The Setup
Over the last several months, we’ve been watching how people actually use Ask Harmonyze.
Not in a demo. Not in a vacuum. Real usage, from teams that are fully plugged into their network.
If you imagine the setup, it’s pretty powerful. You have access to everything, operator-level performance, activity-level context, trends, history. You can sit down and ask anything you want.
So what do people actually do?
What People Ask First
At first, people tend to recreate what they’re used to.
Most have spent years looking at dashboards, so that’s where they start. They use the chat the same way they would a report, trying to pull the numbers, orient themselves, get a read on performance.
- “what’s happening?”
- “how is this location performing?”
- “where are we up or down?”*
It’s less about the platform, more about habit. That’s the mental model people bring in.
What the Questions Become
But then it starts to shift.
Once there’s trust in the data, the questions change. They become less about understanding and more about deciding.
- “what should i focus on?”
- “what’s driving this?”
- “what do i actually do here?”
It’s subtle, but it’s a completely different posture. The moment someone stops asking what’s happening and starts asking what to do about it, they’re no longer just observing the business, they’re trying to move it.
You Can See It in the Prompts
Real Examples - Operator names hidden
You can actually see this evolution in the prompts themselves.
Early on, the questions are familiar:
- “give me performance for location 214”
- “how are they trending vs last month?”
- “show me key KPIs for this operator”
Over time, they tighten up and shift in intent:
- “what are the top 3 priorities for this operator?”
- “i have a call today, what should i focus on?”
- “why is performance declining and what should i do?”
- “give me a simple coaching plan based on the last 4 weeks”
Same data, but now there’s an expectation that it should lead somewhere.
Leadership vs. Field Teams
Another pattern that shows up is how different roles approach the same system.
Field teams are operating in the moment. They’re preparing for conversations, often with limited time, and they need something they can use immediately.
- “i’m meeting with this operator this afternoon, what should i focus on?”
- “give me a coaching plan based on recent activity and performance”
Leadership approaches it from a different altitude. The questions are broader, less about a single interaction and more about direction across the network.
- “which operators need attention most right now?”
- “where should we focus across the network?”
- “what’s actually driving performance this month?”
Different lens, but you can feel the same underlying question in both.
What’s Interesting
That’s probably the most interesting part of all of this.
Not what people ask at first, but how quickly the questions change once they trust what they’re looking at.
The Shift
On the surface, it’s a small shift.
From “what’s happening?” to “what should i do?”
But it changes how people spend their time. It changes how they prepare for conversations. It changes how decisions get made.
And once that shift happens, it’s hard to go back.
Written by: John Corretti, VP of Client Success at Harmonyze