Dogfooding

Walk the Talk Technique: Dogfooding

There is a business concept called “eating your own dog food,” where staff tests and improves the companies products. Think of Apple employees using iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks. Or Microsoft employees using Microsoft Office and Outlook to conduct business. The hypothesis is that the products will improve and adapt more rapidly if they are intimately tied to the product. 

There is a bit of chicken and egg going on here. Many products start as internal solutions, something someone builds to make their day-to-day better. With some internal success, these products can be developed for external users. An oft-repeated piece of advice to entrepreneurs is to solve your own problems first, with the logic that at the very least, there’s a market of one.

This strategy absolutely applies to sustainability professionals. You should have hands-on experience with the systems you are changing. This is product research 101. Here are some places that this might show up:

• Recycling/Compost/Waste 
• Public Transit
• Changes in operations
• Tour sustainable construction sites to hear what works and what doesn’t
• First-hand experience with replacement products
• Food
• Habits

This is how you build trust and credibility. You should be testing, testing, testing.