FAQ
Questions leaders ask us first
If yours isn't here, email hello@ygora.ai — a founder will answer.
What is Ygora?
Ygora helps a leader change how their team works, starting from the work to be done. You sign in, say your goal and what is changing, and Ygora drafts your team brain: the work your goal needs, who leads each piece, where AI could support it and who decides. You confirm or change every line, then share it with your team. Work descriptions and a bench are there when you need them. Everything feeds one picture of your team's work, so you say it once. No score and no benchmarks.
Is Ygora an OKR tool?
No, and it doesn't replace one. OKR and goal-tracking software helps you set goals and see whether you're hitting them. Ygora starts the day after that: tracking tells you where you stand, not what you and your team need in order to actually deliver. If you're looking for somewhere to write and track OKRs, Ygora isn't it. If you've set them and delivery is the problem, it is.
Do I need to have OKRs to use it?
No. Goals come in different forms — a company strategy, OKRs, a quarterly commitment, a number you inherited. Ygora starts from whatever you actually have and doesn't ask you to restate it in someone else's format.
Is this HR software or performance management?
Neither. It's a tool for the leader, on your side of the table — not something an HR department runs on managers. It won't rate your people or feed a review cycle. In fact one of its most useful moments is the opposite: checking whether a strong performer could have delivered in the system you gave them, before you conclude the problem is the person.
Isn't this what our HR system already does?
No, and the two barely overlap. An HRIS, a headcount planning tool or a workforce planning module is where a decision goes once it has been made — the approved chart, the requisition, the band, the start date. Its user is HR or finance and its job is to keep the record straight. Ygora is where you work the decision out beforehand, on your own, and its user is you. Different moment, different person, different question: not how many did we approve, but what does this team have to look like to deliver what I have been handed. Once you have settled that, you go and submit the number wherever you submit it now.
Why not just do this in slides or a spreadsheet?
Most leaders do, and a blank document does not ask you anything. You write down what you already know, which is never the part that catches you out: the work nobody owns, the work only one person can do, the decision you are measured on and do not make. Ygora starts from the work your goal needs, suggests who does it and who decides, notices when two of your own answers pull apart, and turns what you confirm into a summary, a charter and a work description for each role that you can share.
How often would I actually use this?
Whenever something changes that you will be held to: a new target, a new tool like AI, a new product, market or team, or a new role for you. A first pass is quick, because you confirm what Ygora suggests instead of filling in a form. When the situation changes, say it in the chat bar and Ygora shows what it touches, so what you wrote stays live.
Does Ygora help us meet the psychosocial work environment requirements in Norway?
It helps a leader with the part they control. Section 4-3 of the Norwegian Working Environment Act (arbeidsmiljøloven § 4-3) requires the psychosocial work environment to be fully sound, and names unclear or conflicting demands, workload and time pressure, and support at work among the factors. A leader who writes down the team's work, who owns each piece, who decides what and what happens when someone is away has answered several of those questions for their own team. Ygora does that in a first draft the leader edits and shares. It is not legal advice, does not guarantee compliance and does not replace the mapping, risk assessment and involvement of safety representatives and employee representatives. HR does not see a leader's plan unless the leader shares it. A Norwegian whitepaper for HR leaders is at /whitepapers.
What do I actually get out of it?
A first draft of your team brain, written from what you confirmed: the work your goal needs, grouped by how often it happens (always on, weekly, quarterly, annually); who leads each piece and what people do; where AI could support it, what it hands over and who checks the output; who decides what; and the teams you work with. You see what needs a look, choose what your team sees, and share it as a read-only page. You can change anything on the page or in the chat bar.
How can I use AI to free up my team's time?
Start from the work, not the tool. Ygora lists the work your goal needs, and for each piece suggests who does it and how much of it AI could handle, such as the downloading, copying and comparing that nobody signed up for. You drag the bar to your own estimate. The point is to free up time so you and your team can spend it where you add the most value. Then it helps with what decides whether it works: the conversation with your team, the data and steps AI needs in place, and who can help you.
What is an AI operating model for a team?
It is how your team runs when AI is part of the work: who does each piece of work, who decides what, how work moves to the next team, and what people and AI each need to do it well. A big company writes this across many functions. For one team it fits on a few pages: a team charter, a work description for each role, and a list of who decides what. Ygora builds those from the work your goal needs, and you edit every line.
Why doesn't adding AI to how we work today create value?
Because the value comes from changing how the work is done, not from the tool. McKinsey's September 2026 research on AI operating models found that the organizations getting the most from AI redesign their workflows, decisions and roles, rather than only automating the steps they already have. For a team, that means starting from the work: what is needed, who does it, who decides, and what AI could support. Ygora starts there, so AI supports work that has been thought through.
Who decides what when AI is part of the work?
A person, and it is worth writing down which one. For each decision, Ygora asks who decides and whether that is only people, AI suggesting and a person deciding, or AI deciding within limits you set. The result is a decision map with one decider for each decision, so work does not wait on nobody and AI never ends up deciding by default.
What do I tell my team about AI?
Say it early, in your own words, before people hear it somewhere else. Ygora drafts a note in plain words from your plan, that you edit and send: where you are headed, where AI could support the work, whose day-to-day changes, and what you need from them. Then ask them with the team check-in: what takes up their time that does not need to, what worries them, and what would make it work. No account and no names.
What is a team brain?
A team brain is the evolution of the team charter. A charter is one page that says what a team does and why. A team brain keeps that and stays alive: the goal, the work the goal needs, who leads each piece, who decides, and where AI could support the work. It helps a leader find their way in the new way of working, and gives the team clarity, because everyone reads the same picture. Companies are talking about a company brain. A team brain is that idea at the level where the work is done. You confirm every line, and you choose what your team sees.
