Build a metric tree for Ads after a major redesign

Problem Statement Description

Product context: DoorDash is a local commerce and delivery platform; its products include restaurant delivery, DashPass, grocery and retail delivery, merchant tools, and dasher tools.

DoorDash has recently shipped a major redesign of its Ads product for restaurants. The redesign may affect how merchants create campaigns, how ads are served to consumers, how sponsored placements influence ordering behavior, and how DoorDash balances merchant ROI with marketplace health.

In this interview, you are asked to build a metric tree for the redesigned Ads experience. Focus on defining the business and product outcomes that should be tracked, how those outcomes break down into input metrics, and how the team should know whether the redesign is working for restaurants, consumers, Dashers, and DoorDash.

Your metric tree should be specific to a local commerce marketplace where restaurants pay for ads to drive incremental demand. Consider both advertiser-side behavior, such as campaign creation and spend, and marketplace-side effects, such as conversion, order quality, delivery reliability, and consumer trust.

The experience should consider:

- A clear north-star or primary success metric for DoorDash Ads after the redesign

- Metric definitions with appropriate denominators, such as per advertiser, per campaign, per impression, per store, or per market

- Funnel metrics across ad discovery, campaign setup, budget allocation, ad serving, consumer engagement, conversion, and repeat advertiser usage

- Merchant ROI and incrementality signals, not just gross ad revenue

- Cohorts such as new vs. existing advertisers, small vs. enterprise restaurants, cuisine type, market density, and budget size

- Guardrail metrics for consumer experience, organic marketplace health, Dasher operations, delivery reliability, and restaurant profitability

- Instrumentation needed to distinguish redesign impact from seasonality, pricing changes, marketplace supply shifts, or competitor activity

- Decision usefulness: which metrics would guide iteration, rollback, pricing changes, or broader rollout

The goal is to produce a structured metric tree that helps DoorDash evaluate whether the Ads redesign creates sustainable value for restaurants and the marketplace, rather than only increasing short-term ad spend.