eat one's own dog food

Definition

To use products or services one is selling internally, in order to understand their limitations.

Etymology

From dog food (“beta software”).

Example Sentences

• "AOL was signing up members at a furious rate, in part because it provided a better user experience than Juno, and we didn't understand that, because we didn't eat our own dog food."
• "As with most Microsoft product teams, we eat our own dog food."