Everyone hears the phrase, "The dogs won't eat the dog food," but what does it mean? You hear the term a lot with people from Microsoft. They talk about dogfooding a product. I have heard this term, along with the entire story all of my life. However, I've never seen the full story online. Here is the story as it been relayed to me my entire life.
Company A makes dog food. They have just released a new brand of dog food. Unfortunately, the dog food is not selling very well. A very upset President of the company calls a special meeting. All of the C level executives are there. The President of the company goes around the table asking for information from each person. The person in charge of marketing talks about how the marketing for the product is correct and that they are everywhere else every dog food vendor is. The person in charge of manufacturing talks about how the product is being made per specification. The person in charge of distribution talks about how there are no problems in shipping. Finally, the person in charge of testing stands up and says, "Yes, this is all great, however, the dogs won't eat the dog food."
Moral of the story: If the customer doesn't like the product, nothing else matters.