Kona Meeting Assistant is a powerful AI tool now integrated directly into the 15Five Total Platform and Perform packages. It automatically joins manager and direct report 1:1 meetings within Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams, to capture notes, identify action items, and create a continuous, unbiased record of performance.
This transforms the tedious, often-dreaded review process into a simple, data-driven workflow, saving managers hours, relieving HR professionals of the burden of chasing down completions, and enhancing the quality of feedback by eliminating biases.
In this article, you'll learn what to expect from Kona as a manager:
- What Is Kona?
- How it Works
- How Kona Meeting Assistant Supports You During and After 1-on-1s
- How Kona Meeting Assistant Supports You During your Best-Self Review® Cycle
- Leveling up with Kona Coach
- How Kona Coach Supports You Between 1-on-1s
- How Kona Coach Supports Continuous Growth
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Access and availability
⛔️ Required access to Kona.
👥 This article is relevant to Managers.
📦 Kona is available as an add-on for companies on our Perform or Total Platform pricing packages.
What Is Kona?
Kona is an AI assistant embedded within 15Five that helps managers and their direct reports have more focused, impactful 1-on-1 conversations.
It does this by:
- Eliminating the need to take manual notes during 1-on-1 meetings, thereby increasing the manager's presence and providing a constant record of performance - including tasks, action items, talking points, and even OKRs.
- Reducing the time managers spend writing performance reviews by automatically generating a data-rich first draft.
- Reducing recency bias and inaccuracy by drawing from notes across the entire review period.
Kona is built into 15Five’s Manager Effectiveness system and seamlessly integrates with the 1-on-1 experience you’re already using.
How it Works
Once your administrator enables Kona Meeting Assistant for your organization, just keep running your 1-on-1s as usual—Kona will do the heavy lifting in the background to support your growth and save you time. Here's how it works:
Kona joins recurring 1-on-1 meetings between you and your direct reports. It listens quietly in the background, capturing the full conversation without disrupting the flow. Its role is to support you and your direct reports by reducing toil and allowing you both to be more present and focused.
User commands allow you or your direct report to pause note taking, resume note taking, or remove Kona from the meeting.
During your 1-on-1, Kona captures clean, structured notes and action items in the background—so you can stay focused and fully present in the conversation.
Shortly after the meeting, both you and your direct report will receive a summary via Slack and email that includes:
- 📝 Shared Notes: A structured overview of what was discussed.
- 📌 Suggested Action Items: Automatically generated next steps based on the conversation. You can choose whether you want to add action items to your 1-on-1 agenda, edit them, or delete them.
Tip
You can access shared notes and action items directly from your Slack/Email notification, or by opening the 1-on-1 agenda in 15Five (Manager Tools > 1-on-1s).
How Kona Meeting Assistant Supports You Before and After 1-on-1s
At the end of each 1-on-1 meeting, Kona automatically sends a summary to both the manager and the employee — by email, Slack (if applicable), and directly inside 15Five.
The notes Kona creates are performance-focused. They identify key themes: wins, challenges, action items, and meaningful moments that drive engagement and growth. The AI is guided by context — it understands what matters in a 1:1 conversation about performance, and just as importantly, what doesn’t.
If a manager and employee spend the first few minutes talking about their weekend, Kona knows to leave that out. It filters out anything personal or unrelated to performance, ensuring privacy and focus. The result is a structured, professional summary of the discussion — one that’s instantly useful for both people involved.
Those notes are automatically added to the 15Five 1-on-1 agenda, so when the manager or employee logs in later, everything is there: the highlights, the takeaways, and the next steps.
This does two really powerful things.
- Reinforcing Accountability When follow-ups and commitments are clearly captured, managers actually follow through — and employees see that consistency.
- Building a continuous record of performance over time — one that’s objective, reliable, and impossible to lose.
How Kona Meeting Assistant Supports You During your Best-Self Review® Cycle
When review season rolls around, all the notes that have been captured — along with check-ins, High Fives, and goals — come together automatically to generate a high-quality, AI-assisted review summary.
