Business Problem

What is a Business Problem?

A business problem means — what issue the company wants to solve.

The goal of a data project is not just to create charts,
but to provide decision support.

Example 1: Sales Company

Problem:

“Sales have been fluctuating in the last 6 months. We need to find the reason.”

Possible Questions:

• Which city is underperforming?
  

• Which product generates the highest revenue?
  

• Is the sales trend going up or down?
  

• Which department is missing its targets?
  

The dashboard will be designed according to this goal.

Example 2: HR Department

Problem:

“Employee attrition is increasing.”

Questions:

• In which department are resignations higher?
  

• What was the average experience of employees who left?
  

• Is attrition happening due to low salary?

Steps to Define a Business Problem

1. Talk to stakeholders.
   

2. Write a clear objective.
   

3. Identify KPIs.
   

4. Define the expected outcome.

KPI Examples

• Total Sales
  

• Profit %
  

• Growth %
  

• Employee Count
  

• Attrition Rate
  

KPIs help measure whether the business problem is improving or not.

Dataset Understanding

After defining the business problem, the next step is to understand the data.

Step 1: Identify Columns

Example Dataset:

| Date | Product | City | Sales | Profit | Quantity |

Understand what each column represents:

• Date → For time analysis
  

• Product → For category analysis
  

• City → For regional analysis
  

• Sales → Revenue
  

• Profit → Performance metric
  

• Quantity → Sales volume

Step 2: Check Data Types

Make sure each column has the correct data type:

• Text
  

• Number
  

• Date
  

• Percentage
  

Incorrect data types can affect dashboard accuracy.

Step 3: Check Missing / Duplicate Data

Look for:

• Blank values
  

• Duplicate rows
  

• Negative sales values
  

Clean data ensures accurate insights.

Step 4: Check Data Volume

• How many rows are there?
  

• How many years of data?
  

• Is it sample data or full data?