Today’s episode is with Mark Frein, the Chief People Officer & Head of Alumni Programs at Lambda School. Previously, Mark served as the Chief People Officer at both InVision and Return Path. He also ran his own leadership development consultancy and taught on HR topics as an adjunct professor.

Mark has an invaluable perspective and tons of advice to share after setting up several people orgs in a range of different companies. In this conversation, Mark shares his approach to the CPO role and his philosophy around the function more generally, including why he thinks at its core, it’s a data and analytical function and how to match the employee experience to your company’s competitive positioning.

He also gets incredibly tactical on a wide range of topics, from how to hire with empathy and advice for approaching skip-levels, to gathering employee feedback and driving career conversations.

Today’s conversation is a must-listen for both founders and early-stage people leaders trying to thoughtfully scale this function, as well as for current and aspiring managers hoping to hone their leadership and development chops.

You can follow Mark on Twitter at @freintime, and you can email us questions directly at review@firstround.com or follow us on Twitter @twitter.com/firstround and @twitter.com/brettberson