3 Reasons Research Backed My Project—and the 1 Conversation That Broke It (part 1/3)
A niche can guide you, and a problem can inspire you—but if it’s not urgent, your audience won’t care.
Here's my story of how I discovered that my occult book summaries project wasn't as necessary as I had thought. I know you're thinking "Who could have made that prediction?" But I promise it feels like a fun idea. You'll find out why soon. I promise! (check it out here)
This is a multi-part series:
Part 1: You're here.
Part 2: Next
Part 3: Latest
But first, let me share a bit about my personal journey.
Growing up, I was a logical thinker who often dismissed magical beliefs. However, after delving into breath work, hatha yoga, and meditation, I began to experience things that went beyond logical explanation. This led me to research the occult.
After years of private practice, I had a chance encounter with some co-workers one evening. A friend named Henry invited me and another co-worker to his home for wine and dinner. Upon entering his house, I noticed a large bookshelf filled with books on Enochian Magick, tarot, and natural magick.
As we engaged in tarot readings and discussions about the occult, it became evident that we all struggled to keep up with our extensive collections of books on the subject.
Inspired by this realization, I had an exciting idea on my way home—why not create book summaries from our combined libraries and share our notes?
After pitching the idea to my colleagues and receiving positive feedback, we decided to pursue it. However, before fully committing to the project, I wanted to ensure its viability by conducting research and developing a cost-effective plan for completion within the short period of a month.
In the upcoming section, I will outline my research process and detail how I successfully implemented this project on a budget.
A Market Looked Promising—Why I Believed It Could Work (and How You Can Avoid My Mistake)
Getting quality data without asking the right questions is like having fertile soil but ignoring the weather. You can have the freshest manure the world has to offer but it means very little if you ignore the weather.
Rich data—like search volume—can show that there's fertile ground for growth. It tells you there’s demand, but it doesn’t explain why that demand exists.
More on this later...
I discovered Shortform, a book summary app, in Ryan Holiday's newsletter. Intrigued, I purchased it and used it regularly for months. However, I found the growing market potential more intriguing.
Researching book summary apps on Google Trends, I observed a clear trend: their popularity is rapidly increasing.
Nevertheless, this data does not indicate the level of audience engagement.
How can we gauge engagement? My speculation at this point was that individuals searching for specific products by name are more committed than those searching for general terms.
Using Ahrefs, I examined the search traffic for leading book summary apps. The findings were unexpected.
These companies are not as large as anticipated. For example, they typically generate around $1,600 per month from new customers. However, a well-established company like Blinkist, with over a decade in operation, may now earn $150,000 monthly from SEO efforts alone.
While these figures are promising, they are not complete.
They only capture Google search traffic; platforms like YouTube also have significant influence.
On YouTube, creators such as Nathan Lozeron (“Productivity Game”) have over 650,000 subscribers. This platform represents a vast potential customer base.
Creating a similar channel could be a cost-effective method to promote a new, more niche, app. Perhaps even an occult themed one.
Data like search volume show strong potential. They confirm demand but don’t explain why it exists. Understanding the “why” is essential yet it isn't explained by search volume alone. Here’s why that's misleading:
- A growing market always seems appealing because we don’t know its limits. It can look like endless growth.
- Book summary popularity on YouTube suggests a ready distribution channel. But this assumes niche audiences will find the content.
- While occult books may not sell in high numbers, their dedicated readers value them deeply. The Foolish Fish’s YouTube channel confirms this. But summarizing these books assumes the audience values reading them quickly.
Let's revisit the varying nature of problems...
People purchase produce for different reasons. Some seek enjoyment, while others, like wineries, rely on it for their livelihood. Merely looking at the volume of purchases does not reveal this segmented phenomenon.
Therefore, we must pose better questions to ourselves. These questions for book summaries might include:
- How many paying readers of book summaries are interested in occult topics?
- Do members of the occult community place a higher value on owning books rather than understanding them?
- Are they simply collecting books?
These gaps in understanding are crucial blind spots. Consider the excitement you would feel if you observe an increase in produce sales and assume that people desire more variety. You introduce a new fruit, utilizing premium tools and data to guide you. However, no one makes a purchase. What is the reason for this?
It appears that no one truly needs it, and you failed to ask the necessary questions to uncover this insight.
Similarly, buyers of book summaries may not be seeking something new. They could be satisfied with what is currently available. Conversely, those looking for something fresh may not be interested in your new offering.
This situation can be mitigated entirely if we establish the right objective. Understanding who invests in book summary apps can shed light on why they require them. Let this be our primary focus.
Tip: Genuine demand is evident when an individual actively seeks a solution. People may communicate certain preferences, but their behaviors often contradict these statements. Thus, it may not hold significant importance to them unless their behavior says otherwise.
(This is a key takeaway for the fantastic book on customer conversations, The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick)
By examining who is currently purchasing (not just expressing interest in purchasing) book summaries, we can make insightful assumptions. For instance, the current target audience for book summaries includes students, managers, and startup CEOs; hence, we can infer that these individuals possess financial resources and aspire to increase them by reading more books.
Voila! We now have a plausible explanation: Some individuals seek ideas quickly because they believe it will enhance their financial wellbeing.
The issue lies in our tendency to overlook deeper analysis. Merely duplicating an idea and narrowing down our target audience does not guarantee success—certain problems carry varying weight when presented to different groups.
If we neglect audience analysis or fail to understand why they require a product and hastily act on our underdeveloped ideas, we are making decisions based solely on chance rather than data-driven insights—a recipe for significant errors.
To evade such pitfalls, it is imperative that we ask pertinent questions. But the problem is, good questions change depending on context.
In the next section, I'll explore some good questions you can ask for the situation at hand.
Check out the next section part 2 of why my project for occult book summaries failed.