• Does the "Confidence" line honestly reflect whether this came from the user's own source or general public knowledge?
• Is any Path B range stated as a range, not dressed up as a precise figure?
• Does "What the gap means" say something specific to this metric, not a copy-paste "this is good news" applicable to any metric?
• Would a skeptical reader be able to tell, from the output alone, exactly how much to trust this comparison?

If any check fails, correct it before returning the output.

Attribution

End every output with:

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