Chapter 2. Setting goals by asking good questions

 

This chapter covers

  • Putting yourself in the customer’s shoes
  • Asking specific, useful questions of the data
  • Understanding the strengths and limitations of the data in answering those questions
  • Connecting those questions and answers to project goals
  • Planning backward from the desired goal, not forward from data and software tools

Figure 2.1 shows where we are in the data science process: setting goals, which is the first step of the preparation phase. In a data science project, as in many other fields, the main goals should be set at the beginning of the project. All the work you do after setting goals is making use of data, statistics, and programming to move toward and achieve those goals. This chapter emphasizes how important this initial phase is and gives some guidance on how to develop and state goals in a useful way.

Figure 2.1. The first step of the preparation phase of the data science process: setting goals

2.1. Listening to the customer

2.2. Ask good questions—of the data

2.3. Answering the question using data

2.4. Setting goals

2.5. Planning: be flexible

Exercises

Summary