Arianna McClain ’98

Initially overwhelmed by her first biostatistics class in college, Arianna McClain quickly learned to love data analysis as a way to discover people’s stories. After graduating from UC Berkeley Arianna went on to the University of Southern California, where she earned a master’s degree in public health and a doctorate in health behavior research. She is the author of numerous widely cited papers on decision-making, behavior change, and experimental design. Now as the Director of Insights at DoorDash, Arianna has built and leads a team of multidisciplinary researchers who work across the company to make a more human-centered product.

As you progressed in your education from UC Berkeley to USC obtaining two degrees and now a behavioral scientist at Stanford’s School of Medicine, what kept you exploring and inquisitive about the world around you?
“To be honest, my education was always about progressing forward as I never felt confident in what I wanted to do, but always had a busy mind and passion for understanding people. I know that when I finished my undergraduate degree at Berkeley, I wasn’t ready for the ‘real world’ and knew getting to USC to further my education in understanding people’s behavior’s and motivations behind proper design is what I wanted to do.”

“Ultimately, a deep understanding for user-centered design as a creative approach to problem solving. It’s a process that starts with the people you’re designing for and ends with new solutions that are tailor made to suit their needs. User-centered design is all about building a deep empathy; generating tons of ideas; building a bunch of prototypes; sharing what you’ve made; and eventually putting your innovative new solution out in the world.

Strategically user-centered design consists of three phases. In the Inspiration Phase you learn directly from the people you’re designing for as you immerse yourself in their lives and come to deeply understand their needs. In the Ideation Phase you make sense of what you learned, identify opportunities for design, and prototype possible solutions. And in the Implementation Phase you bring your solution to life, and eventually, to market. You know that your solution will be a success because you’ve kept the very people you’re looking to serve at the heart of the process.”

Your position as Director of Insights at Doordash seems to be an interesting transition, what compelled you to make the move into the world of app-driven delivery services?
“Doordash is presented with market challenges, specifically here in San Francisco, but nationwide with regard to how our consumers make thoughtful, heartfelt and emotional decisions when it comes to meal consumption in their respective cities. It’s my hope that through creative problem solving, understanding lifestyle behaviors and access to functional design through apps, Doordash can be at the forefront of the consumer mind when making a decision between Uber Eats, and us for example.”