Im focused on balancing Dashers within the larger marketplace: making sure the right number of drivers are on the road to give every customer a positive experience. Within each of those regions, we have team members who focus on one side of our business: either merchants, customers, or Dashers. Thats a lot, in the range of 23x higher than what I see with other engineering organizations. As the lead of Consumer Value & Pricing at DoorDash, having research play an active role in the early development of new ideas increases our odds for success exponentially. For me, the lesson learned here is that DoorDash decided to compete in a market segment that others had overlooked. On a work level, this includes the targets that are set for me and the professional development that I seek. Because of their high density, you have more restaurant choice, shorter distance to the consumer, and a higher number of single young professionals with a high amount of disposable income that they prefer to spend on ordering dinner, not cooking it. Right now, though, Im happy to stay where I am. while also balancing the dynamics of a three-sided marketplace. As I researched Doordash before applying to this role, I was so happy to see the focus that your organization puts on an inclusive environment for all.\"************************************************************************************************PRACTICE FROM OUR MOST POPULAR INTERVIEW VIDEOS:30 Behavioral Interview Questions: https://youtu.be/bXSnNwNWK0I5 Situational Interview Questions: https://youtu.be/vT2Q6hoxoAs5 Conflict Interview Questions: https://youtu.be/xoVB_QauBuoTeamwork interview questions: https://youtu.be/giSURWwwQbE************************************************************************************************ You have experience blending analytics and creativity to scope and implement solutions, working as an individual contributor and as part of a larger team. On one hand, it's really an exercise in capturing all the details you can about the physical world Where are the open parking spaces on Main Street? In the early days of DoorDash, there were mainly three groups of people engineers, sales, and everything else. In a previous article, 3 unique things about being a researcher at DoorDash, I mentioned that working with Strategy & Operations (S&O) is something I really enjoy about my role. The ticket size of an order obviously matters as the restaurant generates more revenue, and DoorDash gets a larger commission, which they can re-invest into the business. Operators need to easily flex between both of those mindsets. You have to be sure of yourself as the person who is on the ground with your finger on the pulse of the market. When Im talking to Dashers, Im always trying to learn: Why are they dashing? Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is between 710% of GOV in Year 1. Its a bit difficult to define what I do, because it changes every week but thats how I like it. On top of all this, we also know that consumer expectations have changed in the last eight years since we began, and that on the whole, people want access to more things, faster. . Then, Contribution Margin went from deep red in Q1 2019 (-71%) into the black in Q1 2020 and is now in the 24% range at the the end of Q3 2020. Fv 27, 2023 . via marketing, promotions, etc. As of September 30, 2020, DoorDash had over five million consumers on DashPass, meaning they generate $50M+ in monthly subscription revenue, without having delivered a single meal yet. I know theres a bit of wiggle room in the math since we rounded the numbers a bit, but overall this looks like a pretty damn good business to me. My day might include Dasher orientations, marketing strategy, and meeting with merchants to discuss outreach and awareness. Because of less choice in those markets, customers also stick around with DoorDash and dont churn to other delivery services. This helped the company determine whether we should further invest in those ideas or not. These interviews typically take place in the second round, following your initial screening, and they are designed to assess both your analytical skills AND your coding prowess. The logistical considerations for a dense urban city like Chicago or New York are different from those of a suburban area like Palo Alto, Calif., where we started. Most of that responsibility sits within the Strategy & Operations team. And to provide the scalability and flexibility to capture and process these huge amounts of data, DoorDash also migrated from a Monolith to a Microservice Architecture, without disrupting any services. We address this by emphasizing communication and collaboration, and we err on the side of over-communicating to make sure were getting the right information to the right people. Filter Our point of sale program makes it easy to take detailed notes on customer preferences so I can provide tailored service to them. Again, lets assume 8% for simpler math. Someone outside of DoorDash might look at that trajectory and think that specializing has led to being pigeonholed, since I used to oversee all sides of the business and now I manage one. At the heart of those plans is co-founder and CTO Andy Fang, who says grocery, convenience, alcohol, flowers and gifts are becoming paramount to the company's platform offerings, and international opportunity abounds. For me, the partnership between Strategy & Operations and research works best when research is closely plugged into the day-to-day efforts of the organization. Its rarely the same. Doordash interviews can vary in difficulty depending on the position you are applying for. Any industry has a key transaction that measures the exchange of value. Its important to take initiative. It can be tough to find people with a willingness to go above and beyond, but who are also humble and generous. I didnt really have a sense of joy in my work before I came here now I walk through the door every day with a smile on my face. We also pick the brains of any Launchers who visit our office. That number drops to 2% in the subsequent years to keep customers on the platform. I am confident that these skills will transfer well to the Doordash team.