Today, I sat down with Max Mullen, co-founder of Instacart, to dig into the craft of company culture with the precision it deserves. As a product leader, I’ve learned that culture is the operating system of the business—and Max’s journey from early generalist (running everything from product to payroll) to culture-focused executive offers a rare, tactical lens on how to build that OS with intent.
What struck me first was how deliberately he and the Instacart team approached company values. We unpacked the process behind defining distinctive principles—like “Every minute counts,”—and the mechanisms that ensure those values actually guide behavior. I shared how, on my own teams, we translate values into observable behaviors, interview rubrics, and operating rituals so they aren’t posters on a wall—they’re decisions in motion.
We then got practical about embedding values so employees truly feel connected to them. Max offered creative tactics that go beyond all-hands slides: narrative storytelling in onboarding, leader “value spotlights” in weekly reviews, and lightweight recognition loops that reward values-aligned choices. I added my playbook for hiring for values early on—using structured prompts, scenario-based assessments, and scorecards that map back to the behaviors we expect to see on day 30, 90, and 180.
From there, we dug into measuring culture—because what you don’t measure turns into mythology. We discussed using eNPS and pulse surveys, but also the importance of qualitative signals: skip-levels, anonymous async forms for hard feedback, and decision postmortems that reveal if incentives are aligned with stated values. I emphasized closing the loop publicly to build trust and make feedback feel consequential.
We also confronted the pitfalls that creep in as companies scale: easy-to-make founder mistakes, factions that emerge between early employees and newcomers, and the slow drift toward politics and bureaucracy. I shared a few guardrails I rely on: structured re-onboarding during hypergrowth, rotating “culture ambassadors” across functions, publishing decision logs for transparency, and codifying “how we decide” to reduce shadow politics.
The throughline is simple and powerful: founders and product leaders can and should take a deliberate role in shaping culture from day one. If you’re scaling now, run a quick audit: Are your values specific enough to create trade-offs? Do they appear in hiring, performance, and artifacts like PRDs and roadmaps? Can your newest team member explain how to live them in a tough decision? If not, you’ve found your next sprint.
You can follow Max on Twitter at @Max.
If you’re interested in learning more about how Cocoon makes employee leave easy, visit https://www.meetcocoon.com/
Inspired by this post on First Round.
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