Level 4 · 3 to 4 hours

Research a business opportunity

You will research one narrow business opportunity as a careful student, not as someone collecting a confident paragraph. Choose a question you can actually test, such as whether a weekend service could work in your city, and write what would change your mind. Use Gemini to plan the search, list claims, and draft a short memo. Then open at least two sources outside Gemini yourself, such as a public page, a report, or a book you can cite. Mark each important claim as supported, uncertain, or still unchecked. A fluent answer is not a market study. The result is a one-page memo a skeptical friend could read, with sources you actually opened.

Outcomes

A narrow research question and a note on what evidence would change your mind.
A one-page memo that separates supported claims from uncertain and unchecked ones.
At least two sources you opened outside Gemini, named so a reader can find them.

Steps

1. Narrow the question
Write one question a memo can answer, not a wish to explore business in general. Name the customer, the offer, and the place or context you mean. Add the decision the memo is for, such as whether to spend another weekend testing the idea. Write what result would make you pause. Vague excitement is not a research question.
2. Plan the search before the draft
Ask Gemini for a search plan: what to look up, what kind of source would count, and which claims would be dangerous if invented. Do not accept market sizes, competitor revenues, or citations at this step. You are collecting questions and source types. Save that plan, then leave the chat and search like a person who can open a page.
3. Open at least two sources outside Gemini
Open at least two sources outside Gemini yourself. Use a public page, a report, a news article from a publisher you can name, or a book you can cite. Record the title, the publisher or author, the date if you can see one, and the exact claim you are taking. If you cannot open it, it is not a source yet.
4. Draft the memo with labels
Paste only the notes from sources you opened, plus your question. Ask for a one-page memo with each important claim marked supported, uncertain, or still unchecked. Supported means you opened a source that says it. Forbid new statistics and forbid citations you did not supply. The model may organize your notes. It may not upgrade a guess into a fact.
5. Read it like a skeptic
Read the memo once looking only for numbers, names, and causal claims. Any line you cannot trace to an opened source goes back to uncertain or still unchecked. Add a final line: what you would do next, and what you are not ready to claim. That ending is the point of the project. Confidence without a page you opened does not count.

Starter prompts

Search plan, not a verdict

I am researching one business opportunity. I will paste a single question, the customer, the offer, and the decision this memo must inform. Do not answer the question yet. Give me a search plan with five lookups, the kind of source that would count for each, and three claims that would be dangerous if someone invented them. Do not invent market sizes, competitor revenues, or citations. End with what evidence would weaken the idea, not only what would support it. Keep the plan as a checklist I can follow outside this chat.

Memo from opened sources

Draft a one-page memo from the research notes I paste after this instruction. Use only those notes. Structure it as Question, What I opened, Supported claims, Uncertain claims, Still unchecked, and What would change my mind. A claim is supported only if my notes tie it to a source I opened outside this chat. Do not add statistics, quotations, or citations I did not provide. If a heading has nothing, write None. End with one next step a careful person could take this week, and do not tell me the opportunity will succeed.

Checklist

The question names a customer, an offer, and the decision the memo informs.
I made a search plan before asking for a verdict.
I opened at least two sources outside Gemini and wrote down where they came from.
Every important claim is marked supported, uncertain, or still unchecked.
No statistic or citation appears that I did not take from a source I opened.
The memo ends with what would change my mind, not a promise of success.

Rubric

The question is narrow enough for one page.
At least two sources were opened outside Gemini, and a reader could find them from your notes.
Supported claims trace to those sources, and guesses are not dressed up as facts.
The ending says what you still do not know and what you will do next.