Jessica Lachs

VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash

VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash for over 10 years, was the first GM responsible for launching new markets, built one of the biggest and most impactful centralized data teams in tech, known for defining metrics that drive behavior and treating analytics as a business impact function rather than a service function.

The Scientist The Growth Scientist

Dimension Profile

Strategic Vision 45%

Execution & Craft 60%

Data & Experimentation 90%

Growth & Distribution 40%

Team & Leadership 60%

User Empathy & Research 50%

Key Themes

centralized data team model analytics as business impact function defining metrics that drive behavior retention is a terrible metric to goal on extreme ownership culture in data teams short-term metrics driving long-term outputs

Episode Summary

Jessica Lachs explains how she built one of tech's most impactful data organizations at DoorDash over a decade, arguing that analytics must be a business impact function (answering 'what do we do now?') rather than a service function (answering 'why?'). She makes the contrarian case for centralized data teams over embedded models and shares her approach to defining metrics, including why retention is a terrible metric to goal on because you need short-term metrics that drive long-term outputs.

Leadership Principles

→ Analytics is a business impact driving function, not a service function — not just answering the why, but answering the 'what do we do now that we know this?'
→ Retention is a terrible thing to goal on because it's almost impossible to drive in a meaningful way in the short term — find a short-term metric that drives the long-term output
→ A centralized analytics model is superior to embedded — the value you get from a center of excellence is far greater than what you lose

Notable Quotes

"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?'"
— On her philosophy for building DoorDash's data team

"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."
— On choosing the right metrics for teams

"You are a data scientist, but your goal is to figure out what's happening. If that means you're going to pick up the phone and call customers, then that is what you're going to do."
— On the extreme ownership culture expected of DoorDash's data team

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