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How user roles work in Legacy vs. PI2

Learn the difference between user roles in Legacy and PI2, and preview how your existing permissions will translate to PI2.

Updated this week

This article applies to all users in the Legacy PI software.


One of the very first things you'll notice upon upgrading to PI2 is our new approach to user permissions.

While the general design philosophy remains the same (the higher the permission level, the more things a user can do), we've made some adjustments to allow for greater flexibility in how you control permissions.

In this article, we'll walk through what's changing from Legacy to PI2, so you can know what to expect.

Why are permissions changing for PI2?

In the legacy experience, user roles gave blanket permissions across PI’s products. This meant that someone with Account Admin access could see and do anything, with little flexibility to fine-tune their access.

In PI2, you can assign user roles — now known as access levels — on a per-product basis. This means the following is now possible:

1. Limit employee access to specific PI products

In the above example, Tori (an Account Owner in Legacy) has access to all products in PI2. The other three employees only have access to the products that pertain to their role.

2. Fine-tune what employees see and do

In the above example, Tori (an Account Owner in Legacy) has admin access to all products in PI2. Tamara has admin access to Hire (given her role as a Sr. Recruiter) but has limited or no access to other products. Javier’s and Evan’s access levels are similarly personalized.

How user roles worked in Legacy PI

In the Legacy software, permissions consisted of five "user roles":

  • Account Owner - Account Admin permissions, plus ability to grant users cognitive access

  • Account Admin - Power User permissions, plus ability to configure company settings and add software users

  • Power User / User - Read Only permissions, plus ability to send Behavioral and Job Assessments

  • Read Only - Could view, download, and share information they had access to; couldn't modify data or take any other actions

  • Third Party External Users - Similar permissions to a Power User; allowed your PI Consultant to provide software guidance

These permissions were assigned on a per-user basis, and applied across the entire PI software.

Example: Rachel, an Account Admin in Legacy, had access to PI data in Hire, Inