Short answer
Choose Lattice when the immediate need is to run performance reviews, calibrations, promotions, succession planning, improvement plans, feedback, or one-to-ones in a connected talent-management process. Choose a conversation-led approach when the missing ingredient is work context before a particular manager conversation. The categories can complement each other, but the purchase decision should follow the problem your team needs to solve first.
What Lattice is designed to support
Lattice Performance publicly describes tools for performance reviews, talent reviews, performance improvement plans, succession planning, feedback, one-to-ones, and updates. That is relevant when a people team needs a structured performance and talent-management process, including the governance that goes with formal decisions.
A manager may still need a different input before the meeting itself: specific examples from the work, questions to resolve, and a clear action that can be revisited. That does not make a performance platform unsuitable; it identifies a narrower conversation job.
| Buying question | Lattice may suit when | A conversation-led approach may suit when |
|---|---|---|
| What process is being run? | A performance or talent-management process | Preparation for a specific employee-manager exchange |
| What evidence is central? | Review, feedback, one-to-one, and talent-process information | Current work examples and context from both sides |
| Who makes the decision? | Managers and people teams in the formal process | The manager and relevant HR partner in the conversation |
| What is retained? | The information needed for the programme | An agreed action and, where appropriate, a reviewed team practice |
Where Lontra fits
Lontra structures guided listening before the conversation. Employees and managers can prepare separately; the manager receives a brief of relevant context; and the agreed action returns at a subsequent touchpoint. A practice identified through that work is reviewed by the people closest to it before it is reused.
This is a support for human preparation and follow-up. It does not assign a score or decide a performance outcome.
A fictional buying scenario
A fictional technology company is rebuilding its promotion and review process, so it evaluates Lattice for the required performance workflows and talent decisions. At the same time, support-team managers say their one-to-ones often surface a recurring issue: escalations arrive without the customer history needed to resolve them, yet there is no reusable account of the work.
The company can assess Lattice for the formal process and pilot Lontra for the operational conversation. A support employee prepares one escalation example, the manager receives a brief, they agree a change to the handover, and the next conversation checks it. The team reviews any practice before it is shared with another support group.
Questions to ask in a demo
- Are we selecting a formal performance process or improving the evidence that enters one conversation?
- How are sensitive examples handled before the manager sees a brief?
- Who makes the final judgment, and how is that accountability clear?
- How does the team return to the agreed action?