A good principle for coming up with new product innovation is to design for "the fringes," ie the most demanding edge cases.

This approach works because what's a minor annoyance for a normal person is often a major annoyance for a power user. Power users have high demands for the products they use, and those needs, when met with well-designed solutions, can often be marketed much more broadly.

Gym bros demand precise macros in convenient formats. It turns out everyone wants that. Gym bros are just the loudest and most extreme, but we all want better nutrition.

You see this in every domain — software, car design, apparel, architecture, etc.

A few of my favorite examples:

• Curb cuts, ie the slight ramp down where the sidewalk meets the street intersection. These were initially built for wheelchair users, but it turns out they make walking around easier for everyone. This example is so famous that these types of design affordances, ones developed for extreme users and ported to the mainstream, are often referred to as “curb cuts.”
• The OXO Good Grips brand was designed for old folks with arthritis, but it turns out we all want more ergonomic kitchenware.
• YouTube initially built captions for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. But it turns out captions make videos more enjoyable in a lot of cases — watching in public on a bus, train, or plane, learning a new language, or better comprehension in general.

Design for the fringes.

Have favorite examples of other”curb cuts?” Email me.

Thank you for reading.

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