Scope an open‑ended take‑home under constraints

You’re given a 6‑hour take‑home to “predict a product’s target users,” but you estimate a thorough solution needs 24+ hours. Produce a written plan (≤1 page) that you would send to the hiring manager and business partner before starting. Include: (1) crisp problem statement, success criteria, and explicit non‑goals; (2) a prioritized work breakdown with specific deliverables you will complete in 6 hours and what you will defer; (3) the minimum data you need and the clarifying questions you would ask up front; (4) risks (e.g., label ambiguity, leakage, class imbalance) and your mitigations; (5) the exact storyboard of your presentation (titles of slides and key figures); and (6) how you will defend trade‑offs in Q&A if challenged on not exploring an attractive but out‑of‑scope idea (e.g., feature learning or causal inference). Be specific about how you will demonstrate impact with limited time, and how you will measure whether your chosen scope was correct after the fact.