15Five customers scaling manager support
Add coaching to existing performance, engagement and 1-on-1 workflows without asking managers to adopt a separate platform.
Independent tool overview
Kona at a glance
Kona by 15Five is an AI meeting assistant and manager coach that turns 1-on-1 conversations and 15Five performance data into notes, action items, coaching feedback and manager-effectiveness insights.
Visit the official Kona site ↗
- Current product
- Kona by 15Five
- Transition
- Acquired by 15Five in January 2025
- Meeting platforms
- Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams
- Meeting Assistant
- $2/employee/month billed annually
- Kona Coach
- $19/manager/month billed annually
Overview
What Kona is
Kona began as an independent AI coach for remote managers and was acquired by 15Five in January 2025. The original heykona.com product is now part of 15Five, so this page covers the current Kona by 15Five rather than treating the old website as a discontinued standalone service.
The current product has two layers. Kona Meeting Assistant joins manager and direct-report 1-on-1s to capture structured notes, follow-ups and performance context. Kona Coach adds private, personalized feedback for managers and behavior-level reporting for HR teams.
Kona is most compelling for organizations already using 15Five Perform or Total Platform because coaching can incorporate engagement, review and manager-effectiveness data. The same depth creates a sensitive governance question: recorded workplace conversations need clear consent, access rules and a culture that does not turn coaching into covert surveillance.
Use cases
Who Kona is best for
The strongest fit depends on the job you need the product to complete, not the size of its feature list.
People teams improving 1-on-1 quality
Use notes and behavior-level patterns to identify where managers need targeted support between formal reviews.
Managers who lose time to documentation
Automate meeting recaps, action items and ongoing performance summaries while staying present in the conversation.
Organizations with a defined leadership framework
Adapt coaching around company practices, materials and designated development focus areas instead of relying only on generic advice.
Capabilities
Core Kona features
1-on-1 meeting assistant
Joins supported video meetings as a silent participant and produces structured notes, key themes and follow-up actions.
Continuous performance record
Builds topic-based summaries across meetings and can populate an editable Performance Snapshot for review preparation.
Personalized manager coaching
Kona Coach delivers private feedback based on the meeting plus relevant 15Five engagement, review and manager-effectiveness context.
In-workflow delivery
Sends coaching tips and progress nudges through Slack, Microsoft Teams, email and the 15Five product.
Behavior tracking
Tracks patterns across more than 18 manager behaviors, including feedback, listening, recognition, coaching and accountability.
HR reporting and action plans
The Manager Effectiveness Dashboard surfaces support priorities and allows HR teams to launch targeted manager action plans.
Privacy controls
Participants receive notes and can pause notetaking; 15Five says audio and video are not stored and processed transcripts are deleted after 30 days.
Process
How the Kona workflow works
Step 1
Define the coaching purpose
Decide which leadership behaviors matter, how insights will be used and which outcomes indicate success before enabling meeting analysis.
Step 2
Set consent and access rules
Tell participants what is captured, who receives notes, how long data persists and how to pause or opt out.
Step 3
Connect calendars and 1-on-1s
Administrators assign Kona access and managers connect supported meetings through Google or Outlook calendar workflows.
Step 4
Review each recap
Managers and direct reports correct notes, confirm action items and add the human context that automated summaries can miss.
Step 5
Use trends for development
Apply coaching and HR-level patterns to targeted support, then evaluate behavior and team outcomes without treating AI scores as unquestionable facts.
Cost
Kona pricing and free plan
Kona is no longer a standalone subscription. It is an add-on for eligible 15Five Perform or Total Platform customers. The effective cost includes the 15Five base plan plus the selected Kona add-on; listed prices are annual-billing rates and optional minimum requirements may apply.
15Five Perform
$11/user/month billed annually
Eligible performance-management base plan for Kona add-ons.
- Performance reviews and 1-on-1s
- Insights Dashboard
- Kona purchased separately
15Five Total Platform
$16/user/month billed annually
Broader eligible base plan combining engagement and performance features.
