If you’ve been in the software industry for any length of time, you’ve probably heard the term “dogfooding.” Short for “eating your own dog food,” it refers to the practice of a company using its own products to validate quality, usability, and overall effectiveness. For product managers, dogfooding isn’t just a best practice - it’s a necessity.

What Is Dogfooding?

Dogfooding is when a company’s employees actively use their own software, often before it’s released to customers. The goal is to identify bugs, gather real-world feedback, and ensure that the product delivers on its promise. This practice helps bridge the gap between product teams and end users by emulating the way real users will use your app.

Why Dogfooding Matters for Product Managers

As a product manager, your job is to build software that solves real problems for users. While customer feedback and analytics provide valuable insights, firsthand experience with your own product offers an entirely different level of understanding. Here’s why you should embrace dogfooding:

• Experience the Product Like a User
  Using your own software forces you to see it from a customer’s perspective. You’ll notice pain points, clunky workflows, and missing features that might not surface through traditional testing or user feedback channels.

• Find Bugs Before Customers Do
  Nothing frustrates users more than discovering critical bugs in a new release. By dogfooding, you can catch issues early, reducing the number of frustrating experiences for your customers.

• Gain Empathy for Your Users
  When you use the product yourself, you develop a deeper sense of empathy for your users’ struggles and frustrations. This leads to better prioritization of features and bug fixes that have the biggest impact.

• Foster a Culture of Quality
  When an entire team, from engineers to executives, actively uses the product, there’s a greater collective sense of ownership and accountability for its quality.  This makes discussions more productive and ensures that feature enhancements and bug fixes align with real-world needs.

A Word of Caution

While dogfooding is powerful, it should complement—not replace—external user testing. Employees are often more tech-savvy than typical customers and may overlook usability issues that real users experience. Balance internal testing with real-world customer research to avoid bias.

Conclusion

For product managers, dogfooding is one of the most effective ways to improve software quality, enhance user empathy, and drive innovation. By using your own product regularly, you gain firsthand insight into the user experience, identify problems early, and foster a culture of excellence across your organization.

So, the next time you launch a new feature, ask yourself: Have you eaten your own dog food? If not, it’s time to grab a bowl and dig in.