11  Assignments & Exercises

11.1 Business Titles

Objective

Understand the roles and responsibilities within today’s businesses.

Executives

Roles and Titles

Research the following executive business titles and their roles and responsibilities in large enterprises and in startup companies. (Not all roles might be present in all companies). List one primary concern for each role.

  • Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
  • Chief Operating Officer (COO)
  • Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
  • Chief Information Officer (CIO)
  • Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)
  • Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)
  • Chief Risk Officer (CRO)
  • Chief Revenue (Sales) Officer (CRO or CSO)

Connection to Data Science

Provide an example of a data science project or data science-related issue where a data scientist would interact with these executives. For example, what would be a problem where a data scientists interacts with a CISO?

So Much Management

What are the differences between

  • Product Manager
  • Project Manager
  • Program Manager

Are these the same roles by different names? If not, what are the roles and responsibilities?

How would these roles interface and connect to data science?

11.2 Business Problem Translation

Objective

Practice converting business challenges into data science projects.

You work for a mid-sized e-commerce company experiencing declining customer retention.

Tasks

  1. Stakeholder Analysis: Identify all stakeholders who would be involved in addressing this issue (executives, marketing, IT, customer service, etc.). Define what each stakeholder cares about and how they measure success.

  2. Problem Reframing: Transform “declining customer retention” into 3–5 specific, measurable data science questions. For each question, specify:

    • Required data sources
    • Success metrics
    • Potential challenges
    • Business impact if solved

  3. Project Proposal: Create a 2-page project proposal for one of your data science questions, including:

    • Executive summary
    • Project scope and timeline
    • Resource requirements
    • Risk assessment
    • Expected deliverables

Deliverables

  • Stakeholder map
  • Problem analysis
  • Project proposal

11.3 Research Business Terms

Objective

Become familiar with common business terminology.

Below is a list of common business terms. Define them in one or two sentences.

  • Return on Investment (ROI)
  • EBITDA
  • Accounts Payable
  • Accounts Receivable
  • Margin
  • Gross Margin
  • Revenue
  • Profit
  • Profit & Loss (P&L) Statement (also known as the Income statement)
  • Compound Average Growth Rate (CAGR)
  • Cash Flow
  • Liability
  • Equity
  • SWOT
  • Key Performance Indicators (KPI)
  • Objectives and Key Results (OKR)
  • Retention
  • Net Retention
  • Total Addressable Market (TAM)
  • Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)
  • Sales Commission
  • Click Through Rate (CTR)
  • Conversion Rate
  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  • Initial Public Offering (IPO)
  • Strike Price
  • Vested Shares
  • Shareholders
  • Value Proposition
  • Sales Pipeline
  • Merger & Acquisition (M&A)
  • Private Equity (PE)
  • Venture Capital (VC)
  • Software as a Service (SaaS)
  • Non-disclosure Agreement (NDA)
  • Business Plan
  • Supply Chain
  • Zero-based Budgeting (ZBB)
  • Upside
  • Capital Expenditure (CAPEX)
  • Operating Expenditure (OPEX)
  • Depreciation
  • Market Segment
  • Overhead
  • Subscription
  • Pay as you go Pricing