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Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash)

14 Jul 2024 28 published claims 2 attributable people
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Speakers in the public record

Jessica LachsLenny Rachitsky

Claim mix

belief 12recommendation 6evaluation 5uncertainty 2prediction 1preference 1commitment 1

Evidence policy

Every row below preserves an exact excerpt. Identified speakers are linked; unresolved voices are labeled and excluded from people counts.

Claim ledger

The useful parts, with receipts.

28 published records

01 / recommendation

Likes The Rose Code.

“I tend to read fiction, particularly historical fiction, and I love spy novels. So I think my brain is always in problem-solving mode even when reading. A recent book that I read that I enjoyed was The Rose Code by Kate Quinn, and it's about women code breakers in World War II, and I really enjoyed that. But rather than recommending a book... I guess I did just recommend a book, but rather than recommending another book, I am going to recommend the Libby app and supporting your local public library because I love the library and I love Libby, so I'll give that as my other recommendation.”
Speaker
Jessica Lachs
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

02 / recommendation

Recommends Korean sunscreens. Recommends Beauty of Joseon.

“I was introduced to them by a friend of mine, and they're just far superior to what we have in the US. So I highly recommend people give Korean sunscreens a try, particularly there's a Beauty of Joseon on branded sunscreen.”
Speaker
Jessica Lachs
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

05 / prediction

Where are their pockets of opportunity? That is what I expect my team to be able to bring to that table, the proverbial table, that we want to see that.

“Where are their pockets of opportunity? That is what I expect my team to be able to bring to that table, the proverbial table, that we want to see that.”
Speaker
Jessica Lachs
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

06 / belief

There's some really unique characteristics that I've noticed when I look at some of the top talent that I've had on the team or have on the team. I think the first thing is just curiosity.

“There's some really unique characteristics that I've noticed when I look at some of the top talent that I've had on the team or have on the team. I think the first thing is just curiosity.”
Speaker
Jessica Lachs
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

07 / belief

I think when you have the central org, you're able to see if there are growth opportunities in other areas within the company. And so that really helps folks to stay engaged because they can look at new problems if the problems they've been working on for several years are getting maybe boring and they want something new, there's an opportunity, move from marketing over to merchant analytics.

“I think when you have the central org, you're able to see if there are growth opportunities in other areas within the company. And so that really helps folks to stay engaged because they can look at new problems if the problems they've been working on for several years are getting maybe boring and they want something new, there's an opportunity, move from marketing over to merchant analytics.”
Speaker
Jessica Lachs
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

08 / belief

I think you can also ask for examples that for these folks typically will highlight this, they'll talk about, "I noticed this thing, and so we decided to investigate.

“I think you can also ask for examples that for these folks typically will highlight this, they'll talk about, "I noticed this thing, and so we decided to investigate.”
Speaker
Jessica Lachs
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

09 / belief

I know you had some art background, you had an art portfolio back in school, and I think a lot of people wouldn't imagine that for someone being head of analytics for a company like DoorDash.

“I know you had some art background, you had an art portfolio back in school, and I think a lot of people wouldn't imagine that for someone being head of analytics for a company like DoorDash.”
Speaker
Lenny Rachitsky
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

12 / belief

I think that that was really, really influential and was probably the first time I saw that you can do whatever you put your mind to, no matter your age, no matter your circumstances.

“I think that that was really, really influential and was probably the first time I saw that you can do whatever you put your mind to, no matter your age, no matter your circumstances.”
Speaker
Jessica Lachs
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

13 / belief

I mean, yes, you are a data scientist, but your goal is to figure out what's happening, and if that means that you're going to pick up the phone and call customers, then that is what you're going to do." And I think that expecting that and setting that as the norm for the team, this ownership of the outcome is something that we continue to do at DoorDash and instill in everyone whether you were early or just joined last month.

“I mean, yes, you are a data scientist, but your goal is to figure out what's happening, and if that means that you're going to pick up the phone and call customers, then that is what you're going to do." And I think that expecting that and setting that as the norm for the team, this ownership of the outcome is something that we continue to do at DoorDash and instill in everyone whether you were early or just joined last month.”
Speaker
Jessica Lachs
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

14 / evaluation

" Let's see what ideas might work in a Volt country that don't work in a DoorDash country and vice versa. So I think I tend to focus more on what's the same, and then I'm pleasantly surprised when I find things that are different because that keeps you on your toes and keeps things interesting.

“" Let's see what ideas might work in a Volt country that don't work in a DoorDash country and vice versa. So I think I tend to focus more on what's the same, and then I'm pleasantly surprised when I find things that are different because that keeps you on your toes and keeps things interesting.”
Speaker
Jessica Lachs
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

15 / belief

I want to hear about them, but I think something that some people may think when you say essential org is like a silo data team that sits there and they're like a service org a little bit within the company.