It’s like having the first 80% of your review written for you, using the most accurate data possible — the actual conversations between a manager and their team member. That means no more blank-page anxiety, no more chasing down documentation, and no more relying on memory from six months ago.
Instead, reviews are faster, fairer, and far more meaningful. The human still makes the final call — adds their own voice, their own context — but the AI has already done the heavy lifting.
Leveling up with Kona Coach
Tip
Kona Coach is a separate add-on that is assigned to managers by their administrators. If you do not see Coaching options, you may want to check with your administrator about whether your organization is using Kona Coach.
Kona Coach is a step up from Kona Meeting Assist. It's an AI-powered partner, designed to help you grow as a people leader directly in your flow of work. By seamlessly integrating into your 1-on-1 meetings and surfacing relevant coaching insights, Kona helps you build stronger teams and drive better outcomes without adding extra work to your day. For managers who are assigned the Coach option, it goes beyond note taking and provides you with feedback on your conversations and guiding your steps between 1-on-1s and beyond with the following: Sends personalized coaching tips based on the meeting In addition to the shared notes and suggested action items provided by the Meeting Assistant, Kona Coach will also send you private, personalized coaching tips tailored to what happened in the meeting and backed by your company’s best practices and priorities.
Coaching tips are:
- Contextual: Based on the behaviors observed in your recent meetings
- Actionable: Practical guidance you can apply right away
- Evolving : As Kona learns from your interactions and results, its tips adapt to keep pace with your growth
How Kona Coach Supports You Between 1-on-1s
🌅 Morning Briefs
If you have 1-on-1s scheduled for the day, you’ll receive a short morning message in Slack with:
- A preview of your meeting agenda
- A coaching tip tailored to the day’s conversation
- Reminders about open action items from previous meetings
It’s a simple way to prepare for your meetings with focus and clarity.
1-on-1 Help
These insights help you track growth over time and stay aligned with your development goals.
How Kona Coach Supports Continuous Growth
📆 Monday Recaps
Every Monday, Kona sends you a weekly digest so you can start the week with clarity. These recaps highlight:
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Patterns observed across your 1-on-1s – surfacing themes in what your team is saying.
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Progress on your focus area – reminders of where you’re growing as a manager.
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Suggestions for improving your leadership behaviors – small, actionable nudges to keep you on track.
Delivered via Slack DM (with email backup), these insights are timely and easy to act on.
📊 Monthly Report
At the end of each month, you’ll receive a snapshot of your management growth:
Each report includes:
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Focus Area progress – a quick snapshot of how you’re tracking
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Behavior trends – which strengths are showing up consistently and where extra support may help
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1-on-1 recap – highlights from the past month so you don’t lose sight of the bigger picture
These arrive in a digest format via Slack DM and email 7 AM local time, making it simple to reflect and reset before a new month begins.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) ❓
You can choose how and when to receive Kona-related notifications—such as pre-1-on-1 tips and post-meeting summaries—from your notifications settings. To learn how, check out this article:
👉 Manage my notifications
How long does Kona keep transcripts?
Transcripts are kept for 30 days only, for coaching quality assurance. After that, they are permanently deleted.
Who can access my transcripts?
Only Kona uses transcripts for coaching purposes. They are never accessible to HR, admins, or other managers.
Does Kona record my meetings?
No. Kona does not record audio or video. It only processes meeting transcripts to provide notes and coaching prompts.
Will my team see the coaching prompts I receive?
No. Coaching prompts are delivered only to you as the manager. If you want your team to see them, you’ll need to share them directly.
Can my company change how long transcripts are stored?
Yes. Custom retention policies can be arranged through your Customer Success Manager, subject to a security and compliance review.
Does compliance or audit have access to raw transcripts?
No. Kona’s privacy principle is to protect managers and their teams. Raw transcripts are never shared for compliance or audit access.
Will my team see the coaching prompts I receive? (if assigned Kona Coach)
No. Coaching prompts are delivered only to you as the manager. If you want your team to see them, you’ll need to share them directly.