This happened all the time at my line of work. Forecasts become targets and you become responsible for meeting them. So whenever I was asked to provide a forecast, I will either i) ask as many questions as I need to know the exact purpose of the request, and produce a forecast that meets exactly that intent, or ii) pick a forecast and provide it, but first list down all the assumptions and caveats behind the forecast that I can possibly think of. With time, I’d also get a sense of who I need to be extra careful with when providing any forecasts because of all sorts of ways that might backfire.
This happened all the time at my line of work. Forecasts become targets and you become responsible for meeting them. So whenever I was asked to provide a forecast, I will either i) ask as many questions as I need to know the exact purpose of the request, and produce a forecast that meets exactly that intent, or ii) pick a forecast and provide it, but first list down all the assumptions and caveats behind the forecast that I can possibly think of. With time, I’d also get a sense of who I need to be extra careful with when providing any forecasts because of all sorts of ways that might backfire.