Welcome to this video on
the problem statement.
After completing this video,
you will be able to
explain the importance of the problem statement.
List the relevant questions to formulate a
well-defined problem statement.
Creating a well-defined problem statement is
the first and critical step in data science.
It is a brief description of the problem
that you are going to solve.
But why do we need a
well-defined problem statement?
A problem well defined is a problem half-solved.
Also, all the efforts and work is channelised
in right direction if the the
problem statement is well-defined.
The problem statement is shared by your client.
Your client can be your boss, colleague,
friend, personal project etc.
They would tell you the problems they are facing.
Some examples are shown on the screen.
For these problems, they are looking for
data-backed solutions.
Most of the times, these initial set of
problems shared with you is vague and ambiguous.
“I want to increase the revenue”.
This problem doesn’t tell you
how much to increase the revenue
such as 20% or 30%,
for which products and in what time frame.
You have to make the problem statement clear,
goal-oriented and measurable.
This can be achieved by asking
the right set of questions.
“Getting the right question is
the key to getting the right answer.”
How can you ask better or right questions?
You should ask open ended rather than
closed ended questions.
The open ended questions help to
uncover unknown unknowns.
The unknown unknowns are the things
which you don’t know you don’t know.
Consider these two questions.
The answer to the first question such as
yes or no doesn't help much in
exploration or creating a well-defined
problem statement.
The second question can lead to broad
and informative answers.
It can be followed up by specific questions
to clarify or probe further.
For example, based on the answer you can ask
“What makes email marketing successful
compared to other techniques?”
Answers to these questions can help
build domain knowledge and
create a well-defined problem statement.
In this course, we will work on
a problem statement from the
English Premier League.
Sports are always interesting to watch
and we all have our favourite teams.
Therefore, we have defined the
problem statement as “Which club will
win the EPL?”
That’s is all for this video.
In the next sections, you will learn
different data collection methods.
