Case Study 2. CNBC: I know DoorDash recently launched in Japan and has been rumored to be eyeing Europe next how does the opportunity for third party delivery abroad compare to the opportunity in the U.S.? 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. Ive also learned a lot about tech. Looking at the Contribution Profit by Cohort, we can see how due to the adjusted sales and marketing and promotions spend required to acquire the consumers in the cohort and encourage their repeat use of our platform, we see a Contribution Loss in Year 1, between 5% (2017 Cohort) and and 9% (2018 Cohort). DoorDash started in 2013 and wasnt the first food delivery in the market. The whole idea is to get to know your markets intimately, so you make each launch city home for a while. Fang: Yes, there are more consumers using DoorDash than ever, ordering delivery more than they were before Covid-19 but notably, they are continuing to order at higher rates, even in the face of reopenings. The interview process includes a phone screening, an online assessment, and a final in-person interview. We need to address it strategically. Any tips on what to expect from the Strategy & Ops interviews? By using data, DoorDash has been squeezing out the smallest inefficiencies out of its operating model, increasing customer / Dasher / merchant satisfaction, marketplace gross order volume (GOV) and customer lifetime value. Staff Researcher@DoorDash. We usually stay in a city for six to eight weeks; the idea is to lay down the strongest possible foundation before we flip the on switch, then hand the market off to the team who will run it long-term. Sometimes S&O partners may request additional inputs to understand the opportunity size or gather customer stories to support a potential solution. Lighter traffic and easier parking also mean that Dashers can serve these markets more efficiently. Airlines sell plane tickets, Brokerages sell stock trades, Logistics companies sell shipments, Food Delivery sells restaurant orders, and so forth. DoorDash runs seven regions across the U.S. and Canada. In order to succeed online, merchants need to utilize a set of menu-building best practices to attract new customers. 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. About the Role. acquire more customers, and offer them a restaurant selection and services that drive up engagement and retention. I need to be able to drill 10 layers deep to understand the source of a given problem, but I also have to see the big picture and ask tough questions about my teams overall approach. How quickly can you pivot to make day two a different story? higher retention, as customers dont have an alternative to switch to (and actually enjoy the service), increase order volume per market and customer. If you dont have the time to read the full post I also write a weekly-ish newsletter where I share the lessons learned from all the start-up that I come across. Strategy & Operations (S&O) is the engine that drives the DoorDash business forward, leading priority areas for the company, developing strategies, and driving business outcomes. Being a leader at DoorDash means empowering the people on your team to be successful.. 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. For airlines, that may be how many tickets did we sell in March?. But DoorDash takes the cake in my opinion. 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. A few examples. Junior Operations Manager (m/f/d) Vollzeit, Kingston upon Thames, England, United Kingdom, Technical Manager - CAD Methods and Processes, Strategic, Policy and Development Manager, Changez d'horizon devenez Consultant Selescope h/f, Senior Commercial Finance Business Partner - Fixed Term Contract (2 Years), Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi Emirate, United Arab Emirates, Responsable de la Sous Traitance d'Etudes F/H, Whner GmbH & Co.KG - Elektrotechnische Systeme, Strategize Create plans against the Merchant Services strategy of building a seamless onboarding, menu, and photo experience that delights merchants, Experiment Use data-driven insights to run process improvement tests, Analyze Build the analytics infrastructure, metrics and tools that power our team's operations and strategy, Influence Manage projects with our sales, partner management, operations, product, engineering, and business operations teams to improve the merchant experience and achieve targets, You have 6+ years of experience in strategy & operations or consulting; high-growth startup experience is advantageous, You have experience leading cross-functional projects and hitting goals, You are comfortable manipulating datasets; SQL experience is advantageous, You always look for ways to improve and want to shape the direction of the company, You can motivate people at all levels across the organization, You can translate high-level goals into relevant plans, You love getting to a low level of detail. Data makes the DoorDash local logistics platform more intelligent and efficient with every order. 