The subtler flavors of dogfooding

_posts/2021-10-17-dogfooding-subtler-flavors.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: The subtler flavors of dogfooding
+abstract: Dogfooding is an often-cited best practice, but is it always the best path forward? Here are some cases where it can cause trouble.
+---
+
+Dogfooding.
+
+[Wikipedia defines it as](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_your_own_dog_food) the practice of using one's own products or services.
+
+It's often held up as a best practice in organizations. It makes great sense intuitively. If we're making the best product for our customers, _of course_ it should also be the best product for us when we have similar needs. What's more, we can learn about the shortcomings of our product through implementing it as a solution within our own company. When we have trouble, we can turn the pain points directly into feature plans and our customers might never have to experience the same difficulties.
+
+It's win-win right?
+
+Often it is, and there's a ton of value that can come from it. But it's important to recognize that it can also slow progress. Here's a few example scenarios I've seen play out where this can be the case.
+
+## "It's on our roadmap"
+
+## Cyclical dependencies, on the org level