By Marty Cagan · svpg.com · LinkedIn
Marty Cagan revisits the Silicon Valley slogan "we eat our own dog food," which he once repeated at Netscape, and now calls it meaningless. Using your own product is just another form of QA, not something to brag about. The deeper problem is that product builders assume customers think and behave like themselves. Employees are paid to use internal tools, have more tolerance for friction, and can simply ask the developers for help, while customers cannot. Early adopters also differ from mainstream target users. The essay concludes that testing ideas with real target customers is essential, and that a product must not only be usable but actually chosen.
01Key takeaways
- Treat using your own product as basic QA, not as proof of market fit.
- Don't assume customers think, feel, or tolerate friction the way your team does.
- Remember that employees are paid to persevere with internal tools, while customers are not.
- Recognize that early adopter motivations differ from mainstream target users; use personas to make this explicit.
- Test ideas and prototypes with real target customers, and expect their reactions to surprise you.
- Aim for products customers choose to use, not just products they can figure out.
02Key sections
- Rethinking the Slogan
- Cagan admits he once celebrated using one's own products, but argues it is simply a basic quality check, not a selling point. A product that couldn't be used internally would be the real concern.
- The Real Problem: Assuming Users Are Like Us
- Tech teams, especially in Silicon Valley, tend to believe customers are much more like themselves than they are. Even niche markets like developer tools are less similar than people assume.
- Why Employees Are Not Customers
- Employees are paid to use the product, have a blank check to make it work, and can tolerate far more friction than customers who face the same struggles on their own budget and time.
- Early Adopters Skew Our View
- People who build tech tend to be early adopters, so their motivations differ from those of mainstream target customers, which is why personas help make this gap visible.
- Test With Real Customers
- Cagan concludes that teams must test ideas with real target users, and that a product must earn voluntary choice, not merely be learnable.
03From the post
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04Frameworks mentioned
Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.