Dive Deep: Curiosity, Clarity & Exploring The Details That Matter

Welcome to the third edition of our Spotlight Series, where we shine a light on Delivery Hero’s Leadership Principles and explore how they come to life in our work. This time, we took the plunge into Dive Deep.

The session was hosted by Mert Aydin, Principal Software Engineer, who discussed thought provoking insights with Laura Diaconescu, Senior Director of Global Finance Strategy, Johannes Bruder, Chief Product Officer, and Jaime Fernández-Galiano Asensio, Vice-President of International Markets.

This session reminded us that diving deep isn't about doing more, it’s about being curious, challenging the data, and understanding how things really work.

Going Beyond the Surface

Mert kicked things off by asking a simple but powerful question: What does it mean to you to Dive Deep? Johannes led with “It’s the ability to understand something on a deeper level when you need to. Knowing when to dive in, that’s powerful.”

Laura spoke about balancing her role that spans finance and strategy, and shared a moment of humility and growth. When asked to take over a financial reporting project, she had to admit she didn’t know where to start. She rolled up her sleeves, literally diving into hundreds of pages of legislation, and invited her team to dive in with her.

“You can’t do it alone. But when you ask the right questions, people join you, and that’s where the good stuff happens.”

From ‘I Think’ to ‘I Know’

The discussion also tackled common dilemmas. Like what happens when teams rely on guesses or accept numbers without asking, why?

Johannes shared a simple tip: “Write it down. If you can’t explain it clearly to a colleague, you probably don’t fully understand it yourself.”

Laura added: “There’s so much that lands on our desks, we can’t go deep on everything. But when we do, when we really engage, it’s a signal to our teams that we care about the work.”

Heroes Diving Deep

Jaime, our Hero speaker, brought more tangible examples to life in the second half of the session.

He talked about a logistics project on order stacking - the system that allows riders to pick up and deliver two orders at once, boosting their earnings and speeding up deliveries for customers.

When the team took a closer look, they noticed something curious: a large number of vendors had disabled stacking, leaving heaps of untapped potential. They dug into the data and reached out to understand why.

The surprising answer? Many vendors didn’t even know stacking had been turned off. A few conversations later, and most were more than happy to re-enable it. With one simple action ‘asking the right question’, they unlocked greater efficiency for the platform, higher earnings for riders, and faster deliveries for customers. All by going a layer deeper.

Jaime fully embraces the ‘hands-on’ mindset. “I do rider shifts here in Berlin, and also when I travel to other entities around the world. When on holiday I always use delivery apps, and check-out what our competitors are up to. What’s available? How fast is it? You learn so much more when you’re in the shoes of the customer or the courier.”

He encouraged everyone in the room to take the same approach: “Sign up. Do a rider shift. Explore our brand's apps next time you’re abroad. You’ll see things differently!”

That’s what Dive Deep looks like in action- asking, observing, experiencing, and always pushing for better.

We wrapped the session with clear takeaways:

1. Challenge the Data: Don’t settle for the average. If the numbers and anecdotes don’t match, ask why.
2. Know How Things Work: Get close to the process. If you’ve never seen how it works, you don’t fully understand it.
3. Be Hands-On: You don’t need to be in operations to get your hands dirty and ask questions. Whether you’re in product, finance, logistics, or legal, Dive Deep is about ownership, curiosity, and impact. Not because it’s easy, it’s because it matters!

Let’s keep asking better questions. Let’s stay curious. And when something doesn’t make sense? You know what to do!