Future happens at the Fringes
A business I was consulting with was actively seeking new ways to grow for some time. And they were scanning their large customer bases to understand how to grow better. What was surprising to me is that even now, when we are in the midst of a storm . . .VUCA. . .BANI. . .RUPT - call it what you want - businesses still obsess with the "average" customer. You know the one, the persona that sits right in the middle of the bell curve, representing most of your market. The safe one.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth I’ve learned. As I moved into understanding future growth opportunities, it became quite evident that the middle of the bell curve is where industries often stagnate, and the Edge is where growth opportunities happen.
Unfortunately, most strategy discussions still tend to follow the largest customer, the most profitable segments, or the average user. . . becoming exceptionally good at defending Yesterday, but not at creating Tomorrow.
If you want to know how your industry will change in five years, looking at your best-selling product’s typical user is probably not your best bet if you plan to win. Start looking at the outliers. The ‘weird’ ones. The people using your product in ways you never intended for, or the ones the rest of the industry has written off as ‘too small’ or ‘too niche.’
LEGO is a perfect example of this with their high margin AFOL products. For decades, LEGO was strictly for kids. But during their near-death experience in the 2000s, when their Voice Of Customer trackers continued to indicate a growing community of adults who refused to grow up, LEGO finally embraced this "edge" behavior, even though they had ignored it for ages. By looking at the ‘weird’ adult consumers playing with bricks, they created a high margin product catering to consumers who could afford to pay way more than the average LEGO consumer buying a brick toy for their child . . . thus unlocking a new segment for themselves . . . and today, some of their Star Wars “kidult” products retail for almost Rs.2 Lakhs.
In fact, Innovation rarely whispers from the center. And nothing brings this to life as much as this story does. Back in 2009, Jim McKelvey was a glassblowing artist. He lost a $2,000 sale because he couldn't accept a credit card. At that time, the "average" merchant was a retail store with a landline and a massive POS system. The "outlier" was the traveling artist or the small-scale artisan - who didn't fit the bank's profile. And while the leading players ignored these "edges," Jim teamed up with Jack Dorsey to build Square - which didn't just help artists, but fundamentally shifted the power dynamic of the entire financial industry by looking at the people that banks said didn't matter. Millions of small businesses still continue to use Square instead of chat apps like WhatsApp because chat apps cannot manage physical PoS hardware, inventory, or tax reporting.
So, how does one spot these signals before everyone else does? In my experience, it starts with three simple habits:
Watch the workarounds. Customers often invent better ways of solving their problems before companies do
Listen to the "No's." The people who reject your category can teach you more than the ones who buy it
Study the Edges. Tomorrow's biggest opportunities usually arrive disguised as today's anomalies.
The next time you see a customer using your product or service in a way you never intended, follow it. It might just lead you to your company's next growth opportunity. The irony is that most organisations are designed to eliminate exceptions. Operationally, that's exactly what they should do. Strategically, however, it can be dangerous. Because today's outlier often becomes tomorrow's mainstream customer.
Which raises an important question . . . Most organisations believe they have a way to "listen" to customers. But are they really listening? Customer Speak is THE key, but Who you listen To and How you process that data are the two vital pieces.
And btw, I have found that competitive advantage often comes from asking customers what they want. It comes from understanding the unexpected behaviours that everyone else dismisses. By listening to the anomalies.
So, I'll leave you with one question - What's the most surprising customer behaviour you've noticed lately in your industry?
#Innovation #CustomerInsights #Strategy #CustomerExperience #FutureGrowth #VoC