- Everything in Engage and Perform
- HR Outcomes Dashboard
- Manager training microlearnings
Kona Meeting Assistant
$2/employee/month billed annually
Meeting documentation and performance-summary add-on.
- 1-on-1 notes and action items
- Topic-based continuous summaries
- Performance Snapshot for reviews
Kona Coach
$19/manager/month billed annually
Manager coaching layer powered by 15Five context.
- Personalized AI coaching
- Targeted skill development
- Nudges in the flow of work
Pricing checked . Check current pricing at the source ↗
Assessment
Kona strengths and limitations
Where it stands out
- Combines meeting documentation and leadership coaching rather than stopping at transcription.
- Uses existing 15Five performance and engagement context to make guidance more organization-specific.
- Delivers feedback in tools managers already use, including Slack and Microsoft Teams.
- Provides HR teams with behavior trends and action-plan workflows between formal review cycles.
- Current pricing is public and separates the lower-cost meeting assistant from the coaching add-on.
What to consider
- Kona requires an eligible 15Five base plan, so the add-on price is not the full deployment cost.
- Recording and analyzing 1-on-1s can undermine psychological safety if consent or data-use boundaries are unclear.
- AI may misread tone, context, cultural differences or sensitive conversations and should not make employment decisions.
- Behavior scores and coaching suggestions need human interpretation rather than use as automatic performance ratings.
- Organizations that do not use 15Five will lose much of the contextual advantage and face a larger platform change.
Compare
Kona alternatives
The right alternative depends on the specific output, workflow, controls and budget your project requires.
Project Management
Fathom
Choose Fathom when accurate meeting notes and summaries matter more than manager-specific coaching and HR analytics.
Explore Fathom →Business Operations
ChatGPT
Use ChatGPT for private, ad-hoc leadership preparation when you do not want a bot analyzing recurring employee meetings.
Explore ChatGPT →Business Operations
Coachvox
Choose Coachvox when the goal is to extend a specific human coach's methods to clients rather than manage company-wide employee performance.
Explore Coachvox →Questions
Kona FAQs
Is Kona still an active product?
Yes. Kona was acquired by 15Five and now operates as Kona by 15Five. The old heykona.com site leads to 15Five, while the product continues as Meeting Assistant and Coach add-ons.
What does Kona by 15Five do?
It joins manager 1-on-1 meetings, creates notes and action items, builds performance context and can provide managers with personalized coaching based on meeting content and 15Five data.
How much does Kona cost?
Kona Meeting Assistant costs $2 per employee per month billed annually, and Kona Coach costs $19 per manager per month billed annually. Both require an eligible 15Five Perform or Total Platform base plan.
Which meeting platforms does Kona support?
15Five documents Kona support for Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams through connected calendar and meeting workflows.
Can HR read every raw 1-on-1 transcript?
15Five says notes and summaries are private to the manager and direct report and HR admins cannot view raw transcripts without explicit consent. Organizations should verify current configuration and policy before rollout.
How long does Kona keep meeting transcripts?
15Five's feature documentation says transcripts are processed for insights and deleted after 30 days, while audio and video are not stored. Confirm contractual retention terms for your organization.
Does Kona replace a human leadership coach?
No. It can provide frequent prompts and surface patterns at lower cost, but complex conflict, legal issues, mental-health concerns and high-stakes development still require qualified human judgment.
Bottom line
Our Kona verdict
Kona is no longer a small standalone Slack coach; it is a focused manager-effectiveness layer inside 15Five. For existing Perform or Total Platform customers, the $2 meeting assistant and $19 coach add-ons are easy to evaluate against saved documentation time and manager adoption. The deciding factor should be trust: only deploy it with explicit consent, narrow data-use rules and a firm prohibition on using AI coaching signals as automatic employment judgments.
Visit Kona website ↗Similar Recruiting / HR Tools
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