\"3) How do you define success in your work?Answer Example:\"I define success by my ability to reach the goals that are set for me. I have a second round interview with . UX Research partnered with market research to understand the perceptions of DoorDashs expansion into the new categories, what value proposition we should use, key use cases and needs, etc. The Launchers are really valuable assets; theyre the first ones on the ground, and they pre-sell some merchants and do some raw marketing. If you are strong in decision-making, leadership and . Were evaluated every six months, and if youre a manager but youre acting at a higher level, youll be moved to senior manager at that point. Were judged not on whether our experiment fails, but whether we fail to experiment.. kick off marketing efforts to bring in customers. I applied for an ops role late last year. Data makes the DoorDash local logistics platform more intelligent and efficient with every order. In my opinion, this is also where researchers can have the most impact, and what our team strives to focus on at DoorDash. Were definitely not going in blind. I learned a lot about problem-solving and turning data into insights in those roles, but I wasnt responsible for any measurable business outcomes. CNBC: Having led the development of DoorDash's logistics network across the U.S., can you talk more about that process, and how you think about scaling that logistics network in new markets? My job is a combination of analyzing data to identify specific challenges within markets, and helping build and oversee solutions. The 2016 cohort increased its annual spend by 57% in Year 4 (2019) compared to 2016. Your job seeking activity is only visible to you. DoorDash has done exactly that. We have a solid playbook of best practices. Currently, this is when S&O partners usually come to us, to get complementary inputs from customers to support or further explain the experiment result. [] While it might seem small in isolation, our daily work be it on reducing delivery times, increasing efficiency, or improving personalization is about compounding incremental improvements that drive significant value over time. Get notified about new Merchant Services jobs in Tempe, AZ. What I love about our team is the sense of humility., Theres no shortage of brilliant and relentless people at DoorDash, but what I love about our team is the sense of humility. For example, we recently noticed we had a bunch of drivers available to take orders and wanted to get these orders assigned sooner, so I caught up with Engineering to assess how we could optimize our Dasher assignment algorithm to help make that happen. The image below shows that the economics of a single order can look like. DoorDash runs seven regions across the U.S. and Canada. It is a dataset with drivers, delivery times, money made, and tips. Clearly, it makes a difference if a whole delivery cycle takes e.g. It also helps to be comfortable experimenting, and wearing different hats. Fang: Building the DoorDash logistics network was an expansive effort, and is an ongoing effort across our company today. 2023 CNBC LLC. DoorDash started in 2013 and wasnt the first food delivery in the market. how to optimize their dishes for delivery and pick-up, or what to do to attract new customers. Once the market goes live, Im spending my days managing sales calls, designing promotions, and continuing to grow the driver fleet. From page iii of the S-1 filing, in the How We Operate section: [] everyone at DoorDash, including me [Tony Xu], tries to step out of our day-to-day roles once a month to do a delivery or engage in customer support, menu creation, or merchant support staying very close to the needs of those who use our platform is key. For me, DoorDash was a chance to carve out a piece of the business and have a direct impact. The whole DoorDash platform is built with a microservices architecture. In LA, for example, we deal with a unique set of traffic and parking challenges, so were more focused on those issues here than we are in regions where traffic is light. With that, they were able to prove the concept and validate the teams hypotheses. Thats invaluable. Click the link below to head over to Substack and subscribe!, Investor at Rodeo Beach, co-founded and sold intermix.io, VP of Platform Products at Instana, https://doordash.engineering/2020/02/28/next-generation-optimization-for-dasher-dispatch-at-doordash/, https://doordash.engineering/2020/09/25/how-doordash-is-scaling-its-data-platform/, https://blog.doordash.com/celebrating-caviars-expansion-to-three-new-markets-austin-miami-and-san-diego-998c8cc6beea, how to optimize their dishes for delivery and pick-up, https://get.doordash.com/blog/off-premise-food-quality, https://blog.doordash.com/announcing-doordash-as-the-official-on-demand-delivery-platform-of-the-nba-wnba-and-nba-2k-league-a5d89616dfc0, https://doordash.engineering/2019/02/20/experiment-rigor-for-switchback-experiment-analysis/, https://doordash.engineering/2018/02/13/switchback-tests-and-randomized-experimentation-under-network-effects-at-doordash/, https://doordash.engineering/2020/11/10/uncovering-online-delivery-menu-best-practices-with-machine-learning/, a real-time