Definition — What is a Dogfooding?

In modern IT terminology "Dogfooding" or “Eating your own dog food” is a software practice where a company uses its own product. The term is sometimes shortened simply to "dog food" and it originates from a 1970s commercial where actor Lorne Greene mentioned feeding Alpo Dog Food to his dogs. Another source comes from the president of Kal Kan Dog Food, who allegedly ate a can of his company’s dog food at shareholders’ meetings. This term returned in 1988 by Paul Maritz, a Microsoft employee,  who encouraged his staff to increase their internal usage of the company’s product.

Today, dogfooding is a widely adopted best practice across many industries, with software development leading the path. The theory behind dogfooding is, if you eat your own dog food, you're more motivated to add features and keep the quality high since poor software will directly impact your own happiness.

Dogfooding does a great job of uncovering issues in your software code and UX. It can also give you a better sense of which other ways the product can be used besides its original purpose, this is just an added benefit rather than the main goal. The real goal is to put yourself in your users’ shoes and see things from their perspective, building your empathy with your users and increasing your understanding of their needs and pain points. It’s priceless to be able to connect with people that use your software on a daily basis and understand their needs and gripes.