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. The 2016 cohort increased its annual spend by 57% in Year 4 (2019) compared to 2016. If there was a big initiative to grow order counts for tomorrow, what would you do to make it happen. Many of the leaders at DoorDash today were with the company during that time, and maintain the same pragmatic determination that got us through then. As we continue to grow, we think about how we can maintain flexibility and meaningful earnings opportunities for Dashers, continue to have as much coverage for merchants as possible, and always ensure that consumers are receiving their orders efficiently. Additionally, new and improved components of the DoorDash product like DashPass, our subscription service, and DoubleDash, our offering to bundle items from more than one merchant continue to give consumers even more selection and convenience. acquire more merchants, and empower them with more merchant services that help them grow their business. Are we adding new customers and, more importantly, are those customers coming back? Any industry has a key transaction that measures the exchange of value. Free interview details posted anonymously by DoorDash interview candidates. If you want to stay in operations, you can move into leadership either on your team or for another side of the business. With DashPass, customers pay a flat monthly delivery fee (today $9.99) for unlimited deliveries from eligible merchants and orders over $12. Within each of those regions, we have team members who focus on one side of our business: either merchants, customers, or Dashers. 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. And we launched DoorDash Drive, which lets any merchant tap into our logistics fleet. Then we do our best to bring desirable merchants on board. Consider a prediction a data microservice that any DoorDash app can call, and automate decisions based on real-time data, vs. static rules. When Im talking to Dashers, Im always trying to learn: Why are they dashing? Overview To land an analytics data science job at DoorDash, you have to pass one to two case study interviews. Answer Question By having regional experts, we have people focused on making sure each side of the marketplace is growing and running smoothly. Try not to get overwhelmed or frustrated. This is the gist of how pricing on DoorDash works. I can provide detailed insights. Im really excited to see that growth, and its been amazing to add such diverse viewpoints to the mix. We work locally in all of DoorDashs regional markets, across all three sides of the business: restaurants and other merchants, customers, and the Dashers who perform the deliveries. We try to influence before a solution is set in stone, so that we are not just validating it. We started with food because its the hardest product to deliver. The company'sstock began trading at $182 per shareon Dec. 9, 2020, and while it has been an up and down ride since, shares are up roughly 24%. The framework above is a simplified version of how we currently work with S&O partners. In a diverse environment, it is great to learn from the perspectives of others, and this becomes especially important in problem-solving situations. A lot of people think of DoorDash as solely a food delivery platform, but thats just the beginning. Continued growth is key, because it means youve set your team up for success and theyll be equipped to scale up all three sides. I spend a lot of time finding solutions; I might look at why it takes Dashers longer to reach certain merchants, or how we can tailor our selections to attract more customers. Conventional wisdom in the food delivery business suggests that the biggest markets are in high-density metropolitan areas. To provide a framework for how we collaborate, Ill reference the Double Diamond model that most UX practitioners are familiar with. From the S-1: We believe that suburban markets and smaller metropolitan areas have experienced significantly higher growth compared to larger metropolitan markets because these smaller markets have been historically underserved by merchants and platforms that enable on-demand delivery. Again, lets assume 8% for simpler math. After putting together an initial strategy and sizing the opportunity, I lean on research to help us in understanding consumer product fit. In my current role, I work under both time and very lofty accuracy goals. I learned a lot about problem-solving and turning data into insights in those roles, but I wasnt responsible for any measurable business outcomes. Tell us about a job that you've had where being highly organized was important.2:38 - Question #3: How do you define success in your work?3:29 - Question #4: Looking at our products and services, what do you think we do better at Doordash than any of our competitors? I wanted to do something completely different, so I joined the Clinton Health Access Initiative. how to optimize their dishes for delivery and pick-up, or what to do to attract new customers. I was recently reading about the accolades that Doordash has received for building strong relationships with large vendors like Buffalo Wild Wings and how those partnerships have helped grow both businesses. Its a huge competitive data moat. So there you go. Thats invaluable. Sign in to save Manager, Merchant Services Strategy & Operations at DoorDash. Was part of the UberEats layoffs and interviewing with DD soon. You have experience blending analytics and creativity to scope and implement solutions, working as an individual contributor and as part of a larger team. One of the biggest levers for a profitable delivery business is driver dispatch which dasher is best suited to fulfill a delivery. Listen as if youre wrong. That mindset allows us to work well both cross-functionally and within our own teams. Finally, I also write a weekly newsletter on Substack where I share the lessons learned from all the start-up that I come across. A lot of what I do relies on other peoples hard work; being a leader at DoorDash means empowering the people on your team to be successful. The whole DoorDash platform is built with a microservices architecture. TELUS WBcX53. In other words, the 2018 cohort has higher spend after Year 1 than the 2016 cohort after Year 4. I joined the company two years ago as an Operations Manager. So why is that? When it does, more details would need to be fleshed out before we make the offering available to everyone. 