Design a new feature in Pickup that helps merchants achieve better outcomes

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 Pickup lets customers order ahead and collect directly from a merchant, removing delivery logistics while still relying on DoorDash for demand generation, ordering, payments, menu accuracy, and customer communication. In this product design interview, you are asked to design a new Pickup feature that helps merchants achieve better outcomes within DoorDash’s local commerce marketplace.

Focus on merchant-facing value, not only consumer convenience. Merchants may be restaurants, cafes, convenience stores, grocery partners, or other local businesses that use Pickup to increase order volume, reduce operational friction, improve order accuracy, manage peak times, retain customers, or grow profitably. The feature should fit into the realities of merchant workflows: staff are busy, margins can be thin, operations vary by store type, and Pickup orders must integrate smoothly with in-store customers, delivery orders, kitchen capacity, inventory, and point-of-sale processes.

Your task is to define a meaningful merchant problem, identify the relevant merchant users and moments in their workflow, and propose a product experience that DoorDash could plausibly build for Pickup. You should consider how the feature creates value for merchants while maintaining a healthy marketplace experience for customers, Dashers where relevant, and DoorDash’s business.

The experience should consider:

- Which merchant segment or use case you are prioritizing, and why Pickup creates a distinct opportunity for them.

- The current Pickup workflow from order discovery through preparation, customer arrival, handoff, and post-order follow-up.

- Merchant pain points such as missed demand, inaccurate prep times, congestion, poor customer communication, refunds, menu or inventory issues, and lack of insight into Pickup performance.

- The merchant-facing surface where the feature would live, such as the merchant portal, tablet, POS integration, order manager, analytics dashboard, or customer-facing storefront controls.

- How the feature affects customers picking up orders, including clarity, wait time, reliability, and repeat usage.

- Operational constraints, including staff training, store capacity, peak-hour complexity, menu variability, and integration with existing merchant tools.

- How success could be evaluated through merchant outcomes such as incremental sales, repeat customers, order accuracy, reduced cancellations, lower wait times, better ratings, or improved profitability.

- Risks and trade-offs, including merchant workload, marketplace fairness, customer confusion, DoorDash unit economics, and adoption barriers.

The goal is to design a focused, high-impact Pickup feature that demonstrates a clear understanding of merchant needs, DoorDash’s marketplace dynamics, and the end-to-end product experience required to improve merchant outcomes without degrading customer trust or operational reliability.