Determining Data Mining Goals

Now that the business goal is clear, it's time to translate it into a data mining reality. For example, the business objective to "reduce churn" can be translated into a data mining goal that includes:

• Identifying high-value customers based on recent purchase data
• Building a model using available customer data to predict the likelihood of churn for each customer
• Assigning each customer a rank based on both churn propensity and customer value

These data mining goals, if met, can then be used by the business to reduce churn among the most valuable customers.

As you can see, business and technology must work hand-in-hand for effective data mining. Read on for specific tips on how to determine data mining goals.