Dogfooding is been a hot topic of debate and has become a matter of conversation in IT industries. What exactly does the term mean? Lot of people talk about dogfooding and it is not something that can be avoided. Actually, today people are conscious of what they buy and why they buy. So the companies have to be very sure of the services or products that they offer!
Dogfooding is a concept of how a company works to promote their products and let people buy them. It is quite helpful!
It might be an awful term but perfect too. The idea of dogfooding suits well to the UX design industries where the designers have to implement the designs on their own models before setting them out to the audience. Engagement means a lot for a credible business and dogfooding is a real proof of a company’s hard work.
What exactly is DogFooding?
You might have got a basic idea of the concept from the above information, now let us enlighten you about it on a detailed note.
Atlassian is a software development company that owns one of the software named JIRA. The best part of this company is that it uses its own software in-house to plan, track and release great software. This way of using your own products is a good idea to let people feel confident! Anyone using the same product as people can better tell about the quality and working of a particular product. It’s because when any issue arises, the management can feel the frustration too. Isn’t it a good marketing idea? Of, course yes. To attract more people towards your company or brand or shop, you have to show them that you also use that particular service or product.
It’s really better to apply the idea of dogfooding!
Who uses Dogfooding?
The popularity of dogfooding has been doing rounds when Microsoft and HP started using this concept. These companies make their employees use their products or services as the proper knowledge of something is always good to teach someone.
Companies that believe in dogfooding offer better customer service because they know what the problem with the product is when people contact them. Like you own an Apple phone and are facing some issues with the software! In that case, an Apple representative can guide you better if he himself is using the phone. And if not, you may not get proper guidance.
Why use Dogfooding?
Nothing much to say, I would say only one thing and i.e.
“Only the wearer know where the shoe pinches”
Before criticizing anyone, think from their perspective and then make any opinion. The same goes with the companies also! To be empathetic for users, the company has to think what users think and then only they can deliver a great service or product.
Just talking about a product do nothing good whereas using the product by yourself gives more experience. Doing something actively spark improvement and new ideas!
Now suppose you have a UX design website with wonderful features and many people are visiting the site. That’s all? Not really. Being an employee of the company or owning a company demands you to use the site so that modifications can be made, if necessary. Regular improvements and enhancements in the site’s features or designing are good to keep the user base growing.
People get bored with the same outlook the site so using the dogfooding idea here would prove fruitful. Forcing people to use something real crap that you also don’t like is a brand-breaker. Once they feel the product or service is not what they want, they will switch immediately. So isn’t it your duty to give them what is actually desired?
How to Use Dogfooding in UX Design?
Testing a prototype or exploring it is all what you can do in the UX design. And this is what we call dogfooding! You must know whether or not the product is working fine before presenting it in the real world. Let’s see how:
Testing
It is not at all a good idea of delivering a product to the users having so many bugs and issues. Instead of doing this, it would be a wise decision to test the application on your end. However, dogfooding will ensure that the users are getting a genuine set of services, free of glitches and errors.
Walk in the Users’ Shoes
Secondly, the users feel more connected with the product when they know the company is behind it. When you present to the world that your company stands by what they have done or what they will do, people feel good.
So, the next time you think of improving any product or service of your brand, go try it yourself and fix the issues. Then deliver it to the end user to earn life-long assets for the company.