prediction service called Sybil, https://doordash.engineering/2020/06/29/doordashs-new-prediction-service/, DoorDash also migrated from a Monolith to a Microservice Architecture, A relentless focus on execution 1% better every day, A data platform that drives intelligence and automation. We also work with Business Operations to look at the bigger-picture data beyond our own team, and with Engineering to help them improve the product. Yes, others are using data too. DoorDash interlocked its operating model with their technology platform, making execution driven by data the key drivers that propelled DoorDash from 17% to 50% marketshare between January 2018 and October 2020. By creating this job alert, you agree to the LinkedIn User Agreement and Privacy Policy. Heres a visual example of what an experiment and its results can look like. Sometimes S&O partners may request additional inputs to understand the opportunity size or gather customer stories to support a potential solution. make each market and order more efficient. Im a Regional General Manager based out of our Midwest hub in Chicago. Because of the 1.6x increase in spend, the absolute numbers for lifetime value go up, and contribute in cash to the bottom line. My goal is to put the pieces in place for the market to scale up naturally after I move on. At DoorDash, data is what drives the Get 1% better every day goal. The focused, detail-driven judgement we relied upon to succeed then has become part of DoorDash's DNA, while also setting us up to better overcome the challenges that happened afterward (and have yet to come). We need to address it strategically. Sign in to create your job alert for Merchant Services jobs in Tempe, AZ. Launching is an investment. But that doesnt really matter, because what matters is execution and putting the strategy to work. Try not to get overwhelmed or frustrated. Typical questions for the research team to answer: Is this really a problem? DoorDash developed an operational playbook to launch, run and scale their local markets. The 2018 cohort increased its annual spend by 65% in Year 2 (2019). Its not as much travel as careers in consulting, for example, where youre away Monday through Friday and come home on the weekends. How can we improve it? Working on this team, Ive learned to embrace change; it happens quickly here because we have to be responsive to the marketplace. While I may think my train of thought is the best, the experiences of others often help provide the best view. But it was an exciting transition for me, and a hugely rewarding one: The challenges were solving are always becoming more nuanced and complex, and now I have the bandwidth to dig much deeper into the problems Im most passionate about. Stories and lessons from DoorDash Design team. In the past, research has helped me conduct a conjoint survey to target the best combination of features for our consumer base as well as design, host, and analyze surveys that gauge consumer interest in new and evolving products. 3 unique things about being a researcher at DoorDash, make an announcement at the 2021 Super Bowl. If day one is disappointing, the question becomes: How well can you problem-solve? If there was a big initiative to grow order counts for tomorrow, what would you do to make it happen. Im also teaching them to be leaders themselves. Act like an owner is a core value at DoorDash, and we definitely live that. Thats a ton of operating leverage and drives up the LTV / CAC ratio. doordash strategy and operations manager interview. 22 17 Related Topics But DoorDash takes the cake in my opinion. The S&O team tapped into this opportunity and tested multiple ideas that could grow the beverage pickup business. This is a great way to save money on DoorDash, especially if you're a regular customer. First off, Gross Margin grew from 23% in Q1 2019 to 53% in Q3 2020. In order to succeed online, merchants need to utilize a set of menu-building best practices to attract new customers. Each of our seven regions has its own weekly standup, as do the customer, merchant, and Dasher teams within the regions. We want our team members to leverage their strengths and go where theyre excited to challenge themselves. The whole process takes six to eight weeks. We attribute our category-leading spend retention and capital efficiency, in part, to this obsession. RIP DoorDash hiring process. I was drawn to apply at Doordash because of this. Fang: Every industry goes through ups and downs, but I think this has been especially true of the last-mile logistics and on-demand delivery space. How long does it take to cook a pizza? I have a case study interview with doordash. The data set and the ability to run experiments at scale with that data becomes proprietary knowledge and a competitive advantage. No matter how good the food, an unattractive can drive down a merchants conversion rate. DoorDash embraces and invests in this function because of our belief in an ownership mentality our employees can develop the strategy and execute it. That makes intuitive sense, as people can only eat that much. doordash strategy and operations interview. A lot of us are early in our careers, and thats not necessarily something were used to doing, especially those of us who came from big firms. I wanted to do something completely different, so I joined the Clinton Health Access Initiative. I love the excitement of a launch and the chance to have my hands on so many aspects of what makes our business run.. How long will a pint of ice cream stay cold? Amazon Prime and a Costco membership come to mind, for a comparison. Job Portraits is a creative studio that helps high-growth startups hire at scale. Its a huge competitive data moat. That