Roles & access
Understanding roles
Learn what an access role is, which roles come built in, and what else decides what you can see and do.
Paradym Next supports many different jobs, from raising an idea to approving a budget to writing code. Rather than showing everyone everything, it uses access roles to give each person the sections they need. This keeps the product focused for you and protects information that only some people should change.
What an access role is
An access role is a named set of permissions. Every member has exactly one. It is chosen by an administrator when you are invited, and can be changed at any time on the Members page.
Your role decides:
- which sections and pages appear in your sidebar, and
- what you can do on them — look only, make changes, or manage settings that affect other people.
Your job title is separate. It describes what you do but does not affect access.
Built-in roles
Every workspace comes with these roles. Administrators can rename them and change their descriptions, but not their permissions.
| Role | Typically used by |
|---|---|
| Product Manager | People who own ideas through planning: triaging the Inbox, driving portfolio items and writing PRDs. |
| Team Lead | People who lead delivery teams and shape work into work streams and tasks. |
| Engineer | People who deliver the work: picking up tasks, moving them across boards, and handling support tickets. |
| Project Owner | People accountable for projects and the approvals within them. |
| Board Owner | People accountable for a stage board and its approval gates. |
| IT Business Partner | People who bring business needs to IT, raise and follow ideas, and work with support. |
| CTO, CIO, Group CTO | Technology leaders who need a view across planning, delivery and governance, and who sign off PRDs. |
| CFO, Group CFO | Finance leaders who review costs and sign off PRDs. |
| HR | People who manage the organisation’s members, teams and departments. |
Your organisation may also have custom roles created for its own ways of working. See Roles & Permissions.
Other things that affect what you see
Your role is the main factor, but not the only one.
| Factor | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Your organisation’s sections | Your organisation chooses which sections the workspace uses — for example, Product Management or Support. A section that is switched off is hidden for everyone. |
| Your assignments | My Tasks appears for anyone with work stream tasks assigned to them, even if their role does not otherwise include delivery. |
| Triage responsibility | The Inbox appears only to people who triage incoming ideas. |
| Ownership | On a portfolio item, only the owner can drive it forward. Other people see it read-only, with an eye icon that explains why. |
| Being named | Some actions are open only to the people named for them — for example, the editors of a PRD section, a section’s reviewers, or the approvers of a gate. |
When a control is missing or greyed out
Paradym Next usually hides controls you cannot use. Where hiding a control would be confusing, it is shown switched off instead. Hover over it to see “You don’t have permission to do this”.
On Governance pages, if your role lets you read the settings but not change them, the page explains that you can look but not change anything.
If you need more access
- Check whether the page belongs to a section your organisation uses. Ask a colleague whether they can see it.
- Ask your administrator to review your access role on the Members page.
- If no existing role fits, an administrator can create a custom role in Roles & Permissions.