In some ways much of the performance or the performance of the company came in many years before, I think when you saw some of the results. DoorDash said it had hired international call center workers to call in the orders, and it has told drivers not to tell the restaurants they were with DoorDash. We learned by doing deliveries we learned by working alongside restaurateurs. Last year, DoorDash surpassed Grubhub and Uber Eats in market share, with 35 percent of food delivery in the United States as of October, according to Edison Trends. Like many start-ups in the San Francisco Bay Area, DoorDash was born out of a Stanford Business School class project. What could go wrong? Joy Huang: Youve been listening to View From The Top the podcast, a production of Stanford Graduate School of Business. To compete with other companies offering takeout, DoorDash expanded its selection of restaurants it delivered from by adding ones that had not signed up to be part of its listings. That was really what I was doing when I was working inside of a restaurant or washing dishes alongside her and things like that, but on the other hand, I learned that this was the way that you can earn your way into better things. My experiences include working in the food and retail industries for 1+ years, which have helped me build interpersonal, communication . Tony Xu: Yeah, I think, again, there isnt a silver bullet and youre right. I measure the success of project delivery by focusing on key metrics aligned with the project goals and objectives. We were looking a lot at the input metrics. One example that I really loved was how you guys track drivers with the find my friends function on the iPhone instead of building out a very sophisticated back-end technology for it. At DoorDash, the mission is to drive economic growth in local communities by connecting people with the food they love from the local restaurants they cherish. The second thing is that you have to have a bias for action. Tony Xu: Yeah, well, I think the first lesson that we learned is, whats ultimately the almost overly simplified problem that youre trying to solve and, if you can ask yourself that question very crisply, I think thats a very clarifying way to really test ideas very quickly. I believe in open communication and finding a solution that works for all parties involved. Make room at the table. It took some time to figure out how do you actually improve these inputs? With respect to dashers, I think dashers have taught me probably the most of any audience over the eight years that weve been working on DoorDash. This employer has claimed their Employer Profile and is engaged in the Glassdoor community. I dont find it that rewarding if this is all up and to the right, said Mr. Xu, 35. It also has its share of enemies: Regulators who have poked holes in the start-ups pricing and employment practices. SAN FRANCISCO DoorDash, the leading food delivery app in the United States, has its fans. I stay informed of industry trends and advancements, take on challenging tasks and projects, seek feedback and coaching from my seniors, and engage in training and development programs. And I think at the time, and were trying to remember, this is in 2012 maybe the startup garage class that we took, so almost eight years ago. Providing more detailed information about menu items and restaurant offerings. My parents came here with maybe $200 in the bank, and it was, you know, were gonna make it or not situation; there wasnt really much of an in-between road, but I think when you have nothing to lose you also have a lot of upside as a result. This interview was conducted by me, Joy Huang of the MBA class of 2021. I took ownership of the situation and went to the restaurant to personally retrieve the correct order and deliver it to the customer with a sincere apology and a small token of appreciation. Tony, I like to wrap up with a customer a view from the top lightning round. Is this a service that restaurants would actually pay for? And so I think there are ways in which you can look at rates of progress, but I think its first and foremost recognizing what is it that youre actually trying to get better at? So just teach us how to improve our audit mechanisms in our measurement methods and so I dont think theres a silver bullet here. For my mom, it meant working three jobs a day for the first 12 years of her journey here and so, I didnt see them that often and so, most of my time was pretty unstructured and I think as a result that unstructured time was what was able to obviously, I wasnt thinking about becoming an entrepreneur when I was five years old, nor did I ever think what would happen from my unstructured time, but I think some of the benefits really came, Im from trialing a bunch of new things. And then, what kind of morphs even over time is, how do you actually scale this culture that you built? As is clear from the tasks listed above, it is quite a challenging job that includes a lot of decision-making. Whether thats buying a gift for someone, or starting an orphanage, or using the money and buying their kids something for school. I would apologize to them for the inconvenience and provide them with an estimated time of arrival while offering them to check our application regularly for updates. And for us, I think we always understood that relationship between what we were working on and what the outcome would be. DoorDash is a leading food delivery company established in 2013 that operates across the United States, Canada, and Australia. I would also plan the delivery route in advance to avoid any delays. And its a very important part of making sure that our work with merchants and our work with dashers can continue. I believe in going the extra mile to resolve any issues and ensure customer satisfaction. And Id like to expand on the second point a bit too, because like you mentioned, the four of you drove as drivers for FedEx and Dominos to learn about how delivery works. My career goal with DoorDash is to grow and develop my skills and abilities to eventually become a team leader or manager, where I can use my experience and knowledge to support and guide other delivery drivers to ensure the best customer experience. DoorDash Faces Its Latest Challenge: Wooing Wall Street, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/04/technology/doordash-ipo.html. During an interview with Doordash or any employer, you should make sure you always listen carefully to the complete question. And so for you personally, how did you make sure that you could constantly