Before implementing 15Five, ReUp Education, an EdTech company helping adult learners complete their degrees, was working on their management structure. They wanted a consistent process for one-on-one meetings, since most felt a bit more informal and reactive. As one director stated, meetings often began with, "What are we gonna talk about?" leading to struggles consistently providing feedback and connecting employee performance to broader company goals.
What did this challenge impact?
ReUp implemented 15Five's AI coaching feature, Kona, first as a pilot program and now to all managers across the company. Kona automatically joins one-on-one meetings, transcribes the conversation, and generates a concise summary, complete with key topics discussed and suggested action items.
Kona also provides managers with proactive, real-time coaching and feedback before and after each session. The coaching and feedback are based on areas where they would like to improve, as well as data inputs from engagement surveys, previous one-on-one conversations, business system inputs, and other data sources accessed by the AI agent.
This AI transformative approach provided managers with:
ReUp's implementation of Kona was designed to be low-friction and was highly successful. The technical setup took only a few minutes and was done seamlessly. In terms of change management, that was also simple, quick, and easy. Managers were provided with pre-written language to introduce the new tool to their direct reports, addressing potential concerns about privacy and recording.
For most employees, the initial apprehension quickly dissipated, with Jennifer Sobocinski, Senior Director of People & Culture, recalling one manager noting that Kona "just became like wallpaper" in their meetings: ever-present but no longer a distraction. The ability to pause the recording for personal conversations also helped build trust and comfort over time.
With 15Five, ReUp’s managers now have a powerful tool that has fundamentally improved their leadership.
N’Digo Kali, Director of Learner Services, found that Kona's insights led to better outcomes for her team:
"Because of Kona, I make sure at the very end to recap. Are you gonna do this by this date? I'm gonna do this by this date. Next week we'll talk about this. So it just makes more structure, and it makes it…it feels more effective and efficient."
For Mercedes Taylor, Integrated Campaigns Marketing Manager, Kona acted as an unbiased mentor that boosted her confidence in difficult situations:
"Kona really helped validate for me that okay, hey, I was doing a good job, and that was great to hear…It kind of felt like a little extra mentor that like... my boss can't hear what I'm saying to this individual. Nobody else is hearing it. And so how do I know I'm actually doing what I need to do and growing in that regard."
Joanna Costello, Director for Analytics, appreciated how Kona's insights seamlessly integrated with her existing workflows to provide value:
"Out of the feedback from Kona, I have developed an internal checklist of things to do in one-on-ones... It's just helpful to have that in the back of my head in every one-on-one of like–those are 3 things that I should be doing regularly."
Ryn Blecke, a Manager of Learner Services, noted that the AI's guidance influenced her behavior even when it wasn't actively listening:
"Even when I wasn't using Kona, Kona trained me to be more focused in my one-on-one."
With 15Five, ReUp has transformed an informal process into a streamlined, data-backed system that empowers its managers and strengthens its organization.
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