What is a team charter, and why have one?
A team charter is one page that says what your team does and why it exists. Research on what makes teams work points the same way: Google's Project Aristotle found clear roles, plans and goals, and work that matters to the team, among the five things that set its best teams apart, and Richard Hackman's long study of teams found a clear, compelling direction is one of the conditions that lets a team do well. Keep it live: when the goal or the work changes, update it. Use it for team meetings, all-hands, kick-offs and to agree things with the other teams around you.
What is the bench?
People you could call on for the work that is changing, built before a role opens, so you hire proactively instead of reactively. Ygora matches on the work to be done, not just titles and CVs. Invite people you know, with a note written from your own charter and work descriptions, or see who in a pool of professionals has said what they want to do next. People in the pool stay anonymous until they answer. With a bench, a resignation or a moved goal does not start from zero.
Why does it start from the work?
Because the work to be done is the spine of how a team meets its goal. People, organization, process and technology are built around it, and AI needs it spelled out as much as a new colleague does. Once the work is on paper, who does it, who decides it and who could do it follow, and when something changes you can see what it touches. It is not an annual exercise: you come back whenever something changes.
Are you going to tell me not to hire?
No. If you are growing you are hiring, and Ygora assumes that. What it does is get the work and the decisions clear before the offer goes out, because a role whose work nobody wrote down is the one that takes two quarters to work out. Where a cheaper answer exists it will show you, without arguing, and leave the call with you.
Do I have to sign up to try it?
Yes, you need an account, because your answers and drafts have to be there next time. Signing in is a Google click or an email link, and nothing else: no password, no card, no form. Ygora connects to none of your other systems, so there is nothing to set up.
What happens to what I type about my team?
It stays behind your sign-in and it is never reused for another leader, never used to train a model, and never put in an email — our emails say something is waiting and link to it, and the code that sends them cannot accept a plan or what anyone said. The one email that carries a number is the one you can ask for when three people have answered a team link: it says how many, never what they wrote. A colleague at the same company doesn't see your workspace. The full detail, including who processes what and where, is on the trust page.
What is the team check-in?
You make a link and send it to your team. They open it with no account and no name, and for each piece of work on your list they say whether it steals their time, whether AI could support them in it, or whether it should stay with people, with a few words if they like. They can pick a role from your list or leave it out, and Ygora suggests a few starter ideas for that role (such as building a report by hand, or meetings that could have been a message) that they can tap, as something that steals their time, as somewhere AI could help, or both. You see what they say grouped by role, on a board that updates as people answer, so you can use it in a team meeting. You can remove any note and turn the link off at any time. What they tap or type in the form is not read by an AI model. They can also just tell Ygora in their own words in a short chat that helps make an idea specific and saves it; what they type there is processed by Ygora's AI provider to reply and is not kept, only the notes it saves are. The chat also notes whether an idea can start within the team or needs another team, so you can see what you can do now and what needs someone else, with a draft ask you can copy.
Can my team see my plan, or can I tell who said what?
Your team sees only the names of the pieces of work on your list and the titles of the roles on your team. They do not see your goal, your plan or what anyone else said. And you cannot tell who said what: we do not store a name, an email address, an account or an IP address with a note. There is no minimum number of answers, so in a small team a role can still point to one person, and the form tells people to leave the role out if they would rather not be recognized. Tell your team why you are asking before you send the link.
Do you need to know which company I work for?
No, and we do not ask. Leaving out your company name, your numbers and anything else that points to you protects you. What we do need is some context to make the advice fit: what you lead, roughly how big the team and the company are, and who owns it. Context is what makes the advice useful. Identity changes nothing.
Do you have SOC 2 or ISO 27001?
Not yet, and we won't claim a badge we don't have. What we do run is data minimisation by design, a short named list of providers, encryption in transit and at rest, per-leader isolation, and structural limits on what can leave the product in an email. We'll sign a DPA and answer a security questionnaire. If a formal audit is what stands between us and your organisation buying, tell us and we'll be straight about the timeline.
Couldn't I just ask ChatGPT or Claude the same questions?
You would get a decent answer to the question you asked. Three things are different here. Ygora starts from the work your goal needs and asks the questions you would not think to ask. What is missing is found by fixed rules from answers you have confirmed, not written by a model, so the same answers give the same read and there is no score to argue with. And it is a place you keep working in, not a one-off answer: the summary, the charter, the work descriptions and the decisions sit together, move together when you change one, and flag it when your own answers pull apart, which a chat window will not.
What does it cost?
After that there are three plans. For me is €29 a month for you on your own. For my team is €39 a month, and adds asking your team where AI can free up time, with one link and no names, for you and up to 10 others. Prices exclude VAT and are monthly. Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial, and when it ends without a subscription your plan stays readable but you cannot change it. For me includes 2 hours of advisory a month and For my team includes 3; the hours reset each month and do not roll over, and they start with a paid plan. Advisory on its own: €1,700 for one full day or two half days, excluding VAT. For more than 10 people giving input, or several teams, talk to us about For my organization.
Can we just talk to you instead?
Yes, and it's free. Thirty minutes with Silje or Gry — bring the goal you're trying to hit and the thing that's in the way, and we'll work on that rather than walk you through screens. If it turns out you'd rather we worked the situation through with you properly, we'll talk about what that looks like then. We'd rather find that out in a conversation than sell it off a page.
Who is behind Ygora?
Silje Sundal and Gry Brandsnes, in Oslo. One came at this from revenue operations: 20+ years inside the work that scales B2B SaaS companies, including at Workday as it grew from $1.8B to $4.9B, where she put AI to work on operational excellence eight years ago. The other came from people and HR. Ygora AS, org. no 935 830 427. You can book 30 minutes with either of us.
Easier to just try it than read about it.
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