Q&A with Simon about our product vision and strategy

Recently, we sat down with our founder, Simon, to talk about his vision for Zontally. Enjoy the insightful conversation below

What problem does your business solve, and who are you solving it for?

I am building the AI platform for high performing teams. This platform helps business managers to align their teams work against business and professional objectives, key results and goals

What specific pain points are business managers facing when aligning their teams — and why do current solutions fall short?

Managers currently have a lot of tools for collaboration and to manage their line of business - in fact they have far too many tools in this area. They are also grossly underserved in tools to help them be the best leader for their teams, and to help teams achieve a high level of performance.

What happens today is that managers end up chasing work in unstructured tools like spreadsheets and emails. Priorities are confused, focus is lost and it is too hard to make your team successful. 

Interesting — so there’s a gap between tools that track business performance and tools that enhance team performance.

What does "high-performing team" mean in your context? Are you focusing on improving communication, accountability, motivation, or something else?

This platform helps improve alignment. By coaching team members towards shared goals and objectives we can align effort against outcomes.

Too much effort is wasted in a team when we aren't driving towards a shared goal. High performing teams have a sense of purpose and motivation. This platform will allow users to engage in acts of recognition, belonging and shared growth

That’s a strong foundation — focusing on alignment, purpose, and motivation is powerful.

How will the platform drive this alignment in a practical sense? Are you envisioning structured goal-setting frameworks (like OKRs), real-time feedback loops, or automated coaching prompts?

All of the above. The Objective and Key Results capability allows structured goal setting. Real time feedback and recognition will drive performance. A key capability of the platform is the AI Agent which will proactively guide team members towards the work required to hit goals

That’s compelling — a proactive agent guiding behavior could create a real edge.

How will the platform balance structured goal-setting with the flexibility teams need to adapt when priorities shift? Will the agent adjust dynamically, or will it rely on manual updates from managers?

That's a great question. The platform could certainly help businesses with agility... Moving the whole team in a new direction with accountability plus motivation. The idea that the tool could adjust dynamically is very interesting and something that we will research to see how to unlock value for customers.

That’s a powerful idea — dynamic adjustment could make the platform more resilient in fast-changing environments.

How would the agent know when to suggest a shift in priorities? Would it track business performance data, team feedback, or signals from external factors (like market changes)?

Yes. The tool could track progress against KPIs and adjust the urgency of effort and focus dynamically. The idea that there's a wider ranging shift of priorities using market data is compelling

That’s next-level — combining internal performance with external market signals could make the platform incredibly adaptive.

How will you ensure the agent’s recommendations feel like helpful guidance rather than micromanagement? Will it focus more on suggestions or directives?

That's a great question. By understanding the WHY of an initiative we can help team members understand urgency and importance. It can't feel like a compliance tool. It needs to uplift teams

Exactly — if it feels like compliance, it could backfire and kill motivation.

How will the platform surface that "why" to team members? Will it be through goal-setting conversations, automated insights, or something more interactive like team retrospectives?

Retrospectives would be a killer idea. It will surface the WHY in a conversational interface with the regular and just in time prompting to nudge team members to success

Thank you for sharing your future vision - we can't wait to see the early versions of the AI Platform for High Performing Teams