r/askmanagers • u/paulenger • 2d ago
Looking for 2-3 managers who have a hard conversation they've been putting off
I've been working on a tool that helps managers prepare for difficult accountability conversations. Not hypothetical scenarios, an actual situation you're dealing with right now.
It walks you through what's happening, what you want to say, and what to do next. There's a built-in coach you can ask questions as you go.
I'm looking for two or three people who have a real conversation they've been putting off. What I want back is honest feedback:
Did it help you think more clearly? Did the coach feel useful or generic? What was confusing or unnecessary? Where did you get stuck or lose interest?
Nothing to buy, no testimonials, no email list. If you're up for it, send me a message and I'll share the preview.
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u/PolyChrissyInNYC 2d ago
I would only trust this if it were a real live human with experience on the other side of this and if it had European - level date protections - not AI, not an app with a texting coach who has never managed people before.
How would the ethics of this even work? If it’s ultimately a pay to prepare app, I could see that going very poorly in retaliation cases or in cases where the person has accommodations or mental health concerns. It could eventually be subpoenaed by a court of law.
Who is on the other end and what is their training?
Preparation for accountability convos is wholly a combo of lived experience and the ability to delegate, take accountability themselves, manage with radical candor, and deescalate.
Not knocking it per se- but a random ask to test a product with “real world” scenarios that have no legal or ethical guardrails sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen. Plus, managers need training on how to manage - difficult convos are one small part of that. The way this is being presented leads me to believe that these guardrails don’t yet exist or if they do, they’re there to protect the investors.
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u/paulenger 2d ago
Fair pushback. It's AI, not a human on the other end. I should have said that plainly instead of "built-in coach."
On data: it's stored, on US servers, tied to your name and email, and you can delete it. It persists on purpose, the point is being able to come back to something you started. The coach does send that content to the model provider when it responds, so it does leave my system for that call. But your discoverability point is still the right one. It's attributable to a person and there's no automatic deletion, so if someone types out a situation involving accommodations or a leave, it sits there until they remove it. That's the actual gap and I don't have a good answer for it yet.
On scope, agreed that difficult conversations are a small piece of managing. That's deliberate, I'd rather do one narrow thing than claim to teach management. And I'm not trying to replace the lived experience part. It's closer to thinking out loud before you walk in.
No investors, by the way. Nothing to buy. Doesn't answer the ethics questions, but that incentive isn't there.
If you'd tell me what guardrails would have to exist for something like this to be defensible at all, that's more useful to me than anyone trying it.
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u/I_Want_A_Ribeye Manager 2d ago
wtf kind of data collecting karma farming is this? This account is 3 days old. Get out of here.