🪞 Do you use your own product every day?
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For us, RunEvr is the environment where we actually build RunEvr =)
For me, that’s one of the most beautiful parts of having a product - using it while continuing to build and improve it.
We do our everyday calls there, share ideas, chat, store files, do reviews, complete tasks…
And all of this is happening inside the same environment we’re building to help other teams do exactly that!
Kind of a mirror within a mirror =D
So I’m curious:
Do you use your own product every day?
Or do you mostly interact with it through the code while building it for further use, or for only users use?
Would love to hear how it works for you
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I am on LinkedIn every single day, having an audience of 11k people. I do not wanna have my account restricted and the only way to have an overview of my LinkedIn engagement is to have SafeLimit installed.
So yes, I use it every second of my life I am on the platform :D
@busmark_w_nika That’s lovely! Do you do changes from your own experience? Once you feel something isn’t that convenient, do you rush to change it? =)
@adana For now, I only changed something when LinkedIn changed something in their code, because my tool is dependent on their code. But I can see my results. I am not restricted anymore :D
@busmark_w_nika That’s the goal - to see the real result =)
I think using your own product daily is one of the best ways to find the small things that need fixing you notice problem much faster when you use it yourself
@shivam_kushwaha16 Yes! And what's in your case? Do you use your product?
@adana I don’t have my own product right now but I’m curious to see what others are building and try some new tools
@shivam_kushwaha16 That's great ! And do you have some early ideas?
@adana Not yet honestly I am mostly busy with my agency work where I focus on personal branding and marketing on linkdin I am quite active on Product Hunt though and I am learning a lot from networking and seeing what other founders are building Hopefully I will build something of my own soon
“mirror within a mirror” part is interesting.
you're basically using the same tool while figuring out how to make it better.
@matthewbaker Read your About section. It’s interesting - go-to-market leader with 20 years of experience.. What differences do you see in recent years? Has your field changed somehow? Are the strategies changing a lot?
@adana yes, every day! Most of my products started because I got tired of paying for something, so I'm the first user by default. Trello was the big one. Once our team passed a certain size the bill jumped all at once, so now we're on Pinateca. And every web service I use opens through Kagemusha. When something bugs me, I'm usually the one who notices it first lol
@hisashispace That’s great! That’s an irreplaceable feeling - using something you’ve built yourself.. And even better when you see many people doing the same... not even talking about people paying for it =D
@adana of course it's nice when people pay. But for me it's not really about the money, it's that people liked the thing I put out there enough to say so. The freelance marketplace I've run for 22 years doesn't even take a commission, it runs on ads and some paid members.
Around 15 years ago, when the internet wasn't that great and nobody said "digital nomad" yet, I was working in a cafe in Tokyo and overheard the women at the next table recommending my service to each other. Honestly that made me happier than being praised to my face ☺️
Yes, I use Pidgy every day. Honestly it's the best way to test your own product. A lot of our choices came from our own usage.But sometimes we have to remind each other not to get tunnel vision and build it only for us, so it's a two-way street.
In the end, why would you sell something you wouldn't use yourself?
@emma_lagast Thanks for sharing your experience.
The tunnel vision problem exists, you’re right =)
I meant everyday usage - where your product helps you build your product.
I do not necessarily “use" my product everyday; however, it is “in use” daily. I also test my product daily, but it is costly and I am bootstrapped, so depending on the model, I usually run 3 generations of each tier, some for business use and others for testing purposes.
@jason013 What is your product about? Interesting to know =)
@adana Yes, it is essentially a governed content generation platform. I am building it to be more geared toward regulated industries (Legal, Healthcare, Fintech, etc.). It is live, but I will be launching on PH soon. WriterzRoom
@jason013 great! If you'll need any help or advise with upcoming launch, contact me on LinkedIn. Good luck =)
@adana Will do, thank you!
Yes, definitely. For us, using our own product while building it is a must. It helps a lot with testing and also makes it easier to spot the small things that can make the experience simpler.
@harsh2vyas Good ! What kind of product is yours? How do you use it in your everyday routine?
yeah, constantly, in a slightly weird way. Dial gives agents a real phone number, so every time we add a new call flow internally we end up calling our own agents to test it before anyone else does. it's a strange kind of dogfooding, i'm both the developer and the first annoyed user when a call drops or the agent says something dumb. the upside is bugs that would take a week to surface from support tickets show up in minutes because we're the ones dialing in.
@galdayan Being both the developer and the first annoyed user is such a fun part =D You guys use the product in a really interesting way.
@adana it is interesting, thanks! the mirror-within-a-mirror thing you mentioned for RunEvr resonates too, feels like most of the useful dogfooding insight comes exactly from that loop.
@galdayan Yes, unusual feeling when I share a UI design screenshot in the same UI =D
That’s what makes the mirror effect feel the most.
Thanks for being a part of the discussions <3
I use one of my products 4 days a week, plus a one optional recovery day, and the other for 15 minutes a day for about three days per week. The first one is a functional fitness program for people over 45 years old packaged in an app. The second one is a bodyweight training/calisthenics skill-learning app where you can learn your first bar muscle-up (and pull ups on the way) by following a progressive training protocol and passing belt exams familiar from judo (next 'dojo' is going to be handstand).
As a product newbie, I agree it's great to be able to test what I'm building all the time and I feel a lot more comfortable making improvements when I know well what's missing or needs adjustments. And it's nice to have judgment if you get feedback that may be contradictory.
Oh, and the best thing is that there's at least one person who really enjoys my product!
@juho_r That’s great! Your products sound cool! I think it’s good that the first one is dedicated to a special age group.
Are you going to launch your products here on PH?
@adana Thank you Adana! I'm still learning the basics of this impressive community but am considering it. The first one ('Masters Engine') may be a little too niche for PH but 'BMU Dojo' could fit into the Workout platforms category.
@juho_r cool! If you like , contact me on LinkedIn, I can share some tips and tricks related to launching on PH.
Wish you good luck!
Do you think using your own product helps you understand user pain points better than feedback alone?
@anthony_nartey Yes, of course!
Especially in our case, when we built the product just for ourselves, and only after we proved that it was ideal for the industry, we went live.