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

So you built one of the largest and most respected data teams in all of tech.

For 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.

One of your colleagues told me that you're incredibly good at defining metrics.

Retention is a terrible thing to goal on. It's almost impossible to drive in a meaningful way in a short term. Ultimately, you want to find a short-term metric you can measure that drives a long-term output.

You mentioned the early team had felt extreme ownership.

Yes, you are a data scientist, but your goal is to figure out what's happening, and if that means that you're gonna pick up the phone and call customers, then that is what you're going to do to. So roll up your sleeves.

(instrumental music) Today my guest is Jessica Lacks. Jessica is vice president of analytics and data science at DoorDash, which has built one of the biggest and most impactful data teams in tech. She's been at DoorDash for over 10 years, and was the first GM at DoorDash responsible for launching new markets. Previously, Jessica founded Get Simple, a social gifting startup, and began her career in investment banking at Lehman Brothers. In our conversation, we go deep on how to build and scale your data org, including why a centralized org model is so effective, what to look for when hiring data people, how to pick the right metrics for teams to align incentives and drive the right sorts of outcomes, examples of how the data team at DoorDash has helped the business make better decisions, a bunch of great stories about the early days of DoorDash, and a ton more. If you enjoy this podcast, don't forget to subscribe and follow it in your favorite podcasting app or YouTube. It's the best way to avoid missing future episodes and helps the podcast tremendously. With that, I bring you Jessica Lacks. Jessica, thank you so much for being here, and welcome to the podcast.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited to be here.

So you've built one of the largest and most respected data teams in all of tech. I've heard from a number of people that look to you for advice when they're trying to build and scale their data teams. And then DoorDash, in particular, is an incredibly complex business. There's, uh, three or maybe even four sites to the marketplace. There's this operational element. From the outside, it just feels extremely complicated and wild. I imagine from the inside it's even more wild. Let's talk about some of the things you've learned about building and scaling the team. You have a fairly contrarian perspective on how to structure data teams. This is referent- this was referenced when we had Elizabeth Stone on the podcast too. She approaches data the same way. So I'd love to hear just your take on how to structure data teams within companies. This episode is brought to you by Webflow. We're all friends here, so let's be real for a second. We all know that your website shouldn't be a static asset. It should be a dynamic part of your strategy that drives conversions. That's business 101. But here's a number for you. 54% of leaders say web updates take too long. That's over half of you listening right now. That's where Webflow comes in. Their visual first platform allows you to build, launch, and optimize web pages fast. That means you can set ambitious business goals and your site can rise to the challenge. Learn how teams like Dropbox, IDEO, and Orangetheory trust Webflow to achieve their most ambitious goals today at webflow.com. This episode is brought to you by Anvil. Their document SDK helps product teams build and launch software for documents fast. Companies like Carta and Vouch Insurance use Anvil to accelerate the development of their document workflows. Getting to market fast is a top priority for product teams. And the last thing that you or your developers want is to build document workflows from scratch. It's time-consuming, expensive, and distracts from core work. You could stitch together multiple tools and manage those integrations, or you can use an all-in-one document SDK. Most product managers will tell you paperwork sucks. Anvil's document SDK helps teams get to market fast, incorporate your brand style, and give you back time to focus on your company's core differentiated features. For your users, paperwork often starts with an AI-powered web form styled and embedded in your application. From there, you can route data to your backend systems and to the correct fields in your PDFs via API. Complete the process with a white labeled e-signature. The best part about Anvil is the level of customization their SDK provides. Non-technical folks love Anvil's drag-and-drop builder, and developers love their flexible APIs and easy to understand documentation. Build document software fast with Anvil. That's useanvil.com/lenny to learn more or start a free trial. That's useanvil.com/lenny.