Dogfood might sound gross for humans to consume, but it plays a vital and (dare I say) yummy role in product development. No, we’re not talking about swapping your sandwich with your furry friend. It’s a term I first learned during my early tech adventures. (And you know how I love to talk about our cluster* of terms and that's why we created the UX Lexicon!)

So, hold onto your stomachs and let’s dive into the world of "dogfooding", where we munch on our own creations, and discover how it can lead to remarkable products.

Why Dogfood?

So, why should we even bother with this dogfooding thing? Well, it can be a game-changer for organizations aiming to create exceptional products and services. Before we jump into some specific examples, here's why dogfooding is such a big deal:

• Identifying Bugs and Glitches: Imagine you’re developing a messaging app, and you’re the first to notice that messages aren’t delivered promptly. That’s the magic of dogfooding—finding those pesky bugs that often hide during testing.

• User Experience Enhancement: Walk a mile in your user’s digital shoes, and you’ll start understanding their needs and frustrations. This empathy leads to user experience enhancements and nifty product features (and also helps team's understand how difficult it is to design and develop flawless experiences).

• Quality Control: When you’re a user of your own creation, you’re naturally invested in making it better. This self-interest leads to maintaining a higher standard of quality, making your product more appetizing.​

The Art of Dogfooding in Action:

Here are some of my firsthand experiences with dogfooding inside well-known brands.

• Slack: Slack lives and breathes their own dog food! When I was at Slack we used the platform for everything, from research note-taking to project management, and more. It’s not just a tool; it’s a vital part of daily work there. Slack dogfooding ensures product quality and serves as a testament to its adoption in companies of all sizes. Even I had to double-check if I wasn’t chatting with a bot sometimes!

• Stripe: Stripe, Curiosity Tank’s trusty payment processor, is a master at dogfooding too. Stripe uses their payment processing platform for all transactions. It’s like being your own cashier, and it helps them deliver top-notch payment services. And don’t get me started on Stripe Radar, the fraud prevention tool that helps businesses detect and prevent fraudulent transactions. I’ve practically fallen in love with it. The broader Stripe organization uses Radar to safeguard their own transactions too.

• Facebook: When I worked with Facebook, we used their platform for everything. Facebook’s version of dogfooding can be seen through its adoption of Workplace. I understand they still use Workplace internally for onboarding, project collaboration, and more.​

Challenges in Dogfooding: Let’s Keep It Real

Of course, dogfooding isn’t all rainbows and unicorns. We have to balance our love for our products with a dose of reality. Sometimes, it’s a challenge, especially when our product is super niche, highly complex, contains confidential information, or at an early stage of development. And let's not forget the biases commonly associated with the babies we birth!​

The Irreplaceable Ingredient:

Dogfooding is an indispensable ingredient in the recipe for successful product development. It serves as a compass for issue detection, a catalyst for improving the user experience, and a cornerstone for maintaining elevated quality standards. When employees transform into both users and advocates of their own creations, it also cultivates trust, empathy, and a fortified commitment to crafting exceptional solutions. They are literally “putting their money where their mouth is.”

However, it’s crucial to remember that dogfooding is not a replacement for user research. In the first-hand scenarios I shared, these teams also conduct regular user research. Dogfooding complements this process, occurring before, during, and after these studies. It’s an ongoing commitment, just as user research should be.​

The key takeaway?

While dogfooding may be as discomforting and unappetizing as a bowl of actual dog food, especially in early stages of development, it remains an indispensable in the recipe for prosperous product development, ensuring that your offerings genuinely satisfy the appetites of your users.

Chow!

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