Would you buy your own products?
I heard something yesterday that really got me thinking about this.
Someone called into A Way With Words–the National Public Radio show that discusses language, as in regional dialects, slang, word origins, grammar, and weird expressions–and asked about the use of "dog food" as a verb.
Apparently the term had its birth in the software/tech industry, and was used as a way of saying that software developers should actually use the products they were developing. Dog food (the verb) has evolved to mean "to use a product or service that was created by you."
That made me think about all of us who are out here on the Internet, creating services and products for the consumer market – - and it forced me to ask the question of myself: Do I dog food my own products and services? If I wasn’t writing my blog, or my books, or creating my videos, would I read me?
I don’t know why such a simple question has thrown me into such soul-searching because I work hard to create quality work. But it did . . . and I’m still pondering the question.
What do you think? Do you dog food your own products? Leave a comment and let me know.
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{ 6 comments }
Great question, and one I’ll be thinking about too. I don’t’ sell products but I do have a service business – and my question is whether each client gets the 110-percent he deserves. Thanks for the post.
Well crap. I wouldn’t read my own blog. Isn’t that pathetic!
Using your own products is a great way to test and would be silly not to use them. It is generally worth going out of your way to use the products even if you don\’t really need to, makes you think about alternate scenarios.
Of course, this is no replacement for QA.
Gr8 question to ponder on . hmmm would I read my own post …. well let me see ,i know some post are very handy for me so I find it intresting to read it again and again … but some are not that appealing .Hmmm says a lot on my blog right .
But good question that u gave all of us thinking .
Regards
Sudeep
Are you part of your own target market? You can sell sweets to children without eating them yourself.
If you think you are part of your target market it may well matter enough to want to change.
There is a fundamental point about a business meeting with and understanding its relationship with its customers. That’s harder than it sounds but if you have any kind of serious competition in your business sector, it can make the difference between your survival and going hungry.
What do your customers want? If they are buying a product or service, how much money have they got to spend? And what really matters to them in their purchase decision making? Once you understand that you can begin to create a real relationship between your business and your customers. It’s a two way street.
Of course it can be difficult and expensive to ask every potential customer what they want, so one way of dealing with it is just to do it in a short burst, so perhaps you won’t get the bookings or the sales from the ones where you asked them loads of questions but once better informed you can revert to your usual position of expert and (now knowing your new relationship position) you can rebuild and be stronger.
Well, we do create the best software to better the online community. It doesn’t necessarily have to be for you. I wouldn’t mind using my own software If I needed it though.
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