expectation has only amplified during the pandemic, as more people are exposed to the benefits and conveniences of on-demand delivery and pickup. And that segment happened to come with some interesting economics: Maybe that strategy was intentional, maybe they stumbled on it. Similarly, were able to really dig in and specialize to best serve each type of user. But here, its welcomed. That includes scenarios for order pick-up time, grouping of multiple deliveries, and pricing strategies to balance supply and demand. One day that might be recruiting new talent; the next its growth strategy; the day after that its working with top Dashers or merchants, making sure they feel valued. They can name all the rock star Dashers and bestselling merchants. Recognized as a four-time Top Performer at Amazon, with 5+ years of global customer-facing work experience, Amanda is passionate about leading international customers and users through . Ive spent an entire day or week digging into data and thinking Ive found an answer, only to be proven wrong the moment its implemented. I was promoted to Associate General Manager, then General Manager for Los Angeles, and transitioned to my current role when we began building our specialized teams. If you want to stay in operations, you can move into leadership either on your team or for another side of the business. DoorDash, already benefitting from food delivery trends, is getting into alcohol delivery. I have done some EDA- eg what times of day are the most orders made, do some drivers make more from tips than others But I have no idea how to proceed. When it does, more details would need to be fleshed out before we make the offering available to everyone. Thats the aggregate picture. Thanks. DM if interested. Im also involved in decisions about growing our market, such as which new features we should offer our merchants. Just dm'ed you. Everybody wins with more order volume on the platform. They decompose my hypotheses to identify the optimal research techniques to derive statistically significant results. Got a confidential news tip? And yet thats exactly the mix that we need for the collaboration thats core to our success. Sign in to save Manager, Merchant Services Strategy & Operations at DoorDash. Ultimately, were judged not on whether our experiment fails, but whether we fail to experiment. Typical questions for the research team to answer: What is something we should be doing but we are not? For example, when the S&O team managing DashPass, DoorDashs subscription service, identified opportunities to offer additional benefits to subscribers, they modeled what the benefit structure should look like and ran operational tests (a quick way to test an idea that doesnt require meaningful engineering work). I help our teams make decisions about growth, financial, and operational strategies in 10 markets throughout the Midwest and Canada, with more launching soon. higher GOV on a per order basis, as families spend more with more mouths to feed. The opportunity within our core marketplace of restaurants is massive and theres a lot of exciting activity there; the biggest national chains, like Cheesecake Factory and P.F. Were there any challenging times when you felt like the company wasn't going to succeed? Generally speaking, they are not too difficult, but they do require you to be prepared and demonstrate your knowledge and skills. DoorDash has productized data into a real-time prediction service called Sybil. From creating an online store for direct ordering, pickup and delivery, to powering white-label delivery fulfillment, we know that by introducing more merchants to the services we offer, we can support how they do business and help enrich neighborhoods all over the world. Were determined to leave our mark. Im really excited to see that growth, and its been amazing to add such diverse viewpoints to the mix. Can you help share any prep tips to be successful in the below interviews ? Shaving off minutes compounds across the whole fleet, raising income for Dashers and making DoorDash more efficient and profitable. But more so DashPass takes friction of the ordering process, as theres no additional delivery fee. Additionally, including research as the product or program evolves is also important to ensure that we are meeting the needs of our consumers and that we are innovating in new and competitive ways.. 1. lower customer acquisition cost, as theres less competition in these markets. Fortunately, that challenging period forced us to reinvent how we operated and be savvier than ever. What is the next big thing for us? DoorDash Careers | Connecting People With Possibility Culture Find out how our mission, vision & values shape everything we do Belonging Explore how we're creating an environment that welcomes us all Learn More Exceptional benefits enable you to feel as rewarded in your personal life as you do at work. With data from the over 900 million orders that have been completed through the platform since founding, theyve made it more efficient and profitable to deliver food from A to B than anybody else. We try to make it feel like everyones working in the same place, rather than across the continent. How quickly can you pivot to make day two a different story? All with excellent data engineering teams. I really just wanted to build things from scratch. Staff Researcher@DoorDash. The following Q&A has been edited for length and clarity. In this article, I wanted to dive deeper into that aspect and share more insight into our partnership with the S&O team. Ive learned to push back a little bit. Example of partnership: In a segmentation study, the researcher identified picking up beverages (coffee, tea, juice, etc.) As