YouTube Research

The research problem nobody talks about

Most creators "research" by Googling their topic for 20 minutes, skimming 3 articles, and calling it done. The result? Videos that sound like every other video on the topic. If your sources are the same as everyone else's, your video will be too.

Great YouTube essays — the ones that make people say "I never thought about it that way" — come from research that goes wider and deeper than the obvious first-page results.

The 4-phase research process

This skill doesn't just collect information. It follows a deliberate path that mirrors how the best documentary researchers work.

Phase 1: Explore

A surface-level survey of the topic landscape. What's out there? What are people saying? What's the conventional wisdom? This phase is about breadth, not depth. You're mapping the territory before you dig.

Phase 2: Deep Dive

Now you go down the rabbit holes. That one study someone mentioned in passing? Read the actual paper. That historical parallel nobody's connecting? Follow the thread. This is where the original insights live — in the places most creators never bother to look.

Phase 3: Sources

This is the secret weapon. The skill actively seeks 6 different source types: academic papers, industry reports, expert interviews or talks, historical references, data sets, and contrarian perspectives. If your research brief only has blog posts and YouTube videos, it fails this phase.

Why does source diversity matter? Because unique sources create unique videos. When you pull from a research paper your audience has never seen, you become the person who found something new — not the person who summarized what's already out there.

Phase 4: Narrative

Research without a story is just a pile of facts. This phase finds the narrative thread hiding inside your research. What's the arc? Where's the surprise? What's the single idea that ties everything together?

The narrative phase is what turns a research document into a video outline. It identifies the "aha moment," the key tension, and the emotional journey your viewer will go on.

What you get

A structured research brief with categorized sources, key findings, narrative angles, and specific quotes or data points ready to be turned into a script. It's the difference between "I have some notes" and "I know exactly what this video is about."