Day 14 Doing more with Deep Research
Don't just stop because you got the answer to your first question
Welcome to Day 14 of 30 Days of AI.
Yesterday in Day 13, I gave you an introduction into my favorite use of AI beyond anything else: deep research. Deep research has helped me do more, think more, and accomplish more than any other AI tool, with maybe Gamma as a close second.
Deep research has let me power through a lot of things I couldn’t have imagined doing—and doing well—before. But for all the awesomeness that is deep research, it’s just a report, right? Read it, check it (you did check it, right?), think on it, maybe share it. Done.
Far from it.
Today I want to talk about some of the ways you can use deep research reports to do other things. How can you extend that research? How can you take what you’ve seen take it to the next level? This is part of the progression from just having AI take things off your plate to having AI extend your own capabilities beyond what you thought was possible.
Today’s “what else can I do with a deep research report” edition dovetails perfectly with the next four installments. Gee, you’d almost think I’d planned it that way.
Coming up next will be:
Getting started with NotebookLM
Doing more with NotebookLM
Making infographics with NotebookLM or Gemini (and other tools, but Nano Banana is just too good to ignore)
Gamma (affiliate link) for presentations, documents, and more
Deep research plays a huge part in all of those things. Especially now that NotebookLM has deep research built into it. Which means Gemini deep research is within NotebookLM. This addition gives my prediction that NotebookLM is going to be the centerpiece of Google’s world of work a lot more credence.
Before we dive in I have a question…
Let’s keep building together
While I have the first 30 days pretty much planned out—I might change up a few with new ideas—this is 30 Plus Days of AI—I’m not stopping when I hit day 30. What would you like to see in the next 30 days? Have your say below.
Now back to our regularly scheduled learning…
What can I do with the report
You have this report on whatever you researched. Well, what do you do next? Gemini has great built-in suggestions like, make a webpage, an audio overview, infographic, interactive quiz, and more. You should absolutely give those a try, but this post is about doing more than those default options (and things you can do with all the tools).
Follow up research. What questions do you want answers to now? What ideas do you have to learn about?
Testing out ideas. AIs give you the power of all the best consultants to bounce ideas off of.
Level up your job search. Take a report on the company and turn it into your edge to get the job.
Turn competitive research to an 11. Your competitors are falling short and failing customers, how do you position yourself as the logical alternative?
Make AI personas more real. Add in details about job roles, market conditions, demographics, psychographics, tech use trends. All this adds richness to a virtual customer.
Code the next great app. Great apps start with great research. Before you generate a single line of code.
Follow your nose
To me the first thing to do with research is ask more questions. This is the part of research, it’s why scientists do research. We do research, we learn a bunch of things, and they go, wait a minute, what about this? And you go research some more.
This was one of the things that was extremely helpful and powerful when I was completing the Chartered Marketers program, was when I would do deep research on the case study and be able to just follow my nose and ask more questions. Dive into this deeper. Research this (based on a crazy idea). Compare these two reports, and let’s talk through this idea. It’s huge it’s how research becomes learning, becomes ideas, becomes innovation.
When you can go: “What if these are connected, let’s dig in deeper” and be able to do that simultaneously across different browser tabs it’s like having an army of research assistants at your beck and call. Imagine this, Walking around town you have an idea. A question. You fire up deep research on your phone, set it off running and put your phone away. You’re having a coffee later and it pings that it’s done. You read through over your coffee and scone. Hmm, that’s interesting. Copy, paste. Let’s research this now. Keep reading or move on. Act on inspiration when it happens, then just get back to your day and let your AI do the rest.
These are some of the things I’ve done in the past with deep research:
I’m interested in this this section of the report (pasted below). Do a deep research dive into this part of the previous report.
Here’s a completed research report, focus on section three and research that more.
This question came to my mind. Take the deep research report as an initial starting point, and then expand on this idea, research this topic.
Help me understand how to better align a class to the people at this company based on their goals and profile.
Consultant in your pocket
Then let’s call this the “strategic planner or the consultant in your pocket.” You have an idea or you’ve drafted a marketing strategy, a business plan, or whatever thing you’d like to ground in a little reality. You do a deep research run on the top industry trends that you’re interested in. Then you take the deep research report and your idea, and ask: “What are the gaps? What am I missing? Where are my blind spots? What’s new, what’s unique, and build on it.”
AIs are great at helping you find gaps or weak spots in your thinking. Go so far as have it really challenge you. Does my idea align with the trends you found? Is there another way to look at it? Use that research as the grounding you need to test an idea out before you get too far with it.
In the Chartered Marketer program I had a an idea like that. It was out there to say the least. I use industry research, competitor research, plus some market trends to ask: Would this work? Nope, it wouldn’t meet the company’s goals. However, have you thought about it this way...
Whole new way to look at the problem an ultimately come up with something pretty unique (I think at least).
Level up your job search
One of the things I’ve done in my job search is do deep research on a company to help prepare for interviews. I want to understand the company better, understand their competitors better, where they stand amongst their competitors, what’s the industry outlook, etc. Once that basic report is done, I give it the job description, plus the report and ask:
Here's a job description for something I applied for. How does the job fit in with the research? What does it reveal?
Then you can go to the next step:
Here's the job description for the job I applied for, the report, my resume, and my cover letter. Based on this deep research report, what questions might I be asked? What gaps in my resume are there between my resume and the job description? What are some good questions I can ask an interviewer on a second or third interview?
This not only become your edge, but can show how you leverage AI tools to do more than just fix up emails. “I looked at your company, space, competitors, and trends, here’s where I see this aligns with the role. Is this how you see it too?”
