There's a testing approach called 'fishfooding' that more product teams are starting to use to gather better feedback earlier in development.
What is fishfooding?
As noted by Matt Rickard, "Fishfooding is a more nuanced version of dogfood for a much smaller selection of testers for a much earlier product."
Fishfooding is a play on the term "dogfooding," which refers to a company using its own products to test and improve them. However, fishfooding involves only a single team of employees, often the product development team, using the product in its early stages.
Why use fishfooding?
Fishfooding offers several key benefits:
- Early identification of critical issues: One of the most significant advantages is the ability to identify major problems sooner so you can address them earlier in the development cycle. However, remember that employees may have different hardware setups or technical know-how than your target audience. As a developer, you might have a faster computer or be more comfortable with workarounds that real users wouldn’t attempt. Factor in these differences when reviewing fishfooding feedback.
- Enhanced user experience: Fishfooding allows the team to understand the user experience from a firsthand perspective. This can lead to improvements in usability and functionality that might not have been identified easily through traditional testing methods.
- Team alignment: When everyone on the team uses the product, it creates a shared understanding and alignment around the product's goals and functionalities. This shared understanding helps teams build better products.
- Customer empathy: By using the product themselves, the team can better empathize with the end-users, leading to more user-centric decisions.
How to implement fishfooding
- Set clear goals: Define what you want to learn from fishfooding. This could be identifying bugs, improving usability, or gaining a better understanding of the user experience.
- Set clear expectations: Be direct about what you expect from your fishfooding team. Developers are often swamped with work, so they might not jump at the chance to do more testing. Ensure you have buy-in from your team on the level of effort you’re going to expect.
- Create a feedback system: Establish a system for collecting and analyzing feedback. Tools like Centercode work well for tests of any size and keep data centralized, organized, and prioritized (in the case of feedback).
- Iterate and improve: Use the feedback to make improvements to the product. Remember, the goal of fishfooding is not just to identify problems, but to solve them early.
- Celebrate Wins and Learn from Losses: After each fishfooding cycle, take the time to celebrate the improvements made and learn from the issues that were not resolved. This keeps the team motivated and helps them keep getting better.
💡 Pro Tip from Centercode: Keep your fishfood cycle short and focused (1 to 2 weeks is ideal). Longer tests risk losing engagement, especially from busy internal teams. Use structured surveys or targeted tasks to guide the kind of feedback you want.
The evolution of fishfooding at Google
If you're curious about how established tech companies utilize fishfooding, look no further than Google.
According to an article from 9to5Google, Google used a more focused internal test called “fishfood” during the early stages of Google+. This was a nod to the project's aquatic-themed codename, "Emerald Sea." The term has since been adopted by other teams within Google for their initial testing phases. In fact, fishfooding is said to be regularly used at Google for testing new features before they’re ready for broader internal testing.
But Google doesn't stop at fishfooding. They often introduce an additional "teamfood" stage, which serves as a bridge between fishfooding and the more expansive "dogfood" testing. This multi-stage approach allows Google to refine the product incrementally before it undergoes company-wide or even public testing.
Conclusion
Fishfooding works well for product development teams. By “eating their own fish food” early in the process, teams can uncover issues from a real user's perspective and address them sooner.
Fishfooding is just one phase in a successful customer validation lifecycle. At Centercode, we recommend starting with focused internal testing (fishfood), then scaling to broader dogfooding, and finally external beta testing. Each phase builds confidence, reduces risk, and helps launch better products.
Remember, the key to successful fishfooding is a commitment to user-centric design and a willingness to learn from feedback. So why not give it a try? Your product and your customers will thank you.
Want to see how structured fishfooding fits into your customer validation process? Book a demo below to explore how Centercode supports smarter pre-release decisions.
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