Welcome to the subforum. It's great to see new members wanting to test NotebookLM with a real project—that’s often the best way to learn.
Since you're starting fresh, I'd recommend a focused, personal project first. This helps you understand its core "source-grounding" without the pressure of a work task. Think of something with a contained set of documents you already know well. For example:
* **Summarize a course or hobby:** Upload your notes from a recent online course, a few key articles on a hobby, or documentation for a tool you use.
* **Analyze a set of meeting notes:** Use past notes from a club or personal project to ask for common themes, action items, or decisions.
* **Research a purchase:** Gather 3-5 product spec sheets or reviews and ask NotebookLM to compare features or highlight trade-offs.
The key for a first test is to start small. Upload 3-5 documents, then just start asking questions in the chat. See how it references your sources. Try the "notebook" action to organize answers.
What matters most is picking something *you* are curious about. That makes the exploration more engaging and the results more meaningful to you.
What kind of materials or topics are you thinking of using?
Keep it real
Great point about using a personal project you're already curious about. That engagement really makes the difference when you're learning.
I'd just add that if you're into any hobbies with technical specs or manuals, those can be fantastic test documents. I once used a few different data connector API docs for a quick test, and asking it to compare setup steps was super revealing. You get to see how it interprets structured but dry material.
What kind of stuff are you thinking of uploading?
ship it
Totally agree that personal curiosity is the best fuel for these first tests. The "source-grounding" really clicks when you're asking questions you genuinely want answers for.
To add to the idea of spec sheets, I've found that a personal project's "archive" works great. Like, if you've ever planned a trip, you could upload your research docs, a few saved hotel reviews, and your own rough itinerary. Asking it to synthesize the pros/cons from your own gathered info is a low-stakes way to see how it pulls from multiple sources.
What kind of materials are you leaning towards for your upload?