How do I create a managed coaching program?
Last updated: December 4, 2025
Managed Coaching Program
What are Managed Programs?
Managed Programs are a distributed coaching program for multiple managers and their employees. These programs are centrally managed, so any changes you make will cascade down.
For example, if you'd like to change the format of your quarterly reviews, editing the managed program will automatically update following check-ins related to that coaching program.
Managed Programs are great for:
Sales Enablement, Sales Leadership, Human Resources
Promoting top-down accountability, alignment, consistency
Ensuring compliance and oversight
Create a Managed Program
Users with "Coaching: Create Managed Program" or "Coaching: All Access" permission will be able to create managed programs.
Creators will also be able to edit and delete managed programs.
1. Open the left navigation and click Coaching > Manage.
2. From the manage coaching page, select the Managed Programs tab.
Don't see the Managed Programs tab? If your package supports managed programs, the feature can be enabled by any user with admin permissions. Left navigation > Administration > Features. Locate the Coaching: Managed Programs feature, and toggle "On".
3. Click the + Managed Program button.
4. Complete the managed program form.
Details
Form Field | Field Description |
Start with Template | Optional. If coaching templates have been created and made available to you, selecting a template will pre-fill the description, objective, agenda, and rating categories. |
Name | We recommend names that incorporate the target contributors, topic of focus and frequency of check in. Examples:
|
Description | Describe the purpose of the coaching program. |
Coaching Instructions | Optional. Provide specific instructions, resources, and other details to guide managers on how to use this specific template. Coaching instructions will not be visible to the employee being coached. To support reviewing check-ins that contain instructions while screen sharing with an employee, the manager can collapse the coaching instructions section. |
Objective | Optional. If your program has a specific purpose (and typically, an explicit start and end date) we recommend defining on objective. |
Recurrence
Form Field | Field Description |
When does the program start? | Select when the program's agenda should be made available to users by selecting a Start Date, Start Time and Time Zone. The date, start time and time zone are used to control when participants can access the agenda. |
How often does it repeat? | Use the drop downs to select how often coaching sessions should be recreated. Common recurrence schedules are:
Pro Tip: Want to schedule your program to run on relative dates, for example the first Monday or the last Friday of the month? Set repeat to "Month" and then select one of the options available. |
Form Field | Field Description |
When is each check-in due? | Selecting "Before the Next Scheduled Check-In" will leave the check-in open until the next recurrence of the program. After x Days will close the check-in after the respective number of days. |
When does the program end? | Will this coaching program ever end? If so, select a date or number of occurrences to end after. If a date is selected, no new coaching sessions will be created after the respective date. If a number of occurrences is selected, the coaching program will occur for that many iterations before stopping. |
Program check-in dates | Based on the recurrence options selected, the dates your program check-in will be generated will display. Verify the expected cadence matches the schedule presented. |
Managers
Select which managers should be enrolled into this coaching program.
You can enroll all managers or hand-pick individual managers selecting specific managers.
Note: This will automatically start a program for each of the selected managers, creating check-ins for each employee they manage. If and when a manager begins managing additional users, either as direct reports or through group memberships, the newly managed employees will be added to the next occurrence of the program.
Special note in cases where a manager manages other managers: If Manager A is listed as a Manager B's manager within their user settings, any of Manager B's direct reports will also be considered as users Manager A manages, or Manager A's subordinates.
Agenda
Create the programs's agenda by compiling agenda items.
Agenda items can be optional or required, but at least 1 agenda item must be required (not optional) in order to save.
Learn more about all the available agenda item options here.
