At DoorDash, our Strategy & Operations (S&O) function is the engine that drives our business forward, supporting launching new geographies and products while building and testing the strategic plans at every step. DoorDash embraces and invests in this function because of our belief in an ownership mentality — our employees can develop the strategy and execute it.
The S&O function works collaboratively across the business with teams like finance, marketing, our merchant partners, sales, and our account management team. Working in this function requires individuals to be interconnected across teams, often with more engagement with specific teams (like product, engineering, and analytics) than others.
Because this team works quite cross functionally, initiatives and projects have to be prioritized and balanced based on driving results in the current state of the business, while also anticipating future needs.
We are a customer obsessed organization, building strategy that is oriented towards the customer, then investing in the right tech to solve those problems.
"DoorDash is a highly nimble organization,” says Ricky Rios, Director, Strategy & Operations. “Our long term strategy is going to be delivering what’s best for our customers, which are our merchants, dashers, and consumers.”
As teams in the S&O space work on both large and small-scale projects, innovation often comes directly from customer feedback. Innovation touches all sides of our marketplace, whether it’s moving with speed and enhancing the customer experience with express delivery options, driving an initiative to introduce Dasher photos confirming deliveries, or helping to boost visibility of businesses most relevant to our consumers.
Innovating and building strategy is only part of the work in the S&O function at DoorDash. Leading with data, pulling insights, and being able to show a quantitative component to nearly every decision being made is an expectation that comes with such a high-impact role.
“Every plan begins with a customer problem. So from a skills perspective, this means being able to analyze data and pull insights,” says Akosua Achampong, Manager, Strategy & Operations.
On a day to day basis, teams use visualization tools such as SQL and Excel to validate decisions and strategic direction.
Ultimately, success in an S&O role at DoorDash takes many forms. Depending on which side of the business you support, there are different North Stars driving goals and strategy forward.
“Doing right by our consumers on the three-sided marketplace (Consumers, Merchants, and Dashers), making something better and more efficient, that is successful. If we find out that something doesn’t work, that is also a different kind of success because we’re going to pivot and go after something else,” says Akosua.
If this work sounds energizing, here are some tips and tricks from Bertony Jean-Louis, Manager, Strategy & Operations on what can help you stand out during the interview process:
- Demonstrate an understanding of the business, and more specifically what part of the business you’re interviewing for
- Have a cohesive story outlining what you did and the actual result from it
- Demonstrate an ability to navigate ambiguity
- When answering questions to the extent that it’s relevant, frame answers in terms of impact and implications to the key stakeholders of the business
Click here to learn more about our Missions and Values and if you’re interested in joining our team, check out S&O roles below.