“I want to hear about them, but I think something that some people may think when you say essential org is like a silo data team that sits there and they're like a service org a little bit within the company.”
Speaker
Lenny Rachitsky
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

16 / uncertainty

Every decision we make, what is the actual Knight's book impact? And so I imagine in your case, I don't know if you want to talk about these things.

“Every decision we make, what is the actual Knight's book impact? And so I imagine in your case, I don't know if you want to talk about these things.”
Speaker
Lenny Rachitsky
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

17 / belief

There's so many threads I want to follow here, one that's a tangent, but something that I think a lot of people struggle with is you talked about how you want your data team, your analytics team to be proactive, to find opportunities, to give you ideas, to help you figure out what to build, not just answer questions.

“There's so many threads I want to follow here, one that's a tangent, but something that I think a lot of people struggle with is you talked about how you want your data team, your analytics team to be proactive, to find opportunities, to give you ideas, to help you figure out what to build, not just answer questions.”
Speaker
Lenny Rachitsky
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

18 / belief

You want to move them all. But being able to prioritize and know what you're going to get for a 20% improvement in, say, your cancellation rate, that's where analytics I think can add a lot of value.

“You want to move them all. But being able to prioritize and know what you're going to get for a 20% improvement in, say, your cancellation rate, that's where analytics I think can add a lot of value.”
Speaker
Jessica Lachs
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

19 / evaluation

" So yes, someone might say it's simpler to have a composite metric, but it was so hard to understand what it was and how to move it that it became meaningless. And ultimately moving to something that was simpler to understand, even if it meant having three metrics instead of one, it ultimately was better for the team because folks knew what they were trying to move.

“" So yes, someone might say it's simpler to have a composite metric, but it was so hard to understand what it was and how to move it that it became meaningless. And ultimately moving to something that was simpler to understand, even if it meant having three metrics instead of one, it ultimately was better for the team because folks knew what they were trying to move.”
Speaker
Jessica Lachs
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

20 / recommendation

I guess I did just recommend a book, but rather than recommending another book, I am going to recommend the Libby app and supporting your local public library because I love the library and I love Libby, so I'll give that as my other recommendation.

“I guess I did just recommend a book, but rather than recommending another book, I am going to recommend the Libby app and supporting your local public library because I love the library and I love Libby, so I'll give that as my other recommendation.”
Speaker
Jessica Lachs
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

21 / preference

Sometimes you have to just pick a direction and make a decision even though you don't have perfect information. So I like to see some of these softer skills and how they manifest throughout a case interview, even if it's not specifically what I'm asking with the literal problem we're solving in the case.

“Sometimes you have to just pick a direction and make a decision even though you don't have perfect information. So I like to see some of these softer skills and how they manifest throughout a case interview, even if it's not specifically what I'm asking with the literal problem we're solving in the case.”
Speaker
Jessica Lachs
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

22 / recommendation

You have to be very intentional to carve out time for exploratory work for deep dives because as you mentioned, there are always more questions and more work to be done than hours in the day. And so I think being intentional about it and setting goals for your team around finding these insights through self-directed work is an important mechanism for holding ourselves accountable to that goal because it tends to be the first thing that goes when you get a lot of inbounds, you're like, "All right, well, let's deep dive on something that I don't know if it's really something.

“You have to be very intentional to carve out time for exploratory work for deep dives because as you mentioned, there are always more questions and more work to be done than hours in the day. And so I think being intentional about it and setting goals for your team around finding these insights through self-directed work is an important mechanism for holding ourselves accountable to that goal because it tends to be the first thing that goes when you get a lot of inbounds, you're like, "All right, well, let's deep dive on something that I don't know if it's really something.”
Speaker
Jessica Lachs
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

23 / evaluation

" And I think that night was one of the largest refunds as a percent of our bank account that we had ever given out. And I think Tony, there were two examples that he's talked about where we just gave a lot of money back to customers because it was the right thing to do because our service failed and we wanted to do right by them.

“" And I think that night was one of the largest refunds as a percent of our bank account that we had ever given out. And I think Tony, there were two examples that he's talked about where we just gave a lot of money back to customers because it was the right thing to do because our service failed and we wanted to do right by them.”
Speaker
Jessica Lachs
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

24 / evaluation

All of which came about from this deep dive where we found that this group of consumers was really a drag on the efficiency of this marketing channel. And so I think that's an example of a few things that we like to do at DoorDash.

“All of which came about from this deep dive where we found that this group of consumers was really a drag on the efficiency of this marketing channel. And so I think that's an example of a few things that we like to do at DoorDash.”
Speaker
Jessica Lachs
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast
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