Its interesting that you ask this.
One part of the problem is the consultancy model of the profession, so we focus solely on a specific project or problem. While this habit is excellent for focus, its not so great when it comes to doing inspirational work (THAT’S NOT TO SAY THAT THIS MODEL DOES NOT CREATE INSPIRATIONAL WORK). At the end of the day, ‘niche’ is a very subjective domain. Hence its fundamentally your call to define your ‘niche’.
Secondly, too many people read too little. Oscar Wilde once said, “Its what you read when you don’t have to that defines who you are when you can’t help it.” It doesn’t have to just books on design. It could be anything. For example it could be, what would be your imagination of Jorge Luis Borges’ famed Library of Babel or how would you apply Systems + Design Thinking to conceptualise Robert Nozick’s Pleasure Machine ? Inspiration to stimulate our best thoughts are limitless; its just that we have to go looking for it.
And most crucially, “don’t be boring”. The only cure to this will probably be an expansive mindset to see problems that others don’t. The first step to doing great work is to ask the right questions. If you ask the right questions and follow through there’s no doubt that you’d do the kind of work that’d do you proud.
Have fun.