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? Doordash Interview Questions with Answer Examples. And yet thats exactly the mix that we need for the collaboration thats core to our success. while also balancing the dynamics of a three-sided marketplace. Ive heard this repeated often: Speak as if youre right. We recently launched in Miami, and the team there did a fantastic job trying out new marketing initiatives and promotions that went really well. 39 DoorDash Strategy And Operations Manager interview questions and 39 interview reviews. Were launching new markets, were announcing new partners, were experimenting with things like catering and alcohol I love coming in every day thinking about the next big thing. The other half were put into our products and scaled across the company. Yes, others are using data too. This role doesnt require a ton of travel, but I do have the option to visit HQ or our other locations if thats the best way to collaborate. Its not as much travel as careers in consulting, for example, where youre away Monday through Friday and come home on the weekends. 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. You can unsubscribe from these emails at any time. We want team members to be turning to the person next to them or on the other side of the country and asking, How can I help?. 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. DoorDash has done exactly that. 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. Were also testing services like alcohol delivery; we just signed a deal with a national retailer, BevMo. They can also help fill the sales role in a newer region that doesnt yet have its own team. This role has the remit of shaping our Drive restaurants . Sony, Go to company page Every member of the Dasher team wants to learn everything they can about the customer and merchant sides of the business so that we can continue building a better product together. HBO, Go to company page For our full list of Doordash QAs, visit: https://www.mockquestions.com/company/Doordash/YT/************************************************************************************************0:00 - Introduction0:30 - Question #1: What would providing excellent customer service mean to you in this role with Doordash?1:32 - Question #2: At Doordash, we value organization. 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. 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. from the events that happen pre- and post-transaction. From presenting personalized, curated content to consumers that takes into account cuisine and dietary preferences to providing information that enables Dashers to maximize their earnings opportunities, our machine learning algorithms continuously improve the experiences of our three constituencies and make our local logistics platform more intelligent and efficient with every order. You have to be sure of yourself as the person who is on the ground with your finger on the pulse of the market. Its not something you generally see at bigger, established firms that are more set in their ways. Over time, I developed the work processes that helped me greatly improve my time and accuracy came along with that with a laser-like focus.\"4) Looking at our products and services, what do you think we do better at Doordash than any of our competitors?Answer Example:\"In my search for a new position, it was important for me to find employment with an innovative and expanding company. But the cool thing is, there may come a time when other regions are trying to address similar problems, and they wont have to reinvent the wheel. I like to tell people Im a recovering consultant and banker. Well, we dont always hit that timeline. People do well when theyve cultivated a strong ownership mentality, especially because we are so heavily invested in all three sides of our market. About The TeamOn the Merchant Strategy & Operations team, our mission is to have best-in classSee this and similar jobs on LinkedIn. Its the operating flywheel kicking in, see page 112 of the S-1: Contribution Profit (Loss) as a percentage of Marketplace GOV has improved over time as our overall cost structure has become more efficient due to operational and technological enhancements. Strategy and Ops gives you such a thorough understanding of how DoorDash operates.. If a merchant does not design its menu correctly, customers wont be as attracted to their online offerings and will not buy as often. Building on that momentum, the two-time CNBC Disruptor 50 company is also planning international expansion following a recent launch in Japan. Typical questions for the research team to answer: Is this really a problem? How long will a pint of ice cream stay cold? How long does it take to cook a pizza? 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. Got an email rejection a few days later. 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. 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. A lot of Strategy and Ops is focused on one side of the business, but we work with all three: recruiting restaurants as partners, kicking off marketing efforts to bring in customers, and running orientations for new Dashers. is a common use case for power users. Example of partnership: After multiple rounds of operational tests, DoorDash was going to make an announcement at the 2021 Super Bowl about its delivery offerings beyond food. doordash strategy and operations interview. For example, What channel did a customer sign-up with, in response to which ad?, what type of phone do they use?, or what type of credit card do they use to pay?. Are deliveries being made on time? Listen as if youre wrong.. 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