Interview with Shali Nguyen
Design Leadership Interview at DoorDash
Hey Shali, thanks for taking time to chat today. Let’s start a quick introduction: please tell us what you do at DoorDash, and what you did prior to joining the company.
I lead the Consumer design team for DoorDash. Our team defines the experiences and platform for the DoorDash product that millions of users use every day to order any meal they desire from their favorite neighborhood restaurant. Beyond food delivery, the team partners closely with our New Verticals team (led by Erin Strange) to continue to expand the DoorDash portfolio to offer convenience, alcohol, grocery, retail and even pet food delivery!
Prior to DoorDash, I was at Meta for the last 7.5 years leading the Communities consumer team for Facebook. I also spent time building the team that created Facebook’s first design system and supported the effort towards a major redesign of the Facebook app known as FB5.
What made you decide to join DoorDash?
I’ve always had an interest and fascination with the restaurants and food industry. I grew up around restaurants with my grandmother coming to the U.S. and starting her business in San Jose, CA. Eventually my parents and other family members opened more restaurants and I’ve gained an appreciation for what it takes to run these kinds of businesses. My grandmother brought recipes that go back decades with an aim to share those with her local community. DoorDash’s mission enables these businesses to expand their offerings beyond dining in.
I’m also a power user of the product which became very important during the pandemic. I loved how DoorDash could bring me my favorite boba and chicken tikka masala, helping me solve the dinner time routine as a working mom with a toddler at home.
When Helena reached out to me about the opportunity, I knew I had to respond to learn more, and I’m glad I did!
Are there any aspects of DoorDash and our product that you find especially interesting or unique to work on?
DoorDash has so many interesting challenges and opportunities to continue to make the product even more useful to our customers. With our core restaurant delivery business, we are continuing to improve the experience to provide a frictionless experience from discovery, to shopping, to understanding where your food is until it arrives at your door. Efforts like DoubleDash I’ve found have unlocked a whole set of use cases for people who forgot something, wanted to add a dessert to their meal or solve that last minute “ran out of milk and eggs” problem.
The team is also working on efforts beyond restaurant delivery such as pick up, dining in, gifting and shipping experiences. There’s use cases around group ordering and catering that I think our product is just in its infancy stage and can continue investing to provide the best-in-class offering for people who want to plan larger meals together.
I’m also really excited about how we can improve our offerings for DashPass members. These are consumers that have made DoorDash part of their monthly lives and we can continue to bring more benefits like exclusive offerings or more savings here.
What inspired you to get into design?
I knew early on I wanted to get into the creative world. I dabbled in 3D in high school as I wanted to work at Pixar in the late 90’s. It was magical! However, in college, made a pivot towards the advertising world and aspired to be a creative director for a global ad agency. I was fascinated by the magic of well executed marketing that would become iconic such as Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign. I leveraged my scrappy web development skills to get myself an internship at McKinney (the agency that came up with Travelocity’s gnome!) in North Carolina while in college and continued to fall in love with the field of design.
I joined a small agency after college and started to PM/design a lead generation marketing tool we were building which introduced me to product design. From there, I knew building products had a lasting impact on improving the lives of users and ended up joining several start ups until my last one, Bre.ad, was acquired by Yahoo!
How did you get into people management?
Throughout my career, I’ve found myself in many moments spending time thinking about the optimal experience for people and being the one who organizes those experiences. From event planning, driving hiring processes, creating career frameworks and even office design — my start up days gave me a window into the kinds of projects leaders spend their time on. During my Yahoo days and Facebook days, it was apparent that people management was where my super powers could shine. After a year leading Facebook’s design system, I had the opportunity to switch career tracks to help grow and build the team over the next few years. I grew the team from 2 to 12, covering the design system, accessibility, quality and search.
How would you define your leadership and management style?
Ultimately, what we’re trying to achieve is making best-in-class products for the people that use them. We have an opportunity to dream up the future and make it a reality. My job is to set up the right environments for the team to do their best work and turn these ideas into reality. It’s a mix of hiring the best talent, making time for human connection and helping to clarify “the why” behind ambition we have ahead of us as a company.
Having a high bar for talent is important because I want to bring in people who are ready to push our products to that next level. I also know the team values working with peers that can help them grow in different dimensions. When you bring together complementary skill sets on a team, for example a craftsperson partnering with a prototyper, they can make each other stronger while producing some of the best vision narratives I’ve seen.
Human connection is another critical aspect of my leadership. This is about being available whenever a team member needs it. Whether a designer on my team wants to jam on product ideas, talk about their career trajectory, or get some feedback on a plan they wrote — I will make myself available. The other side of it is creating moments for the team to get together, bond and build friendships. Those relationships are what can help make building a product together so much more enjoyable and also be the people you connect with to get through the tough times.
The Consumer design team is growing rapidly these days, and you’re actively hiring for multiple roles. What are some of the qualities you look for in potential candidates?
For candidates looking to join us, there are a few dimensions I consider important. We want designers on the team to have a passion for the product space, have an eye for craft, be detail-oriented, know their superpower and strive to be 1% better every day.
- Passion for the product and product space — Does this person care about what DoorDash’s mission is and what we’re aiming to achieve in the long term? Have they used the product or are they willing to play with it before engaging with us? Thinking about our customers, their challenges and making their lives better is part of the role so it’s important to me that designers on the team take the steps to understand who they’re designing for. If DoorDash is part of your career narrative, being passionate for the space is what will help you succeed on the team.
- An eye for craft and details — Ultimately what the team creates is what we will ship. We are a small and nimble team, so having an eye for craft and being detail oriented is critical to make sure our products ship as intended. The designers on the team are expected to have thought through all the states and scenarios and work closely with their engineering partners to build the highest quality execution possible.
- A generalist with a superpower — While we hire generalist product designers who can take a project from concept to execution, everyone has the a few strengths that they bring to the table. I tend to look for product designers that know their strengths and can put that on display in their presentation. Whether you are a strong craftsperson or strategic product thinker, making this clear during the process helps me understand what you can bring to the team.
- 1% better every day — This is one of my favorite values we have at the company and it’s simply a narrative around being self aware of your areas of growth, being open to feedback and knowing that you have the growth mindset to take steps to be 1% better every day.
Interested in joining Shali’s team? Check out our career page for open Product Design roles.
One of the key relationships for any Design team is the partnership with Product. How would you describe the relationship between the teams here at DoorDash?
The teams here are highly collaborative. I really appreciate it when teams find opportunities to align goals and work together towards the best end-state experience for our users. I’ve found our product teams work hard to understand one another’s goals and are often steps ahead in finding synergy to collaborate on projects.
What do you enjoy doing outside of work? Do you have any hobbies or passions that you’re currently pursuing?
Currently my life outside of work is spent with my family. My daughter is three so it’s been a fun journey showing her the world and exploring new activities together. We’re doing a bit more traveling now that things are opening back up.
Thanks for taking the time to chat, Shali! One last question before we end: you live in the San Francisco Bay Area. What is your favorite food? Any restaurant recommendations on DoorDash?
I usually rotate between sushi, curry and mediterranean! It’s hard to pick a favorite but a go-to for sure is getting Chicken, Falafels and Hummus from Oren’s Hummus, with a DoubleDash of roasted barley milk tea with grass jelly from Tea Era.
Learn more about our other leaders featured in the DoorDash Design Leadership Series!
