The Hardest Part of Testing Your Own Product

Dogfooding is easy. Objectivity on your own product isn’t.

Full stop. It’s incredibly difficult to gather feedback on something you designed, especially when it’s a product you’ve poured time into and genuinely adore.

I haven't run beta sessions on one of my own products since I developed Ask Like A Pro. Running the current beta sessions has been eye-opening. I forgot the "constantly check myself" part.

What’s made it work: strong rapport with testers and a steady stream of feedback that’s actually constructive, specific, and actionable.

Even then, it’s not easy.

It’s hard to imagine how people without a research background handle this, separating signal from noise, knowing what to probe, what to ignore, when to push, and when to install that pregnant pause, shut up, and just listen.

It’s also why I’ve been so focused on building something that helps teams design better research upfront. Because this part shouldn’t be guesswork.

Hats off to the founders and builders figuring this out with the tools and talent they have.

There are many superpowers in this world. This is one of the real ones.

Stay the course. Keep dogfooding. Keep learning.