Company
Date Published
Author
Des Traynor
Word count
704
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

When building a product, if everyone involved is also using the product themselves, it's called dogfooding. This practice empowers good design decisions but has its downsides, such as neglecting critical tasks that are not frequently used by team members. Dogfooding can lead to outdated product tours, irrelevant documentation and screencasts, and poor onboarding communications. These issues can be difficult to notice until they become stale, causing lost customers who may unsubscribe or abandon the product altogether. To avoid these problems, it's essential to regularly evaluate and update the product, including its onboarding process, documentation, and communications, making "onboarding" a task that is evaluated every week.