Cup holders

Try selling a car with no cup holders to a family with kids. Imagine an automobile manufacturer thinking they're only in the business of providing transportation and therefore need not concern themselves with cup holders. It's not about the cup holder in and of itself, it's about the means to alleviate a challenge that appears while using your product. Whatever your product or service, are there seemingly extraneous but essential utilities that your customers expect from you? Furthermore, are there utilities that they don't yet expect from existing products that you could introduce? Cars didn't always come with pre-installed cup holders. But now that they do, it's expected.

Outsiders and asking why

Sometimes it takes an outsider to question the way things are done.

A famous story told by Zig Ziglar involves a newly married woman who cuts off the ends of a ham before baking it. Curious, the husband asks why. She explains that her mother always did so and that was the way it was to be done. Still curious, the husband asks his mother-in-law why she cuts the ends of the ham off before baking, and she too explained that it’s what her mother always did, and she assumed it was the proper way to do it. Now overwhelmed with curiosity, the husband phones grandma to ask her why she always cut the ends of the ham off. Grandmother explains that she always did so because it was the only way to make a ham fit in her small oven.

Are you asking why enough?

Simplicity and brevity

Creating something simple and brief often takes more effort, work, and time than creating something complicated and lengthy.