does the entire DoorDash organization. You cant be afraid to speak up when you have strong beliefs and the data to back them up, but at the same time, its essential that we listen to other perspectives and work together. CNBC recently spoke with Fang, who says grocery, convenience, alcohol, flowers and gifts are becoming paramount to the company's platform offerings, while international opportunity abounds. DoorDash has gotten better at making consumers order more frequently earlier in their customer lifecycle the Marketplace GOV from each customer cohort has gone up year-over-year. DoorDash Strategy And Operations Associate Interview Questions | Glassdoor DoorDash Engaged Employer Overview 12K Reviews 25K Jobs 7K Salaries 1.6K Interviews 728 Benefits 35 Photos Add an Interview DoorDash Strategy and Operations Associate Interview Questions Updated 1 Feb 2023 Find Interviews Register. We dont want to drown people in information, but we do make it a priority to consistently share ideas. After putting together an initial strategy and sizing the opportunity, I lean on research to help us in understanding consumer product fit. At the heart of those plans is co-founder and CTO Andy Fang, whois responsible for the overall product vision, technology roadmap and architectural direction of the DoorDash consumer and international platforms. I studied mechanical engineering at Brown University. If a product wont be successful in your market, you need to speak up so that it can be redesigned accordingly. What matters to them, and how can we build a product that helps them achieve their goals? Interested in joining the team? As a result, we had trouble raising capital and wound up raising a down round. DoorDash also values experimentation. Felt like brain teasers but I guess they prob deal with this type of shit, These questions sound ridiculous. Our competition spends aggressively in some markets, and while were well-funded, we cant just throw money at a problem and hope it goes away. Experiencing those lows made us a sharper and scrappier team. I like to tell people Im a recovering consultant and banker. The other half were put into our products and scaled across the company. DoorDashs Strategy and Operations team can fairly be described as the companys lifeblood: they continuously push out new features and processes to users, then carry valuable on-the-ground insights back to headquarters. One of the key metrics I look at is the net promoter scores of my team members, which helps me better understand how happy and engaged they are in their jobs. One of the biggest levers for a profitable delivery business is driver dispatch which dasher is best suited to fulfill a delivery. Ive learned to love being wrong. Apart from new products, that means there only three ways to grow the top- and bottom-line of the business: And thats exactly what DoorDash has done. Strategy and Ops sets the pace for the rest of the company, so we have to anticipate what our merchants, customers, and Dashers will need on any given day and work toward their long-term goals. To test if the proposed solution is viable, they run experiments (the operational tests) with a small set of customers. But you definitely form bonds with your teammates. May 2, 2021 0. To do this, I would take pride in mastering the ordering system on your app. It makes people order more. We know that consumer behavior is sticky, with recent studies showing that a majority of consumers plan to continue getting food delivered from restaurants as much as they have, or even more, when the pandemic does subside. Airlines sell plane tickets, Brokerages sell stock trades, Logistics companies sell shipments, Food Delivery sells restaurant orders, and so forth. Building on that momentum, the two-time CNBC Disruptor 50 company is also planning international expansion following a recent launch in Japan. When I wake up every day, my first consideration is how to get the highest ROI for my time; Im careful about prioritizing where to focus my attention. Theres a dedicated Customer Acquisition Team with a business leader. Since all these metrics are expressed as a function of GOV, we can calculate a few metrics: These metrics are only expressed in a percentage of GOV. Worked in Tokyo, Singapore, Seattle, Taipei, Shanghai. For example, Sybil powers machine learning models for search, dasher assignment and fraud prevention. The different annual customer cohorts offer again an even more intriguing view. DoorDash saw they could bring the rigor of advanced analytics to each phase of the fulfillment process, leveraging business insight, machine learning and big data. I can provide detailed insights. What type of questions to expect in the SQL and case interview rounds? The insight here I think is that it will be hard if not impossible to grow the business by increasing the average order size, e.g. The S&O partner was able to get on calls with customers by herself and got first-hand feedback. or generally what the interview rounds look like? We are former journalists, founders, developers, and, yes, job seekers, working to improve the hiring experience from both sides of the table. DoorDash spends between 7% (2017 Cohort) and 10% (2018 Cohort) of Marketplace GOV on customer acquistion in Year 1. At my previous company intermix.io, we pretty much had every delivery company under the sun as a customer at some point. Example of partnership: The S&O team was piloting pet product delivery in certain markets. Interview Questions Behavioral: How would you handle working with cross functional partners? Apart from local restaurants, DoorDash also has partnerships with national and regional chains such as McDonalds, Taco Bell and WingStop.