31 articles found
Zwift isn't just a platform for cyclists and runners; it's a world built and refined by its own passionate employee 'Watopians.' By actively using and testing their virtual training grounds, workouts, and social features, the Zwift team ensures the platform evolves authentically, driven by the very experiences they aim to deliver to millions globally.
WHOOP isn't just a wearable for athletes and health-conscious individuals; it's a deeply ingrained part of the company's own culture and product development. By having its employees, from founder Will Ahmed to engineers and data scientists, live with and rigorously test the WHOOP strap and platform, the company continuously refines its cutting-edge physiological monitoring and personalized coaching.
WhatsApp's journey to becoming a global communication giant has been profoundly influenced by its own team using the app daily. From its foundational principles of simplicity and privacy to the development of new features, the practice of 'eating your own dogfood' at WhatsApp (and now Meta) plays a crucial role in refining the platform for its billions of users.
Wahoo Fitness doesn't just create innovative hardware and software for cyclists and endurance athletes; its own team of 'Wahooligans,' driven by a passion for performance, are the first and most critical users. This deep internal immersion in their own ecosystem—from KICKR trainers to ELEMNT computers and the Wahoo X platform—is fundamental to how they build better athletes, starting with themselves.
Supersapiens isn't just selling a continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system for athletes; its team, rooted in athletic experience and led by a founder with decades of personal CGM use, actively lives with the technology. This deep internal usage is fundamental to refining their product, ensuring it meets the real-world demands of endurance athletes seeking to optimize their performance.
Strava isn't just a platform for athletes; it's largely built and refined by them. The company's deeply ingrained culture of employees actively using their own product fuels innovation, shapes features, and ensures that the user experience resonates authentically with its global community.
Rakuten isn't just a collection of diverse businesses; it's a living laboratory where its own technologies, especially in AI and cloud-native telecom, are rigorously used and refined by its employees. This 'Rakuten on Rakuten' approach, from internal AI assistants to building a mobile network from scratch, is fundamental to its innovation and its offerings to the world.
Okta doesn't just sell identity and access management; it lives it. By deploying its own solutions internally—a practice often dubbed 'Okta on Okta'—the company rigorously tests, refines, and validates its platform in a real-world, enterprise-grade environment. This commitment to being Customer Zero is fundamental to its innovation and security-first culture.
Nintendo's magic isn't just for its players; it's a core part of its creation process. By having its own game development legends and teams act as the first, most demanding users of new hardware and tools, Nintendo 'plays its own game' to refine the unique experiences that have captivated generations.
For a company named Lovable, creating products that users genuinely adore is more than a mission—it's a daily practice. By immersively using their own suite of UX design, feedback, and sentiment analysis tools, Lovable's team ensures their platform for crafting delightful user experiences is, itself, truly lovable.
Klarna isn't just implementing AI; it's rebuilding its core around it. By championing the internal development and widespread employee use of AI-powered tools for everything from customer service to daily operations, Klarna is 'dogfooding' its way to becoming a uniquely efficient, AI-driven financial technology leader, with lessons that shape both its internal practices and external offerings.
Grafana Labs doesn't just create world-leading open source observability tools; they run their entire Grafana Cloud service on them. This deep, intrinsic practice of 'dogfooding' their own stack—Grafana, Loki, Mimir, and Tempo—is fundamental to their innovation, reliability, and understanding of real-world user needs.
GitLab isn't just a comprehensive DevSecOps platform for its customers; it's the very foundation upon which GitLab itself is built, operated, and scaled. This deep, pervasive practice of 'dogfooding'—or 'GitLab on GitLab'—is fundamental to its product development, remote-first culture, and its mission to empower everyone to contribute.
GitHub isn't just where the world builds software; it's where GitHub itself is built. By rigorously using its own platform—from Issues and Actions to Codespaces and Copilot—GitHub's own engineering teams act as 'customer zero,' ensuring their tools are powerful, intuitive, and truly developer-first.
Garmin's dominance in the running watch market isn't just built on cutting-edge technology; it's deeply rooted in a culture where employees are avid users of their own products. This internal feedback loop, from casual joggers to elite employee-athletes, plays a crucial role in refining features, ensuring accuracy, and pushing the boundaries of what a running watch can do.
