The Power of Dogfooding: How JetBrains Crafts Superior Developer Tools from Within
What Exactly Is Dogfooding?
Dogfooding—short for "eating your own dog food"—is the practice of a company using its own products internally to build, test, and refine them. In software development, it means relying on the tools you create to handle daily tasks, from writing code to managing projects. At JetBrains, this isn't just a quirky company custom; it's a foundational part of how they design tools like IntelliJ IDEA, YouTrack, and Rider. By putting their own products through real-world stress, they ensure every feature is battle-tested before reaching customers.
As JetBrains CEO Kirill Skyrgan explains, "You can only build truly great software if you use it yourself. Every feature and every decision comes from firsthand experience." This philosophy eliminates guesswork—no more relying on abstract user personas or secondhand feedback. Instead, engineers, designers, and product managers experience the same pain points as their users, fostering an authentic connection between builder and tool.
Why JetBrains Swears by This Practice
The core benefit of dogfooding is immediate, unfiltered feedback. When a developer hits a bug or an awkward shortcut while using their own IDE, the fix can begin within hours—not weeks after a customer report. This tight feedback loop accelerates refinement and builds empathy: teams feel the friction themselves, so they're motivated to resolve it not because of KPIs, but because they genuinely want a better daily experience.
Kirill Skyrgan adds, "Those thousands of tiny corrections made over time are what turn a good product into a great one. They come from people who use the tool every day and want it to be better." Dogfooding also keeps JetBrains grounded. They don't chase trends for the sake of marketing; they prioritize improvements that actually matter to developers—because they are the developers.
Real-World Examples from JetBrains
Dogfooding isn't just an abstract theory at JetBrains; it's woven into their development lifecycle. Here are two standout examples where internal usage directly shaped product quality.
Rider: From Unstable to Production-Ready
When JetBrains first launched Rider, their .NET IDE, the early builds were far from polished. In 2016, internal developers used it daily despite crashes that would sometimes stop them mid-typing. Rather than abandoning the tool, they fixed bugs on the spot—often the same hour they encountered them. This relentless internal testing transformed Rider from a rough prototype into a stable, professional IDE that now competes with Visual Studio. The experience taught the team that persistence through imperfection pays off: each crash became a data point for immediate improvement.
YouTrack and IntelliJ IDEA: Seamless Integration
JetBrains uses YouTrack for issue tracking and project management across all teams, while IntelliJ IDEA handles coding tasks. By relying on these tools for their own workflows, developers identify integration gaps and feature blind spots. For example, a product manager might notice that YouTrack's reporting dashboard lacks a certain filter—so they collaborate with the engineering team to add it, benefiting thousands of external users who would have faced the same limitation. This continuous cycle of use → identify → fix keeps the products evolving precisely where they need to.
Conclusion: Dogfooding as a Quality Engine
Dogfooding at JetBrains isn't about internal compliance or forced usage; it's about trust in the tools you build. By using IntelliJ IDEA, YouTrack, and Rider as their daily drivers, every employee becomes a quality advocate. The result is software that feels intuitive, reliable, and genuinely helpful—because it's crafted by people who know exactly what developers need. As the company continues to grow, this practice ensures that great products emerge from real work, not hypothetical goals.