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I don't even know if a company necessarily needs to even hire people representative of the people that use their products. Some user testing, focus groups and great analytics to discover how a product might be used elsewhere should be sufficient to make sure a product meets the needs of people elsewhere. If they are doing a good job of meeting those needs then they will be successful. If they don't a competitor can be founded that does better understand and cater to that audience.

TBH, I find it positively weird to concern myself in any way about the identity of the people that make products I use. I am a human being after all and that is most important for the overwhelming majority of product decisions. Gender and body size may also be important depending on the product. For example, the only trait I wish more product designers understood and catered to is my height (I'm 6'5" (196cm)), but it's insane for me to demand a firm to employ someone my height or even design products for me when I'm well past the 99th percentile (I guess that makes me part of that 1%, right?). Accommodating people of my height may not be cost effective for most firms, especially if it raises the price enough to make them less competitive. If I can't use their product, then I won't and hopefully I'll find a product that caters specifically to me or solve my own problem.



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