White space isn't always an unmet product need

When businesses talk about white space, there is normally a map.

I love a map. Two axes, competitors plotted neatly across it, and hopefully a lovely empty bit in the top right where we can build something enormous.

But I think some of the most interesting white space doesn't appear on a category map.

It's human.

What is everybody experiencing that nobody is acknowledging?

What is the category sanitising?

What are customers joking about with their friends but never seeing reflected by brands?

What is everybody slightly embarrassed to say?

What does everyone assume is simply “how it is” because nobody has offered another version?

This is one of the reasons I’m drawn to taboo-ish categories. Women’s health, sex, ageing, fertility, death. There can be a massive gap between the polished category conversation and the actual conversation people are having in kitchens, WhatsApp groups and at 2am on Reddit.

That gap is interesting.

And you don't necessarily fill it with a new product.

Sometimes it becomes a proposition. Sometimes a service. Sometimes a completely different tone of voice. Sometimes it changes how an existing product is experienced.

Sometimes it is simply the relief of a brand finally saying the thing everyone was thinking.

I think we can get so focused on finding unmet needs that we overlook unmet truths.

There can be a lot of commercial value sitting in those too.