User Roles & Permissions

GoalPath has five user roles. Each role is designed for a specific type of involvement in a project.

Role Overview

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Owner

Owners have full control over the project. This includes all the permissions of every other role, plus administrative functions no one else can access.

What Owners can do:

• Full access to all features and pages
• Modify project settings and configuration
• Invite, remove, and change member roles
• Manage billing and subscription
• Create and manage teams
• Participate in milestone prioritization voting
• Create and work on items

What Owners cannot do:

• Nothing is off-limits

Accessible pages: Dashboard, Search, Standup, Board, Roadmap, Milestones, Time Report, Voting, Members, Settings

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Project Leader

Project Leaders have all Collaborator permissions plus the ability to vote on milestone priorities. Use this role for lead developers or team leads who need both execution and prioritization authority.

What Project Leaders can do:

• Create and manage items
• Move items through the full workflow: NotStarted, Started, Finished, Delivered, Accepted
• Add story point estimates
• Create milestones
• View time reports and velocity metrics
• Participate in daily standups
• Access the kanban board
• View team members
• Reorder items and milestones on the roadmap (business value sort / planning)
• Vote on milestone prioritization

What Project Leaders cannot do:

• Modify project settings
• Manage billing
• Invite or remove members

Accessible pages: Dashboard, Search, Standup, Board, Roadmap, Milestones, Time Report, Voting, Members

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Collaborator

Collaborators are the core execution team. They do the work: create items, update status, add estimates, and drive milestones forward.

What Collaborators can do:

• Create and manage items
• Move items through the full workflow: NotStarted, Started, Finished, Delivered, Accepted
• Add story point estimates
• Create milestones
• View time reports and velocity metrics
• Participate in daily standups
• Access the kanban board
• View team members

What Collaborators cannot do:

• Vote on milestone prioritization
• Access the planning view used to reorder items or milestones (limited to Owner and Project Leader)
• Modify project settings
• Manage billing or members

Accessible pages: Dashboard, Search, Standup, Board, Roadmap, Milestones, Time Report, Members

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Stakeholder

Stakeholders have a business-level view of the project. They can see the roadmap and milestones, vote on priorities, but don't get into the day-to-day execution details.

What Stakeholders can do:

• Vote on milestone prioritization
• View the roadmap and project timeline
• View milestones and track progress
• Comment on items
• Search content
• View team members

What Stakeholders cannot do:

• Create or edit items
• Access the kanban board
• View time reports or velocity metrics
• Participate in standups
• Modify any project settings

Accessible pages: Dashboard, Search, Roadmap, Milestones (read-only), Voting, Members

Good fits for the Stakeholder role: product managers influencing priorities, executives monitoring progress, customer representatives voting on feature priorities.

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Viewer

Viewers can see the roadmap and milestones, and can leave comments on items. Beyond that, no editing, no voting, no access to execution details.

What Viewers can do:

• View the roadmap (read-only)
• View milestones and progress (read-only)
• Comment on items
• Search content
• View team members

What Viewers cannot do:

• Create or edit items or milestones
• Vote on priorities
• Access standup, board, or time reports
• Modify any project settings

Accessible pages: Dashboard, Search, Roadmap (read-only), Milestones (read-only), Members

See the Viewer Role Guide for when to use this role and how it differs from Stakeholder.

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Permission Matrix

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Changing User Roles

Only Owners can change member roles. Go to the Members page and click the role dropdown next to any member's name. Changes take effect immediately.

Role Assignment Tips

1. Start with the minimum role needed, then upgrade if necessary.
2. Keep Owner access to 1-2 people per project.
3. Collaborator is the right default for anyone actively doing work.
4. Use Stakeholder for business stakeholders who need to influence priorities.
5. Use Viewer for external observers or temporary access.

Common Upgrade Paths

• Viewer to Stakeholder: Observer starts participating in prioritization decisions.
• Stakeholder to Collaborator: Stakeholder starts executing work.
• Collaborator to Project Leader: Developer takes on a lead role.
• Collaborator to Owner: Trusted team member needs administrative access.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Can a user have different roles in different projects? Yes. Roles are project-specific. You can be an Owner in one project and a Collaborator in another.

What happens when a member's role is changed? The change takes effect immediately. The user will see updated navigation and permissions on their next page load.

Can Owners remove themselves? Yes, but every project must have at least one Owner. The last Owner cannot remove themselves without first assigning another Owner.

Do Stakeholders see all project data? Stakeholders see the roadmap, milestones, and voting data. They cannot access standup updates, the board, or time reports.

Can Viewers see sensitive information? Viewers can see all roadmap and milestone data. If you need to restrict information further, use separate projects rather than relying on role restrictions.

Do all roles count toward billable seats? All roles count toward billable project seats except Viewer. This makes Viewer the appropriate default when granting access to external observers who don't need a paid seat.

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