[softwaredoug]

I find a good human tester is a kind of "expert user" - someone with intimate knowledge of the domain, and knows how a product could help someone solve a problem. Arguably, this is the role of product management. They SHOULD be people from the domain regularly dogfooding the product. Unfortunately, a lot of product management really has become what used to be called "project management": planning, budget etc. It can be less about what the product should do, depending on the specific product manager.