After DoorDash’s acquisition of Caviar, premium restaurants were struggling to translate their in-person hospitality into takeout. These merchants weren’t just selling food — they were selling a story, a dining experience, and a brand world. But COVID stripped that away: plating, ambiance, and service disappeared, reducing luxury experiences to cardboard boxes.
The COO posed a blue-sky question:
“How might we help high-end restaurants express their brand story through delivery?”
I designed and led an experimental program — Merchant Video + Food Bundling — to restore that missing emotional connection.
The idea: pair storytelling video content and curated bundles (e.g., meal + wine + chef story) to test whether narrative and multi-sensory context could raise conversion and order value.
This zero-to-one initiative required building an entire operational and technical workflow from scratch: recruiting merchants, defining content specs, coordinating fulfillment, and launching a micro-site with QR-enabled media delivery. The result: +21 % conversion, +62 % AOV, and proof that storytelling could drive measurable revenue — not just brand affinity.
Business Challenge
Caviar’s premium restaurants were losing their experiential edge in delivery.
Users missed the emotional and sensory cues of fine dining.
Merchants lacked a platform to express brand narrative or sell beyond food.
Merchants lacked a platform to express brand narrative or sell beyond food
Leadership needed evidence that “storytelling” could justify operational investment.
Approach
Phase 1 — Exploration & Merchant Recruitment
Identified and recruited 5 pilot merchants with strong social media presence and willingness to experiment.
Selected pilot chefs based on storytelling potential, on-camera presence, and brand resonance.
Defined media specifications (30 s video, horizontal + vertical formats, focus on brand story, chef intro, plating, or ambience).
Coordinated with Merchant Ops and Dashers for asset distribution (QR cards, packaging inserts).
Phase 2 — Prototype & Experiment Design
Designed experiment with three variants: 1️⃣ Control — standard menu listing 2️⃣ Story — chef narrative + imagery 3️⃣ Video + Bundle — short-form video + meal + add-on items (wine, merch, cookbooks)
Created landing page and postcard QR system linking orders to video experiences.
Chef-led video experience paired narrative storytelling with ordering — reintroducing emotion and brand identity into delivery.
Collaborated with Product + Engineering to track conversion, dwell time, and AOV in real time.
Phase 3 — Mixed-Method Validation
Ran A/B experiment across 100 K+ sessions with in-app exposure.
Combined analytics with survey validation (n = 1 K) and in-depth interviews with users and merchants to understand emotional drivers.
Mixed-method design blending live A/B testing, surveys, and interviews to quantify emotional and behavioral impact.
Captured operational insights from Dashers and Support to refine delivery ops and media handling.
Built and launched a full-stack experience — integrating new video assets, frontend design prototypes, and backend tracking — to connect storytelling with live commerce at scale.
End-to-end execution required tangible deliverables — from physical QR-coded inserts and branded packaging to digital content integration — bridging physical and digital merchant experiences.
Insights
Storytelling restored perceived value: users associated narrative and video with craftsmanship → higher willingness to pay.
Customers rated the bundles as more compelling (+21 % conversion, +62 % order volume), validating that narrative elevates perceived value.
Bundling reframed luxury: pairing food with non-food items (wine, merch) expanded order imagination and increased SKU count.
Premium merchants gained new revenue streams: they sold identity, not just meals.
Operational complexity can be prototyped lean: a 5-merchant pilot proved scalable within 6 weeks.
Provided evidence to expand into Caviar verticals and future ML personalization.
Sparked a new Content + Commerce initiative, uniting Marketing, Product, and Ops around experiential ordering.
Short-, mid-, and long-term impact — from pilot prototype to Caviar expansion and stakeholder buy-in for “video-first” experiences.
Leadership & Influence
Senior Staff (L7) scope:
Translated an exploratory COO question into a validated, revenue-impacting experiment.
Orchestrated a multi-team pilot across Product, Ops, Design, Marketing, Engineering, and external merchants.
Managed operational logistics, content creation, and live experimentation simultaneously.
Evangelized the ROI of storytelling to executives and GTM leaders.
Operationally intensive, cross-org experiment — coordinating Product, Ops, Marketing, Eng, Data, and merchants through planning, live launch, and data synthesis in just eight weeks.
Organizational Impact
This initiative redefined what storytelling means in a two-sided marketplace. It proved that emotion, brand narrative, and sensory design could be quantified as business levers — not just creative garnish. The Merchant Video + Bundling pilot became the foundation for DoorDash’s content + commerce roadmap, influencing later Caviar experiences and informing how premium merchants express their brand through delivery.
