Clean a Messy CSV and Write an Insights Memo

The Scenario

A retailer has exported 12 months of sales data to a CSV. The file has the usual real-world problems: inconsistent date formats, a few negative prices (returns), product names in different capitalisation, and some duplicate rows from a failed export retry.

The Brief

You do not need the real file. Describe the cleaning steps you would take (in order, and why) and then write an insights memo as if you had already cleaned it and explored the data.

Deliverables

• A numbered list of cleaning steps with a one-sentence justification for each
• A short memo (under 300 words) with exactly 3 insights, each backed by a plausible number
• One question the data cannot answer on its own, and what you would need to go further

Submit Your Work

Your submission is graded against the rubric on the right. If you pass, you get a public Badge URL you can share on LinkedIn. There is no draft save, so work offline first and paste your finished response here.