How do universities use data to figure out which students are at risk of dropping out? How does a beverage company diagnose whether a revenue decline is a pricing problem or a volume problem? How do healthcare systems decide where to build their next clinic?
Data science is being used to tackle problems like these across every industry, and this blog is my notebook for exploring how. My name is Sam Johnston — I'm a data analyst and aspiring data scientist. I want to dig into the real problems data science is being applied to, what's working, and where we need to continue innovating.
Some of these problems I've seen firsthand in my own work. Some I've only read about or observed from nearby. But in every case, I'm interested in what makes the problem hard and what the data can and can't tell us. This blog isn't going to dive into how to code or how to analyze data — there are plenty of great places for that. Instead, it explores the big issues that businesses are currently trying to solve.
I'm building toward a career in data science, and this is where I'll be thinking out loud along the way. If any of that sounds interesting to you, stick around.