In my day job (CEO at Astera), I do something unusual in the hiring process that I think might be helpful to a lot of people.

By the time I’ve decided to hire someone, I typically have tons of information on what their potential weaknesses are, and potential areas of conflict — I do lots of deep reference checks, and get personality profiling done by a psychological consultant I work with.

Rather than just sit on that information, I like to compile all of this into a (very carefully anonymized) “pre-60” review (derivative of 360s). I lead with the reasons I’m excited about hiring the person and the things others love about them. Then I focus on the areas of improvement or potential friction I think are most likely to come up.

I like this for a few reasons: It sets the tone for a frank, growth-oriented relationship, creates common knowledge, and helps us skip some foreseeable early bumps in the road. And it conveys that I (hopefully) have a complete view of the person and am not expecting them to be flawless — some mistakes and tensions are already priced in when I make the decision to extend an offer.

I think this is a culture hack & hope others steal it.