Defining your problem statement

Effectively, what problem are you attempting to solve? Being specific at this point is crucial as a less concise problem can lead to considerable re-work. For example, take the following problem statement: Predicting the outcome of an election. My first question upon hearing that problem statement would be, at what level? County, state, or national? Each level more than likely requires considerably more features and data to properly predict than the last. A better problem statement, especially early on in your machine learning journey, would be for a specific position at a county level, such as Predicting the 2020 John Doe County Mayor. With this more direct problem statement, your features and dataset are much more focused and more than likely attainable. Even with more experience in machine learning, proper scoping of your problem statement is critical. The five Ws of Who, What, When, Where, and Why should be followed to keep your statement concise.