Venture capitalist Stu Phillips of Ridgelift Ventures writes about companies needing to “eat their own dog food” when it comes to using their products. He makes the point that they’ll understand product issues and fix them faster if they do.
While I agree, I think it’s especially important that companies eat the competitors’ dog food too! Most of our clients are involved in crowded markets where customers have a multitude of choice. And yet, I see technology companies using ONLY their own products internally.
Does HP use Sun servers with Solaris? Does Apple use Nokia phones? Does Cisco use Juniper switches? Does Oracle use SAP? Does Microsoft use web-based office productivity software?
Imagine if they did. Imagine what the marketing and engineering people would learn. They would learn the good, the bad and the ugly, not just about their competitors’ products, but more importantly, they’d learn the good, the bad and the ugly about their own products when they contrast them to competitive offerings.
Too many companies “drink their own kool-aid” and/or eat their own dog food so much that they actually believe they understand their products from a customer’s perspective inside an incredibly competitive world.
Worst case, if you can’t make it happen inside your company, hire a firm (could be Crimson, could be other companies) to help you get that real experience, insight and knowledge you crave about how your competitors’ products are really doing.
Glenn, thanks for a thought-provoking post. It’s always been seen as loyal to love and use your own products (years ago as a GTE employee I was very impressed to see a presentation from the Sylvania light bulb group in which the climax was them stomping a GE bulb on stage).
But you bring up a very good point. In today’s ultra-competitive environment, a company must understand both the strengths and weaknesses of its own products and those of its competitors. How better to learn that than by using the products and gaining expertise in them?
To me, it’s an extension of valuing dissent. Companies must get past the loyalty question and encourage the use of competitive products to build a 3-dimensional picture of itself in the marketplace.
Until then, customers will continue to make puzzling choices, selecting what seems to be an inferior competitor as compared to “our” market-leading product.
Regards, John