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 Notetaker 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 Notetaker: Available to all managers once an admin enables it. Joins your eligible 1-on-1 meetings, captures structured notes and action items, and delivers post-meeting summaries. What Kona captures can also contribute to the evidence a review writer sees during a performance review cycle.

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

Note: Meeting prep before your 1-on-1s comes from Meeting Assistant, an agent in the Agents Hub. It does not need a Kona Coach seat. See Meeting Assistant: Feature Overview.

During 1-on-1 Meetings

Kona joins eligible 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 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

Kona is a supported source for AI-Assisted Reviews. In a review cycle that uses Enable 15Five AI, what Kona captured in your 1-on-1s can contribute to the Moments a review writer sees, alongside other 15Five activity such as check-ins and objectives and any connected work tools your company has set up.

The drafting itself is done by AI-Assisted Reviews rather than by Kona. AI-Assisted Reviews drafts answers to open-text questions, and you review, edit, and finalize what the review says. Every rating remains your own selection.

Only activity inside the cycle's performance period is eligible to become a Moment, and not everything inside that period becomes one. Moments are curated evidence, not a complete record of your 1-on-1s. See Understand Moments in AI-Assisted Reviews and AI-Assisted Reviews: Feature Overview.

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.

Meeting prep: Kona's morning brief continues until your company finishes Meeting Assistant setup. After that, Meeting Assistant sends one prep message at 8 AM local time on days you have 1-on-1s. For each 1-on-1, it says what has changed since your last one and suggests one thing to discuss. You do not need Kona Coach for this.

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

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 eligible 1-on-1 meetings. Non-recurring or ad hoc meetings can be added with the Send Kona to 1-on-1 button. See Kona meeting join conditions and participant requirements.
Kona never stores recordings, only transcripts. Transcripts are encrypted and stored for 30 days for quality assurance. Transcripts are never accessible to HR, managers, or employees.
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.
Kona is a supported source for AI-Assisted Reviews. AI-Assisted Reviews does the drafting and never selects a rating, and only activity within the cycle's performance period is eligible to become a Moment. See AI-Assisted Reviews: Feature Overview.

What You Can Do

Set Up

Manage

Analyze

Kona Reporting in the HR Outcomes Dashboard — Feature Overview

Common Questions

Report a Kona issue from your 1-on-1s

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