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Jessica Lachs

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2024-07-14
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2024-07-14
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  1. “First off, I have imposter syndrome like everybody else. So it's not like I have this crazy sense of confidence of like, I can do anything. I definitely have the same doubts. And that others have. I think part of it was probably not even realizing what I was doing when you're at a startup and things are moving quickly and you see a problem and I've always liked solving problems. So I was like, all right, how do I solve this problem? It was like, oh, well, I need to access to the data. I don't have access to the data. All right, I'll ask an engineer to get me the data. Well, this isn't going to scale. I can't always bother, you know, an engineer. So how do I figure out how to get the data myself? Well, let's learn Python. So I think it kind of came, it happened organically, and I don't think I realized at the time what I was even doing. And then I think if you think about things from first principles about what you need right now,”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “But I think that that non-traditional background has been a great thing because I'm able to hire people who have the technical skills that I don't have, the folks with PhDs and statistics and the data scientists, machine learning and otherwise, you know, I'm able to hire those folks. And yet keep them really focused on driving business impact because my background was in the on the finance side. And so I've always been a pragmatist. And for me, the purpose of our team is to drive business impact. And so the mix between the technical skills of the smarter people that I've hired, the smarter than myself, and my kind of grounding in driving business impact has been a really great, great partnership.”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “I think I just gravitated towards that type of work, and Tony recognized that superpower in me, even though I don't have that formal training. So yeah, I'm a bit of an artist for fun, but I guess a data scientist in practice or”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “Yeah, it's funny, I sort of joke that I have a job I'd never be hired for because I don't have a traditional data science background. And I know that Elizabeth Stone on her podcast with you talked a lot about her sort of non-traditional background for a CTO. So, hey, maybe there's something to it. But I became a data scientist out of necessity. completely self-taught in terms of SQL and Python. I did it because there was a need at DoorDash for someone to help figure out what the right goals were, how we set those goals, how we were performing different markets kind of early in the DoorDash story, so 10 years ago at this point. And I just had a”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “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, you know, the literal problem we're solving in the case.”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Of wrong, right? They make an assumption that's wrong because, well, I would hope that the interviewer knows the business better than the interviewee. And seeing how people react to being told they're wrong is a really important signal, in my opinion. Seeing how people respond, how they're able to take new information and kind of pivot, how they're able to make a decision. So that's another thing that I like to see in cases where you may not know the right the real right decision. You might say, hey, I could see it going one way. I could see it going the other way. But I always push people to say, if you had to make a call right now, what would it be? So are people able to have a point of view without full information? Because that's life. 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.”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Our interview process has, in the early stages, a coding exercise. So we do our technical screen and a shortened version of a business case. So real world problem solving. Typically, it's something actually from DoorDash history, like a real problem that we had to see how people can problem solve on the fly. I think that that's an important skill to be able to have, which is how do you take a problem, break it down, talk through it a little bit like some of those consulting cases that you hear about, but something that's really rooted in real problems. And I think you can learn a lot from those types of cases where, yes, you get to see how people handle ambiguity and structured problem solving. But ultimately, most people get something.”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “For these folks typically will highlight this. They'll talk about, you know, I noticed this thing. And so we decided to investigate. So I think that there are ways that you can get it signal through the interview process. But it's really hard. I think testing for hard skills is a lot easier than testing for soft skills. And I think, you know, in some of the questions we ask, we'll ask a question with the idea that we're assessing something separate than what the question is necessarily asking. And I think that this is one example of where that really works.”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “One way you can do it through the questions you ask is have something that is not quite right within the case that you're presenting and see if people notice first and foremost. And even if they don't, if you point it out, right? Like where do they go with that? I think that that's something that you can test for. I think you can also ask for examples that”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “And proactively looks into what that is. Like that is just so valuable. So I really look for that curiosity and that self motivation to do it without being told.”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Yeah, I mean, so everybody needs to have a certain set of technical skills. I think that's sort of a non-starter. You have a technical bar. We do a technical screen. So I think that's table stakes. 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. You can't teach curiosity or at least I haven't found a way to do it. If somebody else knows how, please let me know. Somebody who is just self-motivated to pull on the threads when they find them. So they don't just answer a question. They're like, hmm, this thing seems a little odd. I'm going to dig in and look, even though I could say I'm done. I answered the question. I did the thing I was going to do. The person that has that curiosity, something, something seems off, something doesn't really make sense and goes.”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Every once in a while, you just kind of throw one over and say, you know what, this is quick, I'll do it. At least I do. I think, you know, sometimes just knock it out, build some goodwill. I think that that's also important. But usually it's not something you can do in five minutes. And in that case, it's that ruthless prioritization for sure.”