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8. Ideate Features

FeatureByte provides two primary methods for feature creation:

  • Manual Creation: Utilize the SDK declarative framework for complete control over the feature engineering process.
  • Automatic Creation: Accelerate feature engineering through Feature Ideation an AI-powered, automated method that intelligently suggests relevant features for your use case.

How FeatureByte Ideates Features

Feature Ideation adopts an agentic approach that dynamically tailors feature generation to your use case. The process includes:

  1. Analyzing tables and relationships to identify relevant data.
  2. Inferring missing semantic tags based on column metadata.
  3. Recommending column transformations, such as time deltas, ratios, and differences.
  4. Identifying key filters to isolate critical events.
  5. Highlighting key columns for further feature engineering.
  6. Proposing appropriate aggregation time windows.
  7. Analyzing event frequency patterns to detect timing signals.
  8. Recommending and evaluating features for their semantic relevance.
  9. Promoting feature reuse by detecting duplicates in the Catalog.
  10. Conducting EDA on each feature and assigning an individual Predictive Score.
  11. Selecting the optimal feature set based on SHAP value analysis.

Every step is transparently documented to ensure full traceability.

Modes of Operation

Feature Ideation offers two modes of operation:

  • Fully automated mode: Automatically executes the entire workflow.
  • Semi-automated mode: Enables you to review and refine recommendations step by step.

This tutorial demonstrates the fully automated mode of Feature Ideation. A detailed guide to the semi-automated mode will follow in the next section.

Note

If you want to learn how to manually create features, please consult our SDK tutorials.

Step 1: Select Your Use Case

  1. Navigate to Feature Ideation from the 'Ideate' section of the menu.

  2. Select the use case: "Customer Activity Next Week before a purchase".

    • If the target could not be created in the SDK, select "Customer Activity Next Week before a purchase (using the descriptive target)" instead.

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Step 2: Initiate a New Feature Ideation Workflow

  1. Click New Ideation Button to start the Feature Ideation process.
  2. Edit the Feature Ideation name and description by clicking Edit Button.

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Step 3: Start Automated Mode

  1. Begin the automated Feature Ideation workflow by clicking Auto Run Button.
  2. Optionally, you can stop the process at any stage if needed. Name
  3. You can also choose to configure the ideation by clicking Config Button. Note that by default, the search for Filters is disabled in Filter Setup. Name

Once the process is initiated, you’ll see confirmation that the run has started:

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Step 4: Review the Feature Ideation Report

After the process completes, a feature selection will be displayed for your review.

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  1. Access the Detailed Report, describing each step of the ideation process, by clicking Report Button next to the Ideation name "Simple Ideation".

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  2. Visualize the full report with an indexed view in a new tab, by clicking Report tab Button.

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Step 4: Review Features

Select the Features tab to review the suggested features.

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Click on a feature to open its details. You can use the filter Filter Button or the search Search Button, to find a specific feature.

Review Feature Relevance

Check Semantic Relevance in the 'About' tab of the feature.

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Review Feature Lineage

  1. Explore Feature Lineage by going to the 'Lineage' tab. Name

  2. Click Lineage Button to trace the feature's origin and transformations. Name

Review Feature Distribution

Analyze Feature Distribution and its relationship with the Target in the 'EDA' tab.

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Interact with EDA Plots. Within the 'EDA'' tab, click on the plot to activate tooltips for additional insights.

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Review SDK Code

For an Individual Feature

Go to the 'SDK Code' tab of the feature.

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For a Feature Selection

  1. Clear Filters by clicking Clear Filter Button and close the filter panel by clicking Close Filter Button.

  2. Ensure the feature selection is properly selected.

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  3. Select features in the feature list by clicking Select All Button.

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  4. Download the notebook to inspect the feature declaration code by clicking Download Notebook.

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  5. Open the notebook to review the feature engineering code.

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Step 8: Add the SHAP Feature Selection to the Feature Catalog

Save the selected features into the Feature Catalog by clicking Save Feature List. Call the feature list "SHAP selection from Automated Mode". Name

After saving, the readiness of the features should be "DRAFT".

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