How to market research for automations ideas?

[u/Fine-Market9841]

Let's say you're a hobbyist coder who wants to start freelancing, let's say Fiverr or contra or Linkedin.

I want to build basically workflows/task automations or ai agents or internal tools or MVPs.

I want to build a portfolio.
How do you find good projects ideas (that actually make money) with no clients?

[u/_genego]

Create a personal website; even if its the most simple one, then start building case studies and open source whatever you're building. Post results from case studies on your website, Reddit and LinkedIn. I have been doing that for a while, and it got me quite some traction with people wanting to work with me on projects.

[u/Fine-Market9841 → u/_genego]

“….What ever your building…”

How’d you decide your first case study, or what was it?

[u/_genego → u/Fine-Market9841]

I just picked one of my interests at that time; real estate + AI, and built a MCP server around it. https://github.com/agentic-ops/real-estate-mcp then the next one I build was a legal workflow MCP server: https://edwin.genego.io/agent-systems/legal/ . Just pick something that is serious, solves some issues or provides efficiency gains. Back then when I wrote these, the concept of MCP was fairly fresh, so I got a tons of inbound questions, concerns and feedback; and also some work.

[u/Fine-Market9841 → u/_genego]

Thanks friend this is rly useful

[u/Odd-Impress-985]

I'd look for problems people are already solving manually. Search Reddit/LinkedIn for "how do you automate X" or "I'm wasting time doing X" and build around those. A real painful workflow makes a much stronger protfolio piexe than a random AI agent.

[u/que_dia_23 → u/Odd-Impress-985]

I'd add one more filter: look for evidence that there's actually money behind the problem. If people are already paying VAs, agencies, or freelancers to do something manually, that's a pretty strong signal that an automation could be valuable

[u/Odd-Impress-985 → u/que_dia_23]

That's a really good filter. If someone is already paying a VA or freelancer to handle it, there's probably a real pain point there instead of just a "cool automation" idea.

[u/bhoomil_dayani]

This is actually a great way to find ideas. I’d probably look at Fiverr/Contra jobs, find repetitive problems people are already paying to solve, and build small versions of those as portfolio projects. Much better than building random AI tools and hoping someone needs them.

[u/Foreign_Aid]

I have to many ideas and too little time, im from Poland

[u/Fine-Market9841 → u/Foreign_Aid]

I actually don’t want idea.

I want to improve my market research find ideas that actually work.

[u/Reasonable_Top_6841]

I honestly keep thinking of ideas to automate my work and still finding myself with a pen and paper lol

[u/Total-Mention9032]

One thing that works pretty well for me is the new ChatGPT desktop app. Also, the Claude Code tab in the Claude desktop app.

Just write the prompt "use @ browser" (no spaces between @ and browser), and ask it to research.

Use the 5.6 Sol model with High thinking.

Just describe what you want to build, and it'll fetch the exact pain points your target customers are already saying online.

[u/Fine-Market9841 → u/Total-Mention9032]

And if you don’t know what to build?

[u/Total-Mention9032 → u/Fine-Market9841]

Use it for market research

[u/CraftedInCork]

I built an automated background scanner using Python, Supabase, and Gemini Flash that monitors community feeds (subreddits, government RSS, and industry portals) to detect real-time workflow friction, manual admin pain points, and unserved local SaaS opportunities. It sends me a push telegram notification with the pain point, solution and monetisation model for me then to develop