Develop and manage hypotheses

Trigger: A data scientist or business analyst identifies a specific research objective or observes an unexplained pattern in preliminary empirical data.

1. Identify the core business problem or research question
2. Review preliminary empirical data and domain context
3. Formulate initial explanatory theories
4. Translate theories into specific testable hypotheses
5. Determine required features and data points for testing
6. Document and manage the lifecycle of the hypotheses

Outcome: A set of formally documented, testable hypotheses is established to guide feature selection and subsequent data collection.