learn and adapt as the CEO? Many candidates will begin formulating their answers as soon as the interviewer begins asking the question. Joy Huang: And as that business grow and like you mentioned at the very top, its kind of a different company every six months, right?. But cities have been one of the most enduring, I guess organizations that have ever made it through the history of time, far more enduring than businesses have. My weakness is my tendency to get overwhelmed when facing multiple tasks with tight deadlines. Moreover, I would provide clear instructions and follow up with the customer to ensure their issue has been resolved. So that was a really good reminder to have. PM basics such as product understanding . For me, that meant language, that meant earning income to buy Nintendo. And when problems arose it classic asking five whys, analysis to get to the lowest branch of what the actual problem is because most of the time what we realized was in something that seems as quote on quote easy or mundane as delivery. Tony Xu: Sure, well, the first thing Id say is I think cities are always gonna get better. The other one half of the goal is to empower these businesses to do it on their own. 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. Were missing the measurement of something. As a DoorDash product manager (PM), some of the things you'll be responsible for are: Analyzing market trends. To ensure that you're up for the . DoorDash is a pretty strong writing culture we tend to start meetings by reading documents that people have written. Because you cant let the uncertainty if you will, necessarily, I guess stop all things, or stop all activity. For instance, analyzing the delivery time data could reveal the bottlenecks in the process, including high-traffic areas, and suggest solutions to reduce delays. Critical Thinking for Better Judgment and Decision-Making . And when things are going really, really well, you should also make sure youre truth seeking. I mean, these are tricky questions, where we first have to almost study the world first before we start, hopefully, bring value to different people inside that world. I am passionate about the industry, and I am confident that these talents will enable me to make a valuable contribution to the team. Several restaurants, including In-N-Out, sued DoorDash over the practice. Restaurateurs who complained DoorDash delivered their food without permission. Data and analytics would help me track delivery times and customer satisfaction and highlight areas for improvement. I dont think the journey to solving some of the problems we want to solve of, you know, transforming every brick and mortar business, for example, is going to happen overnight. Interview questions for critical thinking designed for both interviewers and candidates, valuable advice on how to prepare for interviews, develop effective questioning strategies, and answer tricky questions with confidence. Drivers who sued over their tips. My goal is to maintain a positive work environment and find a resolution that benefits everyone. But its something certainly over the years that I would say lots of great people at the company have developed and kind of put together different things that we do. Ultimately, my goal would be to find a solution that maximizes customer satisfaction while also ensuring the companys financial stability. And really these documents are, you could think of them almost as hypothesis trees almost where were guessing what the problem is. Why do you think that's important? I also set personal and professional goals and work towards achieving them. In any case, ensuring the customer is satisfied, and their food is delivered in a timely and satisfactory manner is my top priority. Find Your Dream Job: Interview Techniques and Resume Writing Making the website more mobile-friendly and responsive for customers on the go. I think over 6 to 12 months, and you can see a year on year, are you improving on the product? Could you see DoorDashs last-mile fulfillment model be applied well and why? So thats the first thing. On this, Mr. Xu pointed to DoorDashs past. Interviewers test your critical thinking skills by learning whether you can make decisions based on logic and then communicate your reasoning to persuade others to follow you. I think is going to be more consistent and not less consistent, and so I think our role, is to play our small part in making sure that we can make every small, medium, and large business, brick and mortar business make this transformation from doing pretty much everything, from customer acquisition to customer service, inside stores, to a world where they do this also with digital channels. Competitors who cant keep up with its aggressive growth. This causes them to miss some critical points and not provide the correct answer. This is what I mean by skills. Wait 45 mins for Mexican or get pizza? Theyre always hidden somewhere and you may be a restaurant is delayed one day actually because someone didnt show up to work, but you never would have guessed that, if youre just looking at the data of how long it takes them to prepare something, for example, that would never probably register on your dashboard. When it enters a new market, DoorDash adds restaurants that have not signed up for delivery as a way to show restaurant owners the value it can bring, Mr. Xu said. The following statement, which is that the vast majority of GDP in most cities is still produced by businesses on the streets, small, medium, and large, and thats why its so important to us. And, at the company, we tend to like to say, bring your data and your insights, but not necessarily your opinions. And thats what Im most proud of when I look back at 2020, it wasnt necessarily what happened with an IPO. After discovering that many local merchants did not deliver, they created PaloAltoDelivery.com, a simple site with eight PDF menus and a phone number that rang their cellphones. It offers customers the convenience of ordering food from local restaurants through its intuitive website or mobile application. The Slack and Flickr cofounder shares lessons from entrepreneurship and life. In such a situation, I would first gather the required data to understand the root cause. Lazy people. There does not exist, for instance, some easy structured catalog where you know how long it takes to bake a deep dish pizza versus making a salad or how many apples are left in aisle six or what are the prices for this item as they are changing maybe by the hour by certain stores because of a