{"id":2686,"date":"2020-09-09T08:00:17","date_gmt":"2020-09-09T12:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog3.canny.io\/wordpress\/?p=2686"},"modified":"2024-03-05T16:52:10","modified_gmt":"2024-03-05T21:52:10","slug":"should-you-use-your-own-product","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canny.io\/blog\/should-you-use-your-own-product\/","title":{"rendered":"Should you use your own product?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Within your business, do you use your own product?<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t, you should.<\/p>\n

Call it \u201cdogfooding,\u201d call it \u201cdrinking your own champagne\u201d (…I\u2019ll go with the latter, but that\u2019s just me).<\/p>\n

Whatever you call it, it\u2019s valuable to have experience with your own tool as a user, not just a maker.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re the ones building<\/em> it\u2014why does it matter if we use our product?<\/h2>\n

Ultimately: You shouldn\u2019t rely only<\/em> on your customers to tell you what it\u2019s like to use your product.<\/p>\n

The more you can be in the weeds, using it regularly, and experiencing it as a customer, the better.<\/p>\n

Using your product helps build empathy<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s about putting yourself in your customer\u2019s shoes.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll be able to see exactly what it\u2019s like to use your product the way that your users do.<\/p>\n

\u201cA big thing for us, as product people, is being able to empathize with our customers. We are so much more in tune with our customers’ needs since we use Canny ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

-Sarah, Canny founder + product<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At its heart, using your own tool makes you more empathetic to your customers.<\/p>\n

But what if it doesn\u2019t make sense to use our own tool?<\/h3>\n

Before we dive more into why it\u2019s important to use your own product, there\u2019s a caveat:<\/p>\n

Not all tools or products will be able<\/em> to be used internally.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m speaking from the perspective of a tool like Canny, which we can (and do) use ourselves<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When I was at Palo Alto Software<\/a>, we did all of our business planning in LivePlan<\/a>\u2014the business planning tool and dashboard we built.<\/p>\n

But, realistically, not all businesses can use their tool.<\/p>\n

For example, a tool like Gusto<\/a> won\u2019t be able to be used by the whole company, but a small subset of the company (their HR\/employee success team) will be able to use it, but the product team won\u2019t be using it. And, some companies can’t use their tool at all.<\/p>\n

In this case, relying on very close communication with your user base is the next best thing.<\/p>\n

Collecting case studies<\/a>, user interviews, and investing heavily into user feedback (shameless plug) will serve you well, and help bridge that gap.<\/p>\n

\"Canny<\/a><\/span>