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “Having the conversation and constantly reevaluating your prioritization to make sure you're working on the most important things or your team is working on the most important things is really good hygiene to have with your business. We like this prioritization? Do we not? Some folks do it less formally than that. I think you got to figure out what works for you. But to the earlier point, it's a conversation with your engineering partner, your product partner, your ops partner. You're all on the same team. You're all trying to achieve the same goals. And you're all incentivized to have your analytics team working on the most impactful things.”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “Data poll that you want me to do. Is this more important than these other three things that I was going to be working on? Yes or no? And I think when you, sometimes people don't necessarily realize the tradeoffs. And when you make them apparent and you put them front and center, they realize that, oh, actually, you know what, that asset's not important. That can wait. So I think that that's definitely something I would recommend, which is always share the trade-offs. Don't kind of suffer in silence with how am I going to do all four of these things. Bring it up and say, hey, this is what I was planning to do. If you want me to do this extra new thing, then one of these other things is going to have to drop. And I personally don't think that your ask is more important than these three things, but maybe there's new information. Maybe there's context I don't have. So let's talk about it rather than just being like, no, I won't do that. I don't think that's not a great approach either.”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “Yeah, I mean say no to someone is never fun. I think as a self-proclaimed people pleaser, you don't want to say no, especially when it's something you can do and you know that you can very easily with maybe an hour's work make someone happy. I think it's really important for to establish a culture and to for leadership to really sort of establish the rules of working and that operating model so that some of the junior folks aren't forced to always have to say no. And I think one of the ways we do that is through our goaling. So because our goals are the same as our business partners, we're able to pretty easily say, hey, we've got a limited amount of time. These are our goals. What are the most important things that we are going to work on this week or this month in order for both of us to hit our goals? And so when something comes up to be able to say, hey, is this”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “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. One being these deep dives and taking the time to really understand the problem and then ultimately make a bunch of recommendations for what we should do, including better fraud checks, caps on referrals, et cetera, et cetera, but also sort of how this average can be incredibly misleading. And so looking at distributions and trying to kind of break down what you're seeing to find ways that you can optimize and ways that you can gain inefficiencies.”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “Kept ordering cupcakes. And what we noticed was that referral as a channel was a bit misleading when you would look at the average in terms of payback and that it was really a bimodal distribution. And you had one group of really great consumers who were referring other really great consumers. And the payback on those consumers was really strong. In fact, if you, if that's all you saw, you would spend a lot more on that channel. And then what was happening was you had this other group of consumers that were not as good, people who were posting referral codes online and getting people who were just in it to get free discounts and credits. And we had at that point in time pretty lax fraud rules and we didn't have caps on these things.”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “So, one interesting example was from a hackathon we did a couple years ago where we were looking at referral as a channel for consumer acquisition. And when you compared that channel to others, it was Below average in terms of the engagement you'd see from consumers who came through that channel and the payback period. And we, rather than just lowering spend on referrals and moving right along, we really wanted to understand what was happening. And so during the hackathon, we did a deep dive into referral. We actually tried referring each other. We tried committing referral fraud, creating new accounts to get around rules. And we uncovered a lot of fraudulent behavior through this deep dive. We ordered so many cupcakes to the office. I remember using referral credits to because you had to place an order to be able to get the referral bonus. So we would create the account, place the orders.”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “To prevent that time from just slipping away, you really have to be intentional. We would do hackathons for our team to carve out days to just go and look into these really interesting things and find opportunities. And I think we have the support of our business partners because so many great insights have come from these deep dives. And it really has been some of the work that drives future roadmaps. So they're always really great at allowing us to have this time and actually encourage us often to have this time for some self-directed work to go find the next big opportunity.”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “Yeah, I mean, such a good question. I think it's something that never gets easier. 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 Know a lot of inbounds. You're like, all right, well, this deep dive on something that I don't know if it's really something, you know, the could be high ROI, could be low ROI, I don't know. So the expected value is lower than this known thing that I can deliver and make someone happy. And so I think”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “I think that's really important, not just externally for recruiting top talent, but the team is really proud to be members of the analytics team. We have a unique culture, you know, of learning, of sharing. You have someone you can go to to talk about your challenges. You have someone who can peer review your work. I think just having that team culture that we have is really important. And it's a lot harder to get when you have individual individual silos, particularly in an earlier stage when it's a smaller team. You just don't have as many people around. So everybody wants to have friends at work. And we're creating an environment where they can find like-minded kind of data nerds.”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “Team and sales as defined by another team. You just have sales and everybody is using kind of the same metrics, the same methodologies. And you're able to improve your methodologies with input from more people. And rather than kind of recreating the wheel, doing the same, building the same churn prediction model on six different teams, you can instead build one and have the input of six different teams. I think that's definitely another benefit also helps you to scale because you start to see the same problems across teams. And so you're like, oh, this is an issue that we need to get ahead of. This is something we need to automate or this is something that we need to improve upon or a problem that is going to grow as our business, as our team scales. So I think it helps you see around corners a little bit more. And then just lastly, there's the team culture brand.”