promotion or something like that. Anybody done these? Because when you have lots of activity in the same geography, you have basically the the greatest density of work, if you will, the greatest density of work is what allows you to be more efficient and also achieve a lower-cost way of bringing things to places. Moreover, it provides competitive compensation, benefits, and opportunities for professional development for its employees. justafluke__ 2 mo. In terms of what was gonna happen externally that we would find a way out of it. I never hesitate to take calculated risks and try new approaches. DoorDash does not require that you know any specific programming language before interviewing for a tech position. Its not like that you kind of have to solve it there and then and so we thought that if we can tackle the hardest problem first, that other categories, at least from a pure last-mile logistics perspective, would be easier to do. Tony Xu: Yeah, I dont think its necessarily one mechanism or two mechanisms. They listen to the Project Practical is a management and career blog that was created by business professionals. Depending on the interviewers, you might expect this round to last anywhere from 30-75 mins. You can work alongside governments and elected officials on that, but you cant control that outcome, but you have to be prepared for what the consequences are. At DoorDash, designers are highly encouraged to bring a strong opinion and challenge the cross-functional partners. We expect DoorDash to see a significant valuation haircut, he said. Tony Xu: Sure, I think its really hard to follow maybe a curricula or some prescribed set of steps to do something that has very high variance. Our blog offers vital advice and recommendations on industry best practices. Were prepared for pretty much any scenario, regardless of what amount of capital was to come into the company. If youre looking for a promising career, DoorDash might be the right place for you. Adding real-time order tracking and notifications for customers. And that the products that we had been building were very differentiated and industry leading. So if you could take us back with you to that moment, the investors have soured on the delivery space and you had spent six months trying to get a lead investor for the next round and all you heard was no. Whether its delivering meals, those children who no longer can get them anymore because schools are closed, or to give healthcare workers free meals because theyre working 24/7. Stanford GSBs View From The Top is the Deans premier speaker series. Based on this information, I would prioritize and implement new features and improvements, such as:if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'projectpractical_com-banner-1','ezslot_5',629,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-projectpractical_com-banner-1-0'); I would also regularly test and evaluate the performance of these changes and improvements and use data and analytics to optimize the application and website for the best customer experience. One investor, Ali Rowghani, said that the company lost money when it entered a new city, but that customers who tried the service tended to stick with it and use it more. Its the prototypical entrepreneurship project, said Mr. Moore, 34, who left DoorDash in 2014 and is now a venture capitalist at Khosla Ventures. But also work with everyone else who created this labor system over the the last seven decades, eight decades in the US, and change it in a way that actually gives them also the protections that they deserve. 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I would document the customers feedback for recurring issues and provide feedback to the restaurant or delivery driver as well to take note of the mishap caused. In this View From The Top interview conducted by Joy Huang, MBA 21, the cofounder and CEO of DoorDash explains why problem solving means focusing on the smallest details, like working out logistics issues by making deliveries yourself. And, and I think that that was probably one of the earliest lessons I took were I think on one hand for me it was just hanging out with my mom. And then the second thing is just that you learn by doing. Its not trying to say, by doing this were gonna control some outcome. Moreover, my effective communication and collaboration, coupled with my strong analytical and strategic thinking and quick ability to learn and adapt to new technologies, make me an outstanding candidate. We have two products that will continue to grow both in terms of directions and magnitude. During student-led interviews and before a live audience, leaders from around the world share insights on effective leadership, their personal core values, and lessons learned throughout their careers. And I think what most consumers know us for which we bring you lunch or dinner, or now increasingly, convenience items and grocery supplies and things like this. These are not necessarily skills I had. And it is in talks to raise debt that would convert to equity when it goes public, said two people with knowledge of the discussions. Busy people. Nobody thought it was a good idea.. Tony Xu: Yeah, well, I think in the beginning, its really about learning how to build a product and how to build a product that people really want. For many companies, going public is a choice, said Pete Flint, an investor at the venture capital firm NFX whose partner backed DoorDash. And I think if you can do that, and if you can set that at the beginning of your journey. Could you help us first understand what this principle means? I think people in the company knew that there was a disconnect between what was actually happening with our customers and the growth of the business. Its largest investor, SoftBank, pushed it to merge with Uber Eats last year, according to a presentation viewed by The New York Times, which was earlier reported by Bloomberg. DoorDash said last week that it had confidentially filed to go public, setting itself up as a test for whether highly valued money-losing start-ups can make it onto the stock market at a time when Wall Street is deeply skeptical of such companies and the coronavirus outbreak has caused market turbulence. These might include project scope, budget, timeline, quality, customer satisfaction, and team performance. I think just being transparent with information, which was something that happened far before I think we had difficult moments than when the difficult moments inevitably came. 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