How dogfooding can help Telcos build their Network API business
November 19, 2024
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Legend has it that the president of Kal Kan Foods had the habit of eating a can of Pedigree at their annual shareholder meeting, inspiring the product development practice we now know as “dogfooding” – a popular agile software product development practice. Good backgrounder on it here.
Examples of dogfooding are plentiful, both from successes and failures:
Amazon was the only customer of AWS for years, helping build a service that is now much more profitable than the parent e-commerce business.
Slack started as an internal communication tool of a failed online game. They built early success with developer teams by observing how their own development team was using the tool.
“We don’t spend time in Horizon and the dogfooding dashboards show that clearly” – Meta VP explaining the Metaverse disappointment.
What could Telcos learn from this practice when working to promote the benefits of Programmable Networks and Network APIs? Could they even apply it themselves?
The good news is in this case you can build your pedigree without putting it on your plate. The obvious way would seem to be to start coding yourself, in line with the ambition of the “telco to techco” meme that is the new strategy of many Telcos. But I think this is getting the wrong end of the stick:
Playing around with code is not the same as building a product.
Hiring software developers is not the same as building a product.
Actually building a product is the same as building a product.
So the target audience should not so much be the hoodie-wearing geek (which seems to be the general stereotype in Telco circles), but more the user-experienced driven product manager and owner.
Now, Telcos already build software products. Not just the carrier or self-service apps and enterprise connectivity apps, but also normal consumer apps – specifically the TV streaming apps they build for their own customer base. These streaming apps are direct competitors to Netflix and Youtube – the ultimate target customers for the Network API businesses.
While waiting for the necessary global standardisation and supply, why not start building the experiences into your own streaming apps? This would bring multiple benefits:
Improving the quality of the Network APIs by using it yourself.
Improving the customer experience of your own streaming app.
Serve as perfect marketing of the Network APIs to the global video streaming services.
By dogfooding their Network APis within their streaming apps, Telcos can demonstrate real value to the streaming market – no extra pitch needed.
If you are curious about how to easily integrate Network APIs into your gaming service or streaming app, you can reach out to us or explore Domos App SDK here.
Legend has it that the president of Kal Kan Foods had the habit of eating a can of Pedigree at their annual shareholder meeting, inspiring the product development practice we now know as “dogfooding” – a popular agile software product development practice. Good backgrounder on it here.
Examples of dogfooding are plentiful, both from successes and failures:
Amazon was the only customer of AWS for years, helping build a service that is now much more profitable than the parent e-commerce business.
Slack started as an internal communication tool of a failed online game. They built early success with developer teams by observing how their own development team was using the tool.
“We don’t spend time in Horizon and the dogfooding dashboards show that clearly” – Meta VP explaining the Metaverse disappointment.
What could Telcos learn from this practice when working to promote the benefits of Programmable Networks and Network APIs? Could they even apply it themselves?
The good news is in this case you can build your pedigree without putting it on your plate. The obvious way would seem to be to start coding yourself, in line with the ambition of the “telco to techco” meme that is the new strategy of many Telcos. But I think this is getting the wrong end of the stick:
Playing around with code is not the same as building a product.
Hiring software developers is not the same as building a product.
Actually building a product is the same as building a product.
So the target audience should not so much be the hoodie-wearing geek (which seems to be the general stereotype in Telco circles), but more the user-experienced driven product manager and owner.
Now, Telcos already build software products. Not just the carrier or self-service apps and enterprise connectivity apps, but also normal consumer apps – specifically the TV streaming apps they build for their own customer base. These streaming apps are direct competitors to Netflix and Youtube – the ultimate target customers for the Network API businesses.
While waiting for the necessary global standardisation and supply, why not start building the experiences into your own streaming apps? This would bring multiple benefits:
Improving the quality of the Network APIs by using it yourself.
Improving the customer experience of your own streaming app.
Serve as perfect marketing of the Network APIs to the global video streaming services.
By dogfooding their Network APis within their streaming apps, Telcos can demonstrate real value to the streaming market – no extra pitch needed.
If you are curious about how to easily integrate Network APIs into your gaming service or streaming app, you can reach out to us or explore Domos App SDK here.
