Focus Brief is a personalized, AI-generated brief that helps employees and managers focus on the most important priorities, patterns, and opportunities in their work. It uses information from 15Five and connected work systems to generate relevant insights and suggested actions on a recurring schedule. Focus Briefs are delivered automatically through Slack, Microsoft Teams, email, and the 15Five platform.
Focus Briefs are part of 15Five's connected AI system. They draw from the Context Layer, including data from Check-ins, 1-on-1s, Objectives, and connected work tools. See How 15Five AI works together for how data flows between capabilities.
- Required access to Agents Hub
- This article is relevant to Account admins.
- This feature is available in the Perform and Total Platform pricing packages.
- At least one work system integration must be connected before Focus Briefs can be configured.
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Feature Structure
Focus Brief consists of the following components:
Personalized insights Each Focus Brief is generated using information relevant to the recipient. The brief analyzes signals from sources such as performance reviews, 1:1 notes, Individual Development Plans (IDPs), goals, check-ins, engagement data, and connected work systems to surface important patterns and priorities.
Employee Focus Brief Employees receive a personalized brief that highlights current priorities, progress toward development goals, and areas that may benefit from attention. Each brief includes a suggested action based on the employee's recent work and growth areas. The brief can also flag goals as behind, at-risk, stalled, or abandoned based on progress pace and recent activity.
Manager Focus Brief Managers receive insights at both the team and individual levels. At the team level, the brief identifies themes, opportunities, and areas that may require attention across the team. At the individual level, managers can view insights for each direct report, including strengths, potential risks, coaching opportunities, and suggested actions or discussion prompts.
View Sources
Every insight in a Focus Brief includes supporting source information. Using the View Sources option, recipients can see the information used to generate an insight and access the original source when available.
Sources may include:
- 15Five data, such as reviews, 1:1s, goals, and IDPs
- Slack conversations
- Jira issues
- Documents and files from connected systems
- Other supported integrations
Delivery and access
Focus Briefs are delivered automatically based on an admin-configured schedule. Recipients can access Focus Briefs through:
- Slack
- Microsoft Teams
- The Focus Brief page in the Agents section of 15Five
What You Can Do
Employees Receive personalized Focus Briefs, review your current priorities and development themes, view the sources behind generated insights, add and update your personal context, and access past Focus Briefs all within the platform.
Managers Review team-level Focus Brief insights, view Focus Brief insights for direct reports, identify coaching opportunities and potential risks, add and update team context, and access the sources behind generated insights.
Admins Configure Focus Brief settings, connect supported integrations, manage audience settings, configure delivery schedules and cadence, and add and maintain company context to ensure Focus Briefs are tailored, relevant, and delivered effectively to the right audience at the appropriate time. Audience options include all employees, all managers, or a targeted group using include/exclude rules for specific people or groups. See Set up and configure Focus Briefs (Admin) for setup steps.
Key Rules
- Focus Brief content is generated automatically based on available data and context.
- Admins control recipients, schedule, cadence, and data sources, but cannot edit the content of individual briefs.
- Admins can target Focus Briefs to all employees, all managers, or specific people and groups using include/exclude rules in the Agents Hub.
- At least one work system integration must be connected before Focus Briefs can be configured. See Set up and configure Focus Briefs (Admin) for setup steps.
- Each brief analyzes activity from a lookback window matching the configured cadence: 7 days for weekly, 14 days for bi-weekly. Agents retain full historical context, but each brief focuses on recent signals.
- The quality of insights depends on the data available from 15Five and connected integrations.
- Focus Briefs can be delivered through Slack, Microsoft Teams, or email.
- Every insight includes source information that recipients can review using View Sources.
- Additional company, team, and individual context can improve the relevance of generated insights.
- Focus Briefs are available in the platform under Agents > Focus Brief.