The Core Challenge
ReUp Education, a mission-driven education technology company with over 180 employees, faced a common challenge for high-growth startups: a rapid increase in new, first-time managers. These "unicorn" individual contributors were promoted to leadership roles but lacked the scalable, real-time support needed to thrive. The company's lean People and Culture team of two struggled to provide consistent coaching to a distributed, fully remote workforce spread across 27 states.
Challenges:
- New managers, promoted for being "rockstars," often require support in developing the essential skills for their new roles.
- With a team of two people in Human Resources, scaling coaching across a large segment of managers poses a significant challenge.
- A lack of consistent coaching and support risks manager effectiveness, employee engagement, and overall business growth in a hyper-growth environment.
The Solution
ReUp Education chose 15Five, specifically leveraging the Kona AI-powered coaching feature, to provide personalized, real-time, in-context feedback to its new managers. The platform was integrated into their existing 15Five ecosystem, which already included performance reviews, engagement surveys, and OKRs, providing a unified solution for their People and Culture team.
15Five's Kona AI
Kona is an AI-powered coach built into meetings and Slack. The tool acts as an "unbiased lens," joining one-on-one meetings in Zoom/Google Meet/MS Teams, and providing objective data and actionable feedback to managers. It offers a way to course-correct in real-time, helping managers identify and improve their specific skills.
Everyone Gets a Coach!
With limited resources in Human Resources, the ability to deliver coaching tips after every single one-on-one to leaders was game-changing. Although ReUp’s People and Culture team would like to provide individual coaching and support to each of their managers, it just wasn’t feasible. With 15Five’s Kona AI Coach, they were able to scale personalized, precise, and effective leadership coaching to their managers when and where needed, without incurring considerable costs and time investment.
"A-Ha!" Moment
The ability to "drop in" a manager temporarily to diagnose a problem in their 1-on-1s without adding pressure or time was a major breakthrough. The feedback from Kona impacted not only new managers but experienced ones as well. Allowing them to be more intentional and outcome-focused. In the first few weeks, 90% of ReUP Education’s managers had completed onboarding and used Kona, demonstrating the platform's value and the managers' commitment to coaching.
What ReUp Said about 15Five
“I used Kona for the first time, and absolutely LOVE it. I definitely felt like I was more present in the conversation, as I did not find myself typing a single thing during the meeting. I also appreciate the immediate tips, suggested actions, and 1:1 recap it provided me!”
— John Reyes, Manager, ReUp Education
“One-on-ones are some of the most valuable (and expensive) meetings in a company. If they’re not working, you want to know why—and Kona gives you a way to do that without adding pressure or time burden.”
— Jenn Sobocinski, Senior Director of People and Culture, ReUp Education
“Kona helps cut through [emotional narratives] by offering objective data on what was said and how it landed… it helps you start to course-correct, offering practical tools and personalized feedback to shift things forward.”
— Rikki Scott, Manager of Training and Development, ReUp Education
The Measurable Results
Management Skills
Kona provided immediate, actionable feedback that helped new managers improve. The feedback helped them adjust their leadership style, and senior leaders could diagnose team-level issues without physically joining meetings. The frequency of feedback delivered in meetings saw a massive increase of 3.87x, while expectation setting showed a notable increase of 36%.
Time & Efficiency
- Coaching - The system also holds managers accountable, ensuring valuable meeting notes and follow-ups are captured automatically. With 97% of managers activating Kona and achieving 30-day active usage rates of 94%, it's clear that managers like John are finding significant value in 15Five’s AI Coach Kona. By utilizing Kona, ReUp saves about 164 hours in preparing for and taking notes in meetings and 1-on-1s, saving time and creating an incredible experience for managers and employees.
- Performance Reviews - 15Five’s integrated platform and AI features streamlined processes. Tasks that once took 90 minutes now take 45, and the People & Culture team can launch engagement surveys in a fraction of the time it used to take.
Empowered & Efficient Employees
By providing structured, consistent feedback, the company empowered employees to take ownership of their career growth and performance. This approach is consistent with ReUp’s philosophy of helping people learn, grow, and thrive.
Learn more about how 15Five can improve performance and engagement at your organization.
