Having spent close to 4 years in data-centric roles in many industries, the differences in approaches at each of these companies has helped me build a good framework to conduct data analyses. I will attempt to explain this framework in this post.

First things first….what is an exploratory data analysis?

Enough chit-chat, can I dive into my dataset already?

Unfortunately, no. To extract the most valuable patterns out of a given dataset, one needs to spend some time understanding the available data at a high level prior to exploring it.

From a business standpoint, this is a great step in talking to one’s stakeholders and gain as much background as possible. This is crucial because it helps one understand where they should focus. Questions to ask here include:

The answers to these questions could point you in starkly contrasting directions. Once you have the answers to your questions, you are ready to start working with your dataset.

Diving into the Data

This is the most important, and most interesting step. Depending on the nature of the available dataset, this could be easy or difficult. Actions taken during this step include: