Data Question Brief Template

Use this before starting an analysis notebook.

Topic

What area are you studying?

Example: course engagement, customer support, store sales, project delivery, website content performance.

Main question

Write one clear question the analysis should answer.

Good shape:

How does [measure] change across [time, group, category, or condition]?

Supporting questions

Why this matters

Who would use the answer, and what decision could it support?

Unit of analysis

What does one row represent?

Examples:

• one order;
• one learner per course;
• one support ticket;
• one page view;
• one monthly summary.

Measures

Which numeric values matter?

Dimensions

Which groups, categories, or time fields matter?

Expected data problems

What might be missing, duplicated, inconsistent, delayed, or hard to trust?

What the data cannot prove

Write at least one limitation before analysis starts.

Planned outputs

• [ ] Cleaned dataset.
• [ ] Summary table.
• [ ] Static chart.
• [ ] Statistical or comparison chart.
• [ ] Interactive chart if useful.
• [ ] Written conclusion.