The vast majority of homepages are incomprehensible—especially for SaaS.

Seriously, it can take a ton of brain power to figure out what they sell and to whom.

There’s a reason for this:

• Everyone on the team knows what the product is.
• They know what the internal jargon means.
• They don’t understand what it’s like to have zero context on the brand, the company, the competitive landscape, the industry, and the market as a whole.

Everyone on the team has intimate knowledge of 👆 those things.

Unfortunately, complicated jargon is often the most succinct way to describe a complex product.

“It’s the all-in-one AI hyper-personalization platform.”

I’m sure that perfectly describes it, but… HUH?

This same problem also exists for product decisions

You are a power user of your own product.

When you and your product team use your app (or product/service), you’re viewing it from a highly informed viewpoint:

• You’re very technically savvy.
• You know the product intimately.
• You know where everything is.
• You know everything it can and cannot do.

The vast majority of your current and potential users?

They don’t know any of that.

They’re fumbling around in the dark, trying to figure out what the tool does and how it can help them.

It’s not until they’ve reached some tipping point that they finally stick.

The Adjacent User Theory by Bangaly Kaba

What is an Adjacent User, you say?

Honestly, a lot of the explanations out there are confusing, so I’ll try to make it clear:

• Core Users are those for whom the product is initially built and who understand and engage with its core value without much modification or onboarding friction. These users align directly with the product's initial design and purpose.
• Adjacent Users are people interested in or could benefit from the product but don’t align perfectly with its current form or messaging. They may need a slight change in positioning, feature tweaks, or lower barriers to engage fully.

I’ll dive into examples next to help illustrate this.

Adjacent users are often accidentally ignored by teams that are too knowledgeable to understand their unique needs.

Instead, product teams focus on improving the experience for the already active and engaged core users—because they are core users.

If you want to unlock growth to a broader set of users (rather than just obsessed power users), you need to identify:

• Who these adjacent users are (user attributes and behavior)
• What exactly they’re getting hung up on
• What they are actively using and enjoying that you might not be prioritizing
• The thresholds/tipping points between inactive users and active users
  • We’ll cover tipping points in a future newsletter.

Examples of identifying adjacent user behavior

Here are some examples of companies identifying adjacent user behavior and expanding to make it more appealing to them:

• LinkedIn: LinkedIn started as a site for getting a job and hiring. Then, they noticed that a cohort of entrepreneurs and freelancers used it to build a personal brand. So, they added various features like Creator mode.
• Instagram: It started as a “check-in” app like Foursquare. They noticed people were more engaged with sharing photos of their outing—and using filters to make up for their terrible phone picture quality. So, they expanded that functionality.
• Slack: Initially marketed itself as a communication tool for developers. Then, they noticed people who worked tangentially with developers (designers, marketers, etc) were being invited in. So, they broadened the appeal.
• Airbnb: Started as a platform for renting air mattresses in people’s living rooms. People looking for affordable and unique accommodations beyond hotels were interested but hesitant about staying on air mattresses. So Airbnb expanded it to staying in people’s homes… regardless of mattress type.
• Dropbox: Dropbox initially focused on cloud storage for tech-savvy users who understood file synchronization. They found that people without technical expertise needed a simpler way to store and access files across devices. So they made it super simple.

If these companies had stuck with their initial set of core users and ignored all the adjacent users, they’d all be much smaller than they are today.

How Instacart identified potential adjacent users

To understand expansion opportunities, you first need to know exactly who your core users are.

Early on, Instagram knew that 75% of its core users were:

• Women
• Urban
• Located In Certain Cities
• Head of Household
• Had one or more kids
• Were more affluent and less price-sensitive
• Willing to spend an hour filling up their Instacart Order

Each one of these attributes has an opposite (or tangential) user attribute:

• Women → Men
• Urban → Suburban
• Cities → Other Cities
• Head of Household → Members of households
• >1 kid → Smaller Families, Couples, Singles
• More Affluent + Less Price Sensitive → More Price Sensitive
• Willingness to put effort into the cart → Less willingness to spend that time

Each of those is a potential adjacent user to your core user. Here is an excellent image from Reforge for the common attributes:

Actionable takeaways

Okay, so we know who adjacent users are and the importance of engaging them.

I'll leave you with some actionable takeaways on how to do something about it:

• Identify core attributes of core users and look at opposites/tangential: This will help you find potential adjacent user attributes.
• Look for use cases you didn’t initially design for: Are there users finding value in your product in unexpected ways or segments?
• Identify small barriers for similar users: What minor adjustments would allow these “near” users to engage fully? Is it messaging, ease of use, or feature tweaks?
• Talk to adjacent users: Identify and talk to people who are using the product in unexpected ways or who are outside the core audience.
• Expand incrementally: Experiment with language and features that address those near-miss users without alienating core users.
• Simplify onboarding: If the adjacent users are less savvy and engaged, simplify onboarding as much as possible.
• Speak clearly: Instead of your copy speaking just to tech-savvy nerds, make sure it speaks to less knowledgeable people.

Remember, your core user base is only so big. Ignoring the adjacent user could prevent you from unlocking the next stage of growth.

If you want to dive a lot deeper into the full nerdiness of Adjacent User Theory, check out Andrew Chen’s full article.

PS: Ads are also a great way to experiment with these new cohorts, as you can create lookalikes from your adjacent users or target people with attributes of the adjacent user.