For Basecamp (formerly 37signals), 'eating their own dogfood' isn't just a strategy—it's the company's entire operational and product development philosophy. By running every aspect of their business on Basecamp, they ensure their project management and team communication software is a direct reflection of their own well-honed, real-world needs.
Atlassian doesn't just sell Jira as a leading platform for project management and team collaboration; they are its own most comprehensive and critical user. This deep-rooted 'dogfooding' culture, where Atlassians across all departments use Jira and their full suite of tools daily, is fundamental to shaping products that empower millions of teams worldwide.
Airtable isn't just a platform for creating collaborative apps; it's the operational backbone for Airtable itself. By 'dogfooding' their own low-code/no-code environment for everything from project management to AI-driven workflows, Airtable employees are the first and most critical users, ensuring the tools they build truly empower anyone to create.
1Password isn't just a leading password manager for individuals and businesses; it's a critical tool used extensively by its own team. This deep internal reliance, a true 'dogfooding' philosophy, ensures that every feature, security measure, and user experience is rigorously tested and refined in a real-world, security-first environment, ultimately benefiting all users.
Sun Microsystems didn't just sell innovative technology; it was its own most demanding customer. From its global network running on Sun servers and Solaris to the internal use of Java and StarOffice, Sun's philosophy of 'eating its own dogfood' was a driving force behind its pioneering products and a key part of its complex legacy.
From its early days as a check-in app to its current standing as a B2B location intelligence powerhouse, Foursquare has leveraged its own technology and data to refine its offerings, showcasing a deep-rooted practice of building products its own teams actively use and improve.
From its iconic smartphones and BlackBerry Enterprise Server to its current focus on cybersecurity and IoT software, BlackBerry's journey has been deeply intertwined with using its own solutions. This internal adoption was key to its security prowess but also offers insights into navigating market shifts.
Toast isn't just selling restaurant technology; they're deeply immersed in it. From rigorous internal 'Test Modes' and 'Demo Labs' to high-pressure, real-world simulations, Toast actively utilizes its own platform to refine its POS, KDS, and a full suite of restaurant management tools. This piece explores how this commitment to experiencing their own solutions fuels product development and aims to keep them aligned with the dynamic needs of the hospitality world.
Coinbase doesn't just facilitate access to the cryptoeconomy; it actively builds upon and utilizes its own products, APIs, and infrastructure like the Base L2 network. This post explores how this deep internal engagement shapes its services, from AI innovations to open-sourcing security tools, and examines the inherent complexities and lessons learned when a company 'eats its own crypto dog food.'
TikTok's rapid rise and constant evolution suggest a dynamic development process. While ByteDance's internal testing practices for its flagship app aren't widely publicized, we explore the clues that point to how the company might 'eat its own dog food' to refine the TikTok experience.
Bumble's mission is to create a platform built on safety, kindness, and empowering women. But do its own employees use pre-release versions of the app to ensure it hits the mark? This post explores Bumble's approach to product refinement, internal testing, and the unique considerations of dogfooding a dating app.
Snapchat is renowned for its innovative and rapidly evolving features. A key, albeit secretive, part of its development process involves 'dogfooding' – where Snap employees rigorously use pre-release versions of the app. This post delves into how this internal testing, coupled with public betas and a unique company culture, shapes the Snapchat experience.
An exploration of how LinkedIn leverages its own vast technological infrastructure and employee usage to refine its platform, and the potential pitfalls of this deep internal reliance.
Google Search is the gateway to the internet for billions. But before new features or algorithm tweaks reach the public, they often go through rigorous internal testing by Google's own employees—a practice known as 'dogfooding.' This post explores how Google eats its own search dog food to refine the world's most popular search engine.
A deep dive into how Asana leverages its own work management platform for everything from product development and infrastructure management to internal communication and goal setting. Discover the patterns and practices that help them refine their product and the occasional insights gained when the system is stretched.
DoorDash encourages employees, from engineers to executives, to directly experience its platform through programs like WeDash. This post explores how this immersive approach, alongside dedicated internal tool development, aims to refine its services, and touches on the complexities and feedback surrounding such initiatives.