DoorDash
DoorDash asks a combination of questions balancing behavioral and product case questions. Below is a list of questions that DoorDash is known to ask. One of the things unique to DoorDash (and maybe Twitter) is a focus on prioritization. Unlike Twitter that asks the prioritization question as a behavioral question, DoorDash asks a case-style prompt. They look for a focus on the user and how to solve their problems from behavioral through to case questions.
You will notice a few common patterns:
Delivery/Food Focus (OpenTable, Instacart, etc).
Non-Food Market place (Spotify, Airbnb)
Post-Booking Experience Questions (design & execution; food & other)
Prioritization
Various Execution Questions (Tradeoffs, Root Cause Analysis, Metrics, etc.)
What they look for in the initial phone screen:
Product Prioritization - Illustration of a framework for how you would solve a problem. You need to cover:
north-star metric
evaluate potential risks
stakeholder communicate
leverage data to drive your decisions (ex: user feedback or setup experiment)
keep your users top of mind
Product Sense - Typically you will be given an existing marketplace. Talk about what the product does well, what could be improved, and ideas to engage users of the product. Always consider users and scale concerns.
Design
Product Design/Sense
Core Prompts
How would you improve DoorDash?
What’s your favorite product and why?
OpenTable
Walk me through the experience of using OpenTable to book a reservation at a restaurant. How would you improve the experience?
How would you improve the worst post-booking experience at OpenTable?
How would solve the worst booking experience at OpenTable?
How would you improve the post-booking experience at OpenTable?
Spotify
What do you like about Spotify? How would you improve it?
What problems does [insert your favorite music app] solve for?
How would you improve Spotify?
How would you increase engagement for Spotify?
Other
How would you grow user engagement for YouTube Shorts, the TikTok competitor?
How would you improve the worst post-booking experience for an Airline?
Walk us through the product design of either the Apple app store or Google Play.
How would you improve the post-booking experience on TaskRabbit?
Design a product that helps teens find new places to eat.
Design/Execution
What are the top issues for GetAround, and how would you fix them?
What would be the worst problems for a delivery experience after order is placed?
You are a PM for Instacart. What can go wrong after a customer has placed an order?
Execution
Roadmaps & Prioritization
What 3-5 things do you think are on the next quarter's roadmap for DoorDash's diner-facing app? How would you prioritize these?
Assume you are PM at Airbnb; there are two problems to solve: customers being unable to check-in and customers having a dirty place. How would you prioritize?
You are the PM of OpenTable’s post-booking experience. How would you prioritize and solve their biggest issue?
Metrics for Success
How do you measure success for Yelp reviews?
Experimentation
How would you run a promotion to increase top-line, in-store revenue for Target? How would you decide what to promote? How would you run the experiment?
Root Cause Analysis
Conversion ratio at OpenTable has dipped 10% on one day. How would you troubleshoot? (Conversion: # of reservations made/total number of visits on the app)
Other
Technical Twist
Build the payment API for a charity event.
Improve Airbnb’s recommendation algorithm for guests.
Format of DoorDash’s PM Interview Panel
INTERVIEW FORMAT + DETAILS
1. - PRODUCT SENSE: During this round we will discuss the Apple App Store OR the Google Play Store (your choice). You will discuss as if you were a PM working on a specific problem to do with experience, so further details of the prompt will be given live during the interview. Goal of this round: how do you think about ways to build and improve products at scale?
Come prepared to discuss the following:
What the product is + what it does
What do you think the product does well? What could it do better?
How to grow the business
2. PRODUCT PRIORITIZATION: This round is intended to assess how you break down a problem, prioritize opportunities and go about fixing them. You'll be presented with a third-party business problem as the prompt
NOTE: For us, the most important part of this round is the framework of prioritization you use to set up metrics and solve the problem you are faced with, not as much on the actual solutions you'll come up with.
3. ANALYTICS INTERVIEW: You will be given another third-party business problem as the prompt in this round. The goal: assess how you incorporate analytics into the product development process to influence product decisions. Note that an emphasis will be placed on your understanding of experimentation and the strengths and weaknesses of different metrics
NOTE: No actual calculations are necessary in this round.
NOTE: Adding in a general blog post for you to review (high level) how DoorDash looks at experimentation
4. PRODUCT VALUES: This is the behavior portion of the interview!
Example Q's: Why do you want to work for DoorDash? What are your career goals? What's been an important piece of feedback you've gotten? What are the values you look for in an opportunity? etc
NOTE: I would recommend reviewing our DoorDash values (below) to aid in supporting your examples during this portion
Additional Resources
DOORDASH VALUES SUMMARY:
You can find a full list of their values here
REVIEW THESE 'QUICK CLICKS' BELOW:
Inclusion + Belonging @ DoorDash
Powering Impact and Access in Communities Across the U.S.
Four Challenges when Launching a Product Partnership