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “In other areas within the company. And so that really helps folks to stay engaged because they can look at new problems if the kind of problems they've been working on for several years or getting maybe boring and they want something new, there's an opportunity. Move from marketing over to merchant analytics. And then I think similarly, if there isn't a promotion or room to grow, if you want to be a people manager and there just isn't a people management role kind of within your functional area, well, you've got 10 other ones to look at and maybe there is that opportunity. So I think it helps with the growth opportunities for the team, which helps to retain talent. So that's a second thing. The third thing is just consistency of methodologies and metrics. So you don't have sales that was as defined by one.”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “Oh, there's so many. Okay, so the first thing is a consistent and high talent bar. I think this is something I saw when we would have some sort of pockets of analytics folks embedded is the having a consistent bar for talent in terms of what we're looking for, what are the technical skills, what are the soft skills, and being able to kind of evaluate candidates with that same bar using sort of our same rubric, just you just get more consistent and higher talent, in my opinion. I think that's number one. Number two is actually growth opportunities. So if you're siloed, you may be the most senior data person within keep picking on marketing, but you might be the most senior sort of data scientist within marketing. Where do you go from there? I think when you have the central org, you're able to see if there are growth opportunities.”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “Initiatives that they do. And it's just our job to come at it from a data driven place. We bring to the table insights on things that we've noticed, deep dives that we do to understand the problems that we're trying to solve better. If we need to grow, what are the most efficient ways to grow? What are the trade-offs that we have to make? Where are there 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. And so, and in order to earn their spot, that's the deal. We get the seat at the table and we need to earn it by bringing opportunities that we all can go and go after.”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “Oh, no, no, no, no. That job seems terrible. I don't want that job. No, we are very much, you know, to the earlier point, we have a seat at the table. We are business partners. We are thought partners with our product counterparts, with our engineering counterparts, with our ops counterparts. And we again share the same goals and have the same”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “That's been really a good way to, a happy medium, but still preserves all the benefits of a central org. And there are a lot of them.”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  28. “Biggest issues with a central team. So for us, we have a central analytics team, but we are divided up into pods that map perfectly with how product engineering, operations, marketing are structured as well. And so our team de facto has these folks embedded with our partner teams, even though the reporting structure is up through a central org through me. And that helps the team to feel like they are one team, both in terms of the analytics team feeling like it's one team, but also to use the marketing example, the marketing folks are one team. And because the analytics shares the same goals as the marketing leaders, your incentives are aligned to work on the most important things and your success is their success and vice versa. So I think.”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  29. “Exactly. Yeah. So you'd have a bunch of sort of smaller, of course, data teams that sit embedded within the functions. And I understand why Business leaders like that, you know, you're embedded within the functions, you're a part of team, that ownership, that camaraderie that comes with that. I think you can solve for that, but I do understand that that is benefit. I think the other benefit, of course, is the business leaders control the roadmaps. So they get to dictate the work.”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  30. “Great question. So, mostly it's in terms of reporting lines because I think on the goal side, that is something where we have the same goals that our partner teams have. And I think that that's actually an important part of a successful central model. So when I say central model, it just means that instead of for marketing analytics, marketing analytics is part of the broader analytics team. It does not sit and report in through marketing. That just to clarify.”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  31. “Day the team, I think the second thing, which may be a little more contrarian, is I think there are people out there who think that analytics should be embedded into business units. I strongly disagree. I believe a central model, a center of excellence is superior. And I'm happy to talk about why, but that's something that I feel quite strongly about. We've tried it or I shouldn't, well. We've experimented in the past with the alternative, so putting it into a business unit. And it's just much more problematic. And I think the value you get from a central model is far greater than some of the things that you might lose.”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  32. “There's two main things that I think are important when you're structuring a team. The first is I believe that analytics should have a seat at the table, just like engineering and product and sort of the business folks, the operators. For me, analytics is a business impact driving function and not purely a service function. I think there are analytics teams at other companies where they are answering people's questions, maybe even through jura tickets or building dashboards. That was never really of interest to me. That wasn't the team that I wanted to build. For me, it's about finding opportunities, about having a point of view on the decisions that we should make, not just answering the why, but answering the so what, so what do we do now that we know this? And so that's definitely one thing as far as my point of view on building a”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  33. “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. So roll up your sleeves.”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  34. “Kenjin is a terrible thing to go on. It's almost impossible to drive in a meaningful way in the short term. Ultimately, you want to find a short-term metric you can measure that drives a long term.”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  35. “Me, analytics is a business impact driving function and not purely a service function. Not just answering the why, but answering the what do we do now that we know this.”

    2024-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source