Eat one's own dog food

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To say that a company "eats its own dog food" means that it uses the products that it makes. For example, Microsoft emphasizes the use of its own software products inside the company. If a company were to use a competitor's products for its own day-to-day business, it could be disparaged for "not eating its own dog food"; this would seem to show a lack of confidence in its own wares, and would send a negative message to its customers.

The term originated in television commercials for the dog food Alpo. Actor Lorne Greene would tout the benefits of the dog food, and then would say it's so good that he feeds it to his own dogs. It became slang during the dot-com craze, and is used most commonly in reference to technology companies.

Using one's own products has four primary benefits:

The product's developers are familiar with using the products they develop.
The company's members have direct knowledge and experience with its products.
Users see that the company has confidence in its own products.
Technically savvy users in the company, with perhaps a very wide set of business requirements and deployments, are able to discover and report bugs in the products before they are released to the general public.

If taken to an extreme, a company's desire to eat its own dog food can turn into Not Invented Here syndrome, in which the company refuses to use any product which was not developed in-house.

In January 2006, the manager of Ford's Dearborn, Michigan plant announced only Ford- or subsidiary-built vehicles are allowed to park in the plant lots in an effort to encourage auto workers to drive the vehicles they manufacture.

In the development process at Mozilla, fine details needing extra polish for an imminent Netscape release would be tagged catfood, to indicate a dish fit for a fussier creature.

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