Why We Should Care About the 2% of Users

Bilal Akpinar
October 13, 2025
Thoughts
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Most companies focus on creating products that work perfectly for the majority — the 98% of users who represent their main audience. It makes sense: if most people are happy, the product is considered a success.

But what about the last 2% even 1%? The small group of users who face problems others don’t? In today’s connected world, ignoring them can turn into a big mistake.

Why the 2% Matters

Most people who are happy with a product don’t usually write about it. They just use it and move on. But people who face problems — even small ones — are much more likely to speak up. They write reviews, post on forums, share on social media, and sometimes their comments reach thousands of people.

That’s how a small issue faced by a small group can end up hurting your product’s reputation. We see this every day on the App Store or e-commerce sites. A product may have sold thousands of times, but most of the comments come from people who had a bad experience. That brings the rating down and affects how everyone else sees it.

Research supports this too. A study by Colorado State University found that negative reviews influence people more strongly than positive ones. Another study showed that dissatisfied users are far more likely to leave feedback than happy ones — a bias that makes products look worse than they really are [source].

The Cost of Ignoring Edge Cases

Many companies realise the problem too late. After launch, they spend time fixing reviews, republishing apps, or trying to rebuild their reputation. But once the damage is done, it’s very hard to recover.

As Luke Wroblewski said, edge cases might seem rare, but they often expose the real weaknesses in a product’s design [source]. Ignoring them means ignoring the people who can most easily harm your brand’s image — not because they want to, but because they’re frustrated and feel unheard.

How to Design for the 2%

Designing for that small group doesn’t mean waiting forever to launch the perfect product. It’s about doing a bit more homework before and after the launch — and keeping empathy in mind.

Here are a few things that help:

Do diverse user research: Don’t only test your app on ideal users. Include people with different phones, internet speeds, or accessibility needs.
Run usability tests: Watch how real people interact with the product. The small moments of confusion often reveal the biggest insights [source].
Prototype for exceptions: As UXPin mentions, it’s cheaper to find edge-case problems during prototyping than after release [source].
Collect feedback early: Encourage early users to report issues privately before they go public.
Keep improving: You don’t need a perfect product — you just need to show users that you care and act fast.

Final Thoughts

Designing for the last 2% isn’t about chasing perfection. It’s about empathy and awareness. Every user matters — even the ones who struggle. Especially them. Because those are the people who will talk about your product, and what they say can shape how the rest of the world sees it.

By caring about those small cases early, we don’t just make better apps or websites — we build trust. And trust, once earned, is the most powerful design element of all.