Early last month an entrepreneur was taking me through one of his startup challenges. After listening for a few minutes, it was clear that he was optimizing too much for an edge case — a scenario that happens infrequently — and not optimizing for the greater good. Entrepreneurs are known to spend 10 years of their life trying to solve a problem that’ll save them 10 minutes.
Here are a few questions to ask regarding potential edge case optimization:
- How does this work help the mission of the business?
- Does this apply to the majority of our best-fit customers?
- Where else could our time be spent?
- What makes this edge case so important?
Beware edge case optimization. Entrepreneurs love to innovate, but need to do it where it counts.
What else? What are some more thoughts on edge case optimization?
David Cummings on Startups 
I cannot help but ask for examples of edge case optimization and perhaps this example you refer to here.