But what exactly does it mean, and where did it come from? Like dog food itself, its origins and precise composition are not entirely clear. But theories abound, and, to borrow some other current buzz phrases, it’s worthwhile to “drill down” on them and study them at a “granular level.” After all, jargon is a means of instantly signaling to colleagues and clients that you’re keeping up with a world that’s moving at Internet speed. The jargon cycle is so short that Microsoft even runs a regular column in its in-house newsletter explaining the latest jargon (one recent entry: “work judo”–the art of deflecting an assignment to someone else without appearing to be ducking work). Jargon is also useful, says Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip, because it makes empty thoughts sound authoritative. Adams adds: “It’s better to say, ‘I proactively focused my mental resources on a client-focused opportunity space,’ as opposed to, ‘My brain came up with an idea so I guess I’m not dead’.”
So whose brain came up with “eating your own dog food’?’ Gordon Bell, a former Digital Equipment Corp. whiz who’s now a senior researcher at Microsoft, gets credit from colleagues for coining the phrase. The expression, Bell explains, refers to a company using its software programs or products in their early stages, even if the process is somewhat disagreeable, as a way of testing them to improve quality. “We have to eat our own dog food to see if we get sick, find out how it tastes,” he adds.
Bell figures he simply updated an old marketing expression. And yes, Al Ries, a marketing consultant, says the phrase “Will the dogs eat the dog food?” probably originated in discussions about dog-food advertisements. The phrase came to be used for any situation in which a product was being sold to people who would not necessarily use it themselves. But the expression has long since slipped its leash, and is now being used in all sorts of contexts where it probably doesn’t belong. The original dog-food phrase is now often used in discussions of whether consumers will buy a certain product. For ex-ample, John Rock, the former manager of GM’s Oldsmobile division, was quoted last year saying, “We knew we would hit rock bottom in ‘97, and we would find out whether the dogs would eat the dog food in ‘98.” Problem here, of course, is that dogs aren’t finicky at all. “Cats would be a better analogy,” suggests Bell.
The “eating their own dog food” phrase has been used elsewhere to describe day traders buying up shares of online brokerages. Still others have used it to suggest that someone has an intimate knowledge of what they’re selling, like a dog-food salesman who is so taken with his product’s quality that he has sampled it himself.
Whatever the usage, dog-food references aren’t particularly flattering. In Silicon Valley, where people talk endlessly about eating their own dog food, doesn’t that, by definition, make their customers dogs? Paul Saffo, a director of the Institute for the Future in Menlo Park and a longtime observer of the Valley’s culture, says the computer industry historically has not shown consumers the greatest respect. “It’s one of two industries that refers to its customers as users, and the other one is in Colombia,” he says. “It’s typical of the Silicon Valley culture to adopt an insulting term for something that has good intentions.”
Maybe we should forgive the lack of manners, though. After all, as the primary engine of American capitalism these days, Silicon Valley is fiercely competitive, ruthlessly Darwinian, a dog eat…
