Challenge an Executive Launch Assumption

Project Background

At DoorDash, you are the PM leading a 10-week launch readiness effort for a new courier incentive program intended to improve weekend delivery times in 8 major U.S. cities. The cross-functional team includes 4 engineers, 1 data scientist, 1 operations manager, 1 finance partner, and 1 marketing lead. The launch is urgent because the COO has committed to improving on-time delivery by the end of the quarter after two quarters of declining customer satisfaction.

Your data scientist's analysis shows that the COO's core belief is likely wrong: higher courier bonuses do improve courier supply, but in the last 6 pilots they did not materially improve on-time delivery in dense urban markets. Instead, the analysis suggests batching logic and merchant prep delays are the bigger drivers. The COO still wants to proceed with a full launch of the incentive program and has already mentioned it in the quarterly business review.

Key Stakeholders

The COO wants a visible, fast launch tied to a public operating goal. Finance wants proof that the program can stay within budget. Operations wants fewer escalations from city managers. Engineering wants to avoid building a rushed incentive system if the root cause is elsewhere. City managers support anything that reduces late deliveries before a major holiday weekend.

Constraints

• Timeline: 10 weeks to launch before Labor Day
• Budget: $600,000 total launch budget, with no additional headcount
• Engineering capacity: 4 engineers, but 1 is only available 50% due to an active reliability project
• Dependency: incentive payout vendor requires 3 weeks for integration certification
• Pilot data: only 6 prior city pilots, with mixed quality instrumentation

Complications

1. The COO has already told the board this program is the primary fix for delivery delays.
2. Finance warns that a national rollout would exceed budget by 35% if courier participation is higher than forecast.
3. Two city managers are pushing for immediate rollout in their markets before the holiday weekend.

Your Task

1. Create an execution plan for the next 10 weeks.
2. Explain how you would present the contradictory analysis to the COO and align stakeholders.
3. Recommend whether to launch, delay, or narrow scope, and justify the trade-offs.
4. Define launch success criteria, monitoring, and rollback triggers.
5. Identify the top risks and mitigation actions.