Bored of eating your own dogfood? Try smelling your own farts

Dogfooding vs “Smelling Your Own Farts”

• Dogfooding is framed as a once-valuable “UX gyroscope” that aligned incentives between users and builders, but is seen as fading as large firms face less competition.
• Several comments stress that real dogfooding means using the product in its worst, in-development state and on “difficult” journeys (support, billing), not just in its happy path.
• “Smell your own farts” is interpreted as extending dogfooding to all the unpleasant parts of the experience, especially customer service.
• Some argue this is essential systems thinking: leaders must directly observe real customer interactions to know how to intervene.

Customer Support, IVRs, and Dark Patterns

• Many share horror stories of IVR mazes, misleading prompts, circular call routing, and upselling during outages.
• There’s consensus that bad self-service UX drives call volume and that sites often withhold simple, crucial information.
• Call-center staff are generally viewed sympathetically; frustration is directed at corporate policies and metrics.
• Tools that reduce waiting (e.g., automated hold features) are praised, but overall phone trees are called “dark pattern minefields.”

Large Organizations, Bureaucracy, and Disconnected Leadership

• Multiple anecdotes describe leaders and product managers who have never used their own products or spoken to front-line users.
• Meetings can devolve into slide-deck theatre, with anxiety when someone tries to show the real product.
• Layers of management, metrics worship, and turf battles (e.g., between teams or departments) are seen as blocking fixes to obvious problems.
• Some argue executives should periodically bypass filters, talk to workers and customers, and try the product themselves; others note incentives and sheer scale often prevent this.

Small vs Large Companies and Accountability

• Commenters see small, motivated teams as more likely to “care” because they can directly see customer impact.
• In larger orgs, individuals own tiny slices, making it hard to feel responsible for end-to-end experience.
• Even in smaller firms, engineering teams may prioritize roadmaps over critical quality issues, offloading pain to support and customers.

Language, Metaphors, and the Article’s Framing

• Debate over “dogfood” vs “champagne”: some prefer the gritty connotation (empathy via discomfort), others the aspirational framing.
• “Smelling your own farts” is criticized because it already means self-congratulation/delusion, conflicting with the intended message.
• A few dislike the crassness of the title; others think memorability outweighs taste concerns.
• Some point out the author’s own site UX as ironic given the call for better customer experiences.