Eating our own dogfood

What does this mean ? I had 2 seperate email threads this week with people - where i used this term - scared them by the terminology i think..... It is a term that is used plenty at Microsoft - the mantra was always "don't expect customers to buy & use the product, if you won't even use it" - it also ensured that everyone could use the product, and give feedback + catch some bugs see this related piece On a recent visit, John Sheil of EVP, gave a great example of a company talking up their product, but yet didn't use it themselves at a critical communication point. As a general rule, i recommend that all your employees, investors, partners, etc, "dogfood" your product - it will cut out a lot of waffle + spoofing at various levels, and enhance your product plans with good honest feedback "Go Dogfood"