Eat your own Dog food? How about

"Drink your own Champagne"

A friends post (http://bit.ly/2zZbVaj) this morning made me think about a phrase we in the tech industry have used since the 90's. "Eat your own dog food" Rumored to come from a '70s commercial where Lorne Greene claimed he fed his own dogs 'Alpo dog food'; later immortalized in an '88 memo from Microsoft's Paul Maritz.

"Eat your own dog food" is a call-out, to creators. We who create products/services/capabilities. A call-out to use our products, share the risk of our investments, be in the game. It is the only real way to understand the workings of our creations and to build empathy as a user. This is not only for software, but for any experience. This is more important now than ever (everything is driven by experience).

While I believe in the intent of the phrase, I never liked it.

One day I was touring a winery, and in the tasting room, one of the employees said "We not only make our Champagne, we drink our own Champagne".

Raising a glass- now, that's a phrase I can get behind.

Original Linkedin post: http://bit.ly/2QPPmz8