# All of our People & Culture articles

[**The Merger Playbook: Crossbeam’s CEO Breaks Down Every Detail of the Deal That Worked**](https://review.firstround.com/the-merger-playbook/)  
A founder's firsthand account of how he merged with a competitor to materially change the trajectory of his company.

[**Renew Your Co-Founder Vows — and Other Tactics for Strengthening the Most Important Relationship in Your Startup**](https://review.firstround.com/five-practices-to-strengthen-your-co-founder-relationship/)  
Executive coach and interpersonal dynamics expert Rachel Lockett shares five practices to strengthen the most important relationship in your startup.

[**Should You “Rent” an Exec for Your Startup? A Fractional COO Weighs In**](https://review.firstround.com/fractional-exec-hiring-guide/)  
A veteran strategy and ops leader turned fractional COO walks us through why, when and how early-stage founders can tap fractional execs to learn and grow faster.

[**How to Intentionally Design Your Org, From Square’s Former CEO**](https://review.firstround.com/how-to-design-your-org/)  
Former Square CEO, AWS's first GM and 12-year Microsoft veteran, Alyssa Henry, walks us through the two crucial considerations for organizational design — your business and your people — and how to connect them.

[**Build Your Culture Like a Product — Lessons from Asana’s Head of People**](https://review.firstround.com/build-your-culture-like-a-product-lessons-from-asanas-head-of-people/)  
Anna Binder, Asana's Head of People and the company's first HR hire, shares her step-by-step approach to intentionally building the company culture.

[**Elevate Your Performance Review Conversations with these 12 Expert Tips**](https://review.firstround.com/elevate-your-performance-review-conversations-with-these-12-expert-tips/)  
Stop dreading performance reviews. We assembled a list of 12 tips from expert leaders like Lenny Rachitsky, Molly Graham, Russ Laraway, Brie Wolfson, Julie Zhuo and more to make these conversations more impactful. There are frameworks and tactics for managers and reports alike to rethink their approach.

[**Use These 5 Types of Interview Questions to Level Up Your Hiring Process**](https://review.firstround.com/type-of-interview-questions/)  
Using different types of interview questions will help you make the right hires for your startup. See our favorite questions to ask across five categories.

[**How Talent Teams Can Better Weather Boom-and-Bust Cycles — Advice from Two Decades at Gem, Facebook, and Robinhood**](https://review.firstround.com/how-talent-teams-can-better-weather-boom-and-bust-cycles/)  
Richard Cho has led talent acquisition teams at large tech firms for the better part of two decades. He’s collected the lessons he’s learned from operating in both hiring booms and busts, offering a thoughtful guide on how startup talent teams can do more — with less.

[**The Art of Self-Awareness: A Founder’s Guide to Assessing Strengths and Weaknesses**](https://review.firstround.com/the-art-of-self-awareness-a-founders-guide-to-assessing-strengths-and-weaknesses/)  
Psychologist and co-founder of Coa, Dr. Emily Anhalt, unpacks the five traits of high-impact founders — and how the very traits that make a founder successful can also hold them back.

[**‘Give Away Your People’ — How Managers Can (and Should) Prep for High Performers to Leave**](https://review.firstround.com/give-away-your-people-how-managers-can-prep-for-high-performers-to-leave/)  
Seasoned startup operator Clarissa Shen offers a fresh perspective on Molly Graham’s ‘Give Away Your Legos’ framework by sharing her own tactics on how to proactively manage for high performers to leave.

[**What makes someone a truly remarkable talent evaluator — Nadia Singer, Figma’s Chief People Officer**](https://review.firstround.com/podcast/what-makes-someone-a-truly-remarkable-talent-evaluator-nadia-singer-figmas-chief-people-officer/)  
Our guest today is Nadia Singer, Chief People Officer at Figma. Nadia joined Figma in 2020 and has seen explosive growth in her own career alongside the collaborative design platform’s.

[**The Secret to an In Sync Startup? Ditch Your Meetings and Try an Asynchronous Culture**](https://review.firstround.com/the-secret-to-an-in-sync-startup-ditch-your-meetings-and-try-an-asynchronous-culture/)  
As the co-founder and CEO of Subscript, Sidharth Kakkar ditched all the company’s meetings and decided to make the startup’s culture completely asynchronous. He shares his playbook for moving away from a meetings-heavy culture, with three pillars for other founders to lean on.