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Failure looking into a Think Tank niche

So I spent maybe a bit too long investigating think tanks. During the majority of May and June I was reading, meeting and attending events about think tanks. The reason for this was to see if there is a need for either consulting or an app to help out think tanks. My initial idea was that these institutions want to gather and share the data of their research into some sort of interactive web app or api. However I found out that there really is no need for me in the area.

The main problem think tanks care about is funding. Everything is focused around what they can get funding for. They also try very hard to not admit that this is their main activity, but rather a means to an end of their individual research. But to institution as a whole it is the main goal. Though outreach and impact are other said goals, they can't yet systematically track or plan for them.

So, assuming it really is their main goal, how do they find more funding? It happens in two ways institutional money (from foundations like MacArthur and the Carnegie Corporation) and individual donations. From what I gathered, both want greater say over the activities that they fund. This leads to an ad hoc planning in the think tanks. They will change what they research, who they have on staff, and the path forward based on what funders want. Most the control for the heads of these organizations lies on only ideological leanings (left, libertarian, etc) or big general ideas (foreign policy, poverty, immigration). Since discretionary spending is hard to come by, budgeting for company wide improvements such as building a platform to share the data is a major challenge.

There seems to be a movement for more focused and independent think tanks happening. I think the field is ripe for disruption in focused lean think tanks. The problem is there seems to be importance on having a big name in house to get influence over policy makers.

Either way it seems there is just not a need for me at the time in this field. Hopefully this information can be helpful to someone else with a different skill set.

Process
Since my wife works at a think tank I had some meetings with some of the research managers and got referred to others from there. I made the mistake of making the meetings too formal and also leading with my ideas. Over time I got better letting them talk more and myself listening to their problems.

I also went to some conferences, as this seems to be the most common way of various think tanks getting together. The On Think Tanks conference was by far the best in getting others to share their stories and was a great resource. Just chatting to people here provided me with more feedback than I ever got through the warm leads my wife gave me and I wasted.

Finally I got a few books on the field which was a mixed bag. Most dealt with the greater industry of non profits or were about the political shift for think tanks. It was not easy to get books about think tank management or how they function

Resources:

Conferences:

On Think Tanks Conference: https://onthinktanks.org/events/ottc2019dc/

CNAS/WaPo Conference: http://conference.cnas.org/

Books:

What Should Think Tanks Do?: A Strategic Guide to Policy Impact
This is by far the best book on the problem inside of think tanks. Namely the ad-hock approach to planning

The Fifth Estate: Think Tanks, Public Policy, and Governance
A Survey of the industry with great stats on number, budgets, and types of think tanks. A good intro into the industry

The Ideas Industry: How Pessimists, Partisans, and Plutocrats are Transforming the Marketplace of Ideas.
More about the decline of think tanks and the rise of individual trusted authorities.

The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you
A great book on how to do niche research. I was asking questions that resulting in people giving me compliments but not facts. Highly recommend

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