DoorDash product improvement: get customers to order more often

DoorDash is an on-demand delivery app, best known for bringing restaurant meals to customers' doors. You are asked how you would increase user engagement on DoorDash. Decide what engagement should mean for this product, which users you would focus on and what you would build for them, and explain how you would measure the result. ```hint Define engagement before improving it App opens and time spent in the app are weak goals for a delivery service. Decide which behavior shows that a customer is getting real value, then look for the customers with the most room to do more of it. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Which users are in scope: customers who place orders, Dashers who deliver them, or merchants who sell through the app? - Does engagement mean ordering more often, ordering across more categories, or keeping new customers active after their first orders? - Should the answer cover only restaurant delivery, or also groceries, convenience items and retail orders? - Is growth through deeper discounts off the table, or is there a budget for incentives? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A definition of engagement tied to real ordering behavior rather than app activity, and a reasoned choice of customer segment. - The pain points that limit how often that segment orders, such as total price, choosing what to order, reliability and the occasions they think of the app for. - Prioritized solutions and a focused first release that goes beyond existing features and plain discounts. - A success metric with guardrails that protect unit economics, Dashers and merchants. - Awareness of marketplace effects when testing and scaling the changes. ### Follow-up Questions - Your change raises order frequency, but the average order gets smaller and the delivery cost per order rises. Is it a win? - How would you test a change that also affects how many Dashers are needed at peak times? - Which customers would you deliberately not try to engage more, and why?