Kona: Feature Overview

What is Kona by 15Five? 🧠

Kona by 15Five is an AI-powered suite of tools that help managers save time, improve communication, and lead more effectively. Each Kona add-on focuses on a different aspect of management—so teams can choose the option that fits their needs.

Kona Meeting Assistant

An AI notetaker that joins 1-on-1 meetings to capture notes, identify action items, and build a continuous performance record. It helps managers and employees stay aligned and makes performance reviews faster and more accurate.

Kona Coach

An advanced AI coaching tool that provides personalized feedback to help managers grow leadership skills and strengthen team performance. Kona Coach offers tailored insights based on meeting conversations, engagement data, and company priorities—delivered directly in 15Five, Slack, or Teams.

Why Kona Exists 💡

Modern managers face constant pressure: lead high-performing teams, retain talent, and drive engagement—all while juggling IC work, meetings, and shifting priorities. Most want to improve, but don’t have the time, tools, or coaching to do it.

HR teams, meanwhile, can’t personally coach every manager—especially those struggling with engagement or team performance. Gaps persist, and business outcomes suffer.

Kona solves both sides of the problem. It provides real-time coaching, at scale, tailored to your managers and your company’s priorities.

Kona doesn’t just make manager support possible: it makes it easy, measurable, and meaningful.

How It Works 🤖

Kona uses real meeting data and 15Five insights to help managers and HR teams save time and improve communication.

Here’s how it works

1. Joins 1-on-1s automatically — Kona connects to Google Calendar or Outlook and joins scheduled 1-on-1s as a silent participant.

2. Takes structured notes and identifies action items — Notes and key takeaways are automatically added to your 15Five 1-on-1 Agenda.

3. Analyzes behavior trends (Kona Coach only) — Kona Coach uses 15Five data—like engagement scores and feedback trends—to provide tailored coaching and insights after each meeting.

4. Sends personalized coaching (Kona Coach only) — Managers receive AI-generated coaching tips via Slack, email, or directly in the Kona Coach page.

5. Feeds data into reviews (Meeting Assistant + Coach) — Meeting summaries automatically inform AI-Assisted Reviews, making review writing faster and more accurate.

💡 Tip: Managers who only use Kona Meeting Assistant will still get automated meeting summaries and review data—but not AI coaching.

Kona delivers AI-powered coaching in the moments that matter most, without adding work for HR or managers. Here’s how it works, step by step:

• 👂 Joins 1:1s (as a silent participant): Kona seamlessly joins recurring 1-on-1 meetings between managers and their direct reports—no setup required beyond a one-time calendar sync. It listens quietly in the background, capturing the full conversation without disrupting the flow.
• 📝 Takes notes and generates action items: During the meeting, Kona takes clean, structured notes and identifies key action items so managers can stay fully present. Afterward, both participants receive a shareable meeting summary, saving time and improving accountability.
• 📊 Analyzes manager behaviors using 15Five data: Kona uses your existing 15Five data—like engagement scores, performance trends, and manager effectiveness insights—to contextualize what it hears in meetings. It looks for behavioral patterns tied to 18+ critical manager skills, including feedback, coaching, listening, and recognition.
• 💬 Sends coaching tips via Slack, Email, and 15Five: Shortly after each meeting, Kona sends personalized coaching feedback directly to the manager via Slack, email, or within the 15Five platform. These tips are tailored to what happened in the meeting and backed by your company’s best practices and priorities.
• 🔔 Monthly Progress Pings in Slack: A monthly progress report delivered directly to managers via Slack on the first working day of each month. These pings in Slack keep managers motivated with clear, digestible updates and support ongoing behavior change directly within their workflow.
• ✨ Kona Data Powers AI-Assisted Reviews: We’ve enhanced AI-Assisted Reviews by integrating data from Kona directly into review answers and summaries.
• 📈 Tracks progress across 18+ behaviors: Kona continuously tracks how each manager is improving across key effectiveness behaviors. HR leaders get visibility into trends, gaps, and where to focus next—so they can take action that drives measurable change.

Kona Meeting Assistant 🤖

Turn every 1-on-1 into a powerful source of performance insight.

The Kona Meeting Assistant automatically joins your 1-on-1 meetings in Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams to capture notes, identify action items, and summarize key themes. It turns these conversations into a continuous, unbiased performance record—saving managers time and making reviews more accurate and fair.

What it does

• Captures meeting notes automatically: No need to type or multitask during conversations.

• Summarizes and syncs action items: Post-meeting notes flow right into your 15Five 1-on-1 Agenda.

• Builds a continuous performance record: Creates “digital breadcrumbs” across the review cycle, reducing recency bias.

• Powers AI-Assisted Reviews: Review drafts draw directly from your ongoing 1-on-1 data for more complete, balanced feedback.

How it works

1. Admins enable Kona Meeting Assistant in account settings.

2. Kona joins recurring 1-on-1s automatically through Google Calendar or Outlook.

3. After each meeting, notes and action items appear in the 1-on-1 Agenda. See an example of what this looks like below:
   

4. When it’s review time, Kona synthesizes that data into a performance snapshot managers can edit and submit. See the example below of what this may look like:
   

Privacy & security

All notes and summaries are private to the manager and direct report. Transcripts are processed to extract key insights, then deleted after 30 days. HR admins cannot view the raw transcript without explicit consent, ensuring conversations stay confidential and psychologically safe.

💡 Tip: Want to see what Kona looks like in a live meeting?
Check out Managers: Kona in a 1-on-1 meeting.

Kona Coach 🧑‍🏫

Kona Coach builds on the functionality of the Meeting Assistant by adding AI-powered coaching and leadership insights for managers.

After each 1-on-1, Kona analyzes meeting data alongside engagement scores, feedback trends, and manager effectiveness metrics to deliver targeted coaching on skills like feedback, recognition, and accountability.

Managers receive coaching directly in:

• Slack or Microsoft Teams (via DM)

• The Kona Coach page in 15Five

• Manager Effectiveness dashboard

See an example of what Kona Coaching provides after a 1-on-1 below:

This helps managers continuously improve, stay aligned with company goals, and strengthen team performance—all without needing extra HR bandwidth.

Related Articles 📖

• Kona by 15Five: Setup and Support Guide
• Manager Effectiveness Tools: Content, Coaching, and Kona
• Invite Managers to Kona
• Create a Manager Effectiveness Action Plan
• Kona Reporting in the HR Outcomes Dashboard