> OrangeSlyce, my last startup, developed a marketplace where small business owners could browse and hire local graphic design students for freelance projects. I did not regularly use OrangeSlyce, ... Had these problems been spotted earlier, maybe OrangeSlyce would have ended up a different and more successful service.
> From this comes our first surprising lesson: Dogfooding may be the ultimate form of customer feedback. Surveys, GetSatisfaction/Uservoice, usage statistics – all fine ways to peer into people's heads. But using your own product is like mind-melding with a motivated user. It’s instant feedback.
Dogfooding is usually seen as evidence that someone believes in their product. But as this article shows, the more practical part of dogfooding is that the product has benefited from some of the best possible feedback. It's better stewardship.
> From this comes our first surprising lesson: Dogfooding may be the ultimate form of customer feedback. Surveys, GetSatisfaction/Uservoice, usage statistics – all fine ways to peer into people's heads. But using your own product is like mind-melding with a motivated user. It’s instant feedback.
Dogfooding is usually seen as evidence that someone believes in their product. But as this article shows, the more practical part of dogfooding is that the product has benefited from some of the best possible feedback. It's better stewardship.