The Blind Spot in Dog-Fooding: Lessons from Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn

Adil Aijaz
1 min read4 days ago

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It’s a rare example of a founder confidently using complementary products, rather than just their own.

In contrast, Zuckerberg doesn’t publicly use Twitter. He’s a Threads super-user

This behavior reflects a broader pattern: founders “dog-food” their products and encourage employees to do the same. There’s value in this commitment

But sometimes, the writing is on the wall.

No amount of dog-fooding changed the fact that:

  • Sales reps at Salesforce preferred Slack to Chatter
  • Amazonians used the iPhone, not Fire Phone
  • Googlers used Twitter, not Google+
  • Yahoo! engineers searched on Google

These moments force a choice: adapt or double down.

The best adapt quickly and decisively:

  • Benioff adapted, he paid big $$$ for Slack
  • Bezos shelved Fire Phone within a year

The rest let inertia carry them:

  • Google ran Google+ for 8 years before shelving it
  • Yahoo! bled money on search until it finally partnered with Bing.

The lesson?

Have the self-awareness of Reid Hoffman to understand your product’s purpose. If not, be decisive like Benioff or Bezos. Else, be ready to bleed money.

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Adil Aijaz
Adil Aijaz

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