Kona for Managers — Feature Overview

Kona is an AI assistant built into 15Five that helps managers run more focused 1-on-1s, maintain an accurate record of performance conversations, and reduce time spent on performance reviews. It is available in two tiers: Kona Meeting Assistant and Kona Coach.

> Note: Your organization may have renamed the Best-Self Review® feature. If you don't see "Best-Self Review" in your navigation, check with your admin for the name used in your account.

Important: Kona is available as an add-on for companies on the Perform or Total Platform pricing packages. Your admin must enable Kona before it is available to you.

Feature Structure

Kona consists of two distinct tiers with different capabilities and assignment models:

Kona Meeting Assistant — Available to all managers once an admin enables it. Joins your recurring 1-on-1 meetings, captures structured notes and action items, delivers post-meeting summaries, and generates AI-assisted drafts during performance review cycles.

Kona Coach — A separate add-on assigned to individual managers by an admin. Includes everything in Kona Meeting Assistant, plus personalized coaching tips after each meeting, morning briefings before scheduled 1-on-1s, weekly Monday recaps, and monthly growth reports.

During 1-on-1 Meetings

Kona joins recurring 1-on-1 meetings between you and your direct reports on Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams. It listens in the background without disrupting the conversation.

You or your direct report can issue user commands during the meeting to pause note-taking, resume note-taking, or remove Kona from the meeting.

Kona captures structured notes and action items during the meeting. Shortly after the meeting ends, both you and your direct report receive a summary by email, Slack (if connected), and directly inside 15Five. The summary includes:

Shared Notes — a structured overview of what was discussed, filtered to performance-relevant content
Suggested Action Items — next steps generated from the conversation

You can add suggested action items to your 1-on-1 agenda, edit them, or delete them. You can access notes and action items from your Slack or email notification, or by opening the 1-on-1 agenda in 15Five at Manager Tools > 1-on-1s.

Kona filters out personal or off-topic conversation. Only performance-relevant content appears in the notes.

During Performance Review Cycles

When a performance review cycle opens, Kona draws from all captured 1-on-1 notes across the review period — along with Check-ins, High Fives, and goals — to generate an AI-assisted draft for your manager review. The draft reduces time spent on blank-page writing and draws from the full review period rather than recent memory only. You review, edit, and finalize the content.

Between 1-on-1s (Kona Coach)

Managers assigned Kona Coach receive additional support between meetings:

Morning Briefs — On days when you have 1-on-1s scheduled, Kona sends a Slack message before your first meeting with a preview of your meeting agenda and reminders about open action items.

Post-meeting coaching tips — After each 1-on-1, Kona sends you private coaching tips. These tips are visible only to you.

Monday Recaps — Each Monday, Kona sends a weekly digest via Slack DM (with email backup). Recaps include patterns observed across your 1-on-1s and progress on your current focus area.

Monthly Reports — At the end of each month, Kona sends a management growth snapshot via Slack DM and email at 7 AM local time. Reports include focus area progress, behavior trends, and highlights from the past month's 1-on-1s.

Key Rules

Kona joins recurring 1-on-1 meetings only. It does not join ad hoc or one-time meetings unless configured to do so. See Kona meeting join conditions and participant requirements.
Kona does not record audio or video. It processes meeting transcripts only.
Transcripts are retained for 30 days, then permanently deleted.
Transcripts are accessible only to Kona for coaching purposes. HR admins, other managers, and compliance audits do not have access to raw transcripts.
Coaching tips sent by Kona Coach are visible to the assigned manager only. They are not visible to direct reports unless the manager shares them directly.
Kona Coach is a separate add-on assigned per manager by an admin. If you do not see coaching options, contact your admin.
Kona is pre-trained on 18 Manager Behaviors, established management frameworks (including Radical Candor, OKR methodology, Psychological Safety, Situational Leadership, and Strengths-Based Leadership), and aggregated manager enablement research. Company learning content from 15Five Transform is referenced contextually. Custom training is not available.