Payne: Leaders who cannot improve their own tools lack customer empathy
Christopher Payne · Scaling DoorDash to market dominance | Christopher Payne (Former COO, DoorDash) · Apr 17, 2026 · at 4:11
Former DoorDash COO Christopher Payne explains how he screens executive candidates during interviews by testing their product empathy and builder mindset.
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“And my theory there is if you can't be empathetic about yourself and knowing you and how you use that thing, you say this is your most frequently used AI product and you can't make a feature for that. Like, you know, come on. Right? You're, there's no chance you're going to be empathetic for a brand new customer.”
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