Item Types | Item Description | Employee View of Agenda Item |
Question | A question for the employee to answer. Want to see how others Coach? Check out our plug-and-play Coaching Templates. Pro Tip: Want to rotate weekly questions? Build multiple coaching programs on alternating cadences to keep things fresh. |  |
Metric Snapshot | Available if the "Coaching: Metric Snapshot Item" feature has been enabled. A question for the employee to answer that is built upon preselected metrics and time frames. A snapshot can capture up to 8 metrics across a single timeframe or one metric across two timeframes. |  |
Pipeline Snapshot | Available if the "Pipeline Intelligence: Pipeline Views" feature has been enabled. A question for the employee to answer that is built upon a preconfigured pipeline view or template. |  |
Content Block | Rich text editor that can provide additional information or context to a coaching agenda. No action for the employee to take. |  |
Poll | A question that is answered by the employee on a 1-5 point scale. Example: On a scale from 1-5 (1=low & 5= high) what's your level of confidence in your product knowledge? |  |
External URL | A link to a third-party item for the employee to review, complete, etc. Example a LMS module. Note - The employee and manager will both be responsible for marking this item as complete. |  |
Embed Media | Iframe a YouTube or Vimeo video or 3rd party website directly into the coaching agenda. No action for the user to take. Be aware that not all platforms allow 3rd party embedding. For embedding a video from YouTube or Vimeo, you can input the share URL or iframe embed code. If you are embedding a Google Sheets URL, we recommend embedding a URL generated through the "Publish to web" share option rather than "Share with others". Learn more here. |  |
File Upload | An action for the employee to take and an accompanying file. Employee will be prompted to acknowledge the uploaded file. |  |
Checkboxes | A list of options for the employee to select, choosing all that apply. An "Other" option is available as well. Example: Which products would you like additional training on? Choose all that apply. |  |
Multiple Choice | A list of options for the employees to select, choosing only one. An "Other" option is available as well. Great fit for True/False or Yes/No type questions. Example: Have you completed your monthly review? Yes or No. |  |
Gong Calls | Available if the Gong integration is enabled and authorized. Employees attach one or more of their Gong calls when check-in that are a part of the program opens. Example: Select two calls to review with their supporting feedback. |  In this example the employee attached calls and the manager left comments. |
Zoom Calls | Available if the Zoom integration is enabled and authorized. Employees attach one of more of their Zoom calls when check-ins that are a part of the program opens. |  |
Seismic Learning | Available if the Seismic Learning API within the Seismic integration is authorized. Select from any public, published Seismic Learning lessons and add them to coaching agendas. When selecting a lesson, there is no filtering for lessons assigned to a particular employee(s), but rather you will be presented with a list of all public, published lessons that can be added into the coaching agenda. |  |
Custom Tabs
Does your team reference a learning management system, dialer service, or another platform for coaching? If so, you can add a custom tab to view that information, alongside your Ambition data, directly within a coaching check-in.
To set up a custom tab within your coaching check-ins, reach out to the Ambition Support Team, gethelp@ambition.com.
The Support Team will need the following information:
Does the 3rd party website support iFraming?
What is the url that should be shown?
What would you like to name the tab?
Attribution Metrics (optional)
Select up to ten metrics that you would like tracked/correlated for the duration of the program.
Similar to defining an objective, if your program has a specific purpose (and typically, an explicit start and end date) we recommend establishing attribution metrics.
For example, if the template's objective is for an eight week long program around setting great appointments, you can define "Appointments Held" and "Appointments Set" as your attribution metrics to determine the program's effectiveness over time, per-person.
If you're running a standard, never-ending, weekly 1:1 check-in, we would not advise select Attribution Metrics as the attribution calculation will be less helpful with gauging the effectiveness of the program over time.
Note: Attribution Metrics cannot be changed by an admin after the program is saved.
How is Attribution Calculated?
First, a baseline value is derived by taking the four-week metric average leading up to the program's start date. Then for every recurring session, a current value is derived by taking the last FULL week's metric average. The % difference is then calculated between the current and baseline value.
We do not recommend using metrics typically measured on a monthly/quarterly basis for attribution given the attribution's usage of weekly averages.
Rating Categories (optional)
Don't see the Rating Categories option? If your package supports Rating Categories, the feature can be enabled by any user with admin permissions. Left navigation > Administration > Features. Within the Manage Features interface, click on the Features tab. Locate the Coaching: Check-in Ratings feature, and toggle "On".
Select rating categories you wish to track and correlate with the managed program.
Rating Categories can be added or removed after the program's creation.
Note: If more than one rating is present, Ambition will take an average of the submitted ratings. This average can be helpful when searching for specific check-ins, as it's a filter in the manage check-in page and exportable in the coaching reports.
If you'd like to add additional rating categories, learn more about creating categories here.
4. Click the Create Program button.
After creation, you can locate the newly created managed program under the Managed Programs tab.
Programs created from the managed program will be found under the Programs tab.
Ex. A Managed Program was created for three managers, Adela, Beau, and Jonathan. The managed program will be found under the "Managed Programs" tab, while the three subsequent programs created for Adela, Beau, and Jonathan will be found under the "Programs" tab.
