Invite Managers to use Kona Coach – 15Five Help Center

This article walks you through how to invite managers to use Kona Coach. Kona by 15Five is an AI-powered coaching assistant that helps managers grow in real time by observing 1-on-1 meetings, generating insights, and delivering personalized coaching tips—without adding extra work. While Kona Meeting Assistant is there to assist with performance summaries, Kona Coach takes that notetaker functionality and adds private personalized AI coaching for the manager (and skill trends for HR).

In this article, you will learn...

Access and availability

⛔️ Required access to Kona and the HR Outcomes Dashboard.
👥 This article is relevant to HR Admins and Account Admins.
📦 Kona is available as an add-on for companies on our Perform or Total Platform pricing packages.

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Note

There are two ways to invite managers to use Kona Coach: 1) individually from within their Account Settings (covered in this article) or 2) as part of creating a Manager Effectiveness Action Plan. Both methods allow you to give managers targeted support based on their development needs.

How to Invite Managers to use Kona Coach

Use the steps below to invite a manager to Kona from within their Account Settings.

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Tip

You also have the option to invite managers to Kona one-off or in bulk during the process of creating a Manager Effectiveness Action Plan. Learn how →

Click People in 15Five's main, top left-hand navigation.
You'll land on the 'Manage people' page. From here, use the filters or search bar at the top of the page to search for the person whose settings you want to edit.
Click a person's name to open their account settings page.
Scroll down to the "AI Coach Access" section, located towards the bottom of the page. Then, select "Enable."

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Note

If your organization doesn't have any available seats, click the Manage seats link to add more.
When you're done, Save your changes.

What Happens Next?

Managers assigned Kona will receive an email notification (and Slack if your org is integrated) prompting them to begin the onboarding process.

During onboarding, they'll be prompted to:

Connect their Google Calendar
Select which recurring 1-on-1 meetings to sync, and
Confirm their 15Five 1-on-1s or link them to your synced calendar events.

Once onboarding is complete, Kona will start joining their selected meetings automatically and begin delivering value directly in their flow of work. It's as simple as that!

Deeper Detail on Onboarding and Auto-Join

The automatic joining behavior is controlled by both Company Admin and the Manager, with the Company Admin setting the initial default.

Enforced Auto-Join (Admin's Choice): If the Admin selects "Kona Joins All 1-on-1s by Default," Kona is auto-added to eligible 1-on-1s, and managers skip the "Opt-in" step during onboarding. Managers can still override this later in their User Settings.
Manager-Controlled Join (Admin's Choice): If the Admin selects "Let Managers Decide," the manager must choose their personal auto-join preference during onboarding or manually select meetings on their User Settings page.
User Onboarding Check: For Kona to begin taking notes, a manager’s User Onboarding status must be complete.

Managers can visit our Kona in a 1-on-1 Meeting for a walk through on how Kona is used in 1-on-1s. Automated Reminders for Onboarding

If a manager doesn’t complete onboarding after being invited, automated reminders are sent to help them get set up.

3 days after invite → reminder
1 week after invite → reminder
Every week thereafter → reminder until setup is finished

Reminders are sent via both Slack and email (if your org has Slack integrated). As soon as onboarding is complete, reminder notifications will stop.

For managers, Kona Coach provides a more comprehensive coaching experience:

Scope of Coaching: Managers with Kona Coach access receive coaching tips after 1-on-1s with direct reports and indirect/skip-level reports. Kona Meeting Assistant is limited to direct reports only.
HR Admin Exception: HR Admins who have Kona Coach access will receive coaching tips after their 1-on-1s with anyone they invite Kona to.

Privacy and Data Retention Policy

As part of our commitment to user trust and confidentiality, please note the following about meeting transcripts:

Transcript Retention: Standard transcript retention is 30 days for internal coaching QA purposes. After this period, the data is deleted.
Compliance & Access: Transcripts are used only for coaching QA and are not accessible to HR, admins, or managers. We maintain a strict privacy principle of no compliance/audit access to raw transcripts.

Frictionless Set Up

Seamlessly invite managers to Kona and configure their settings.

Click the Settings gear in the bottom-left corner of your 15Five account select 'Features'.
You'll land on the 'Settings: Features' page. From here, click 'Kona Coach'.
Click on 'Set up Kona'.
Click 'Select managers/HR admins...' to select who gets access. Click Done. Then click Next.

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Note

If your organization doesn't have any available seats, click the Add more seats link to add more.
Choose whether Kona is auto-added to calls or participant-controlled then click 'Next'.
Optionally connect an admin-level calendar then click 'Send invites'.

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Tip

If admin connects calendar and auto-add is enabled, managers are onboarded instantly — no action is required from them.
If you select 'Skip', people will have to manually connect their calendars.