VCD — Value-centered Design 4 — My theory of Extreme Cases

I started randomly calling these, my Extreme Cases. If I’m working on a new product or service, I find that we have trouble justifying investment on a product development, unless we find an Extreme Case to justify it. An Extreme Case can be defined by different variables. But these ones are the most common to me:

• Market Segmentation — (niche segment VS large segment)
• Price Margin — (big VS low margins)
• Environment — (Harsh VS soft environments)
• Demographics — very young people VS older folks

All the Extreme Cases I have been stumbling upon are usually on a harsh environment. The harsh environments can normally be found in the Mining industry, in the Oil&Gas industry or Marine industry (in these industries there are usually bigger value margins to be captured), but it can also be in remote areas of the world, like African or Australian back country disconnected from the grid, with difficult roads and/or far away from urban centers. Or finally some harsh environments in specific industrial settings with dust, or high/low temperatures, high humidity, etc.

An Extreme Use Case can also be characterized by small niche market segments that normally are under the radar of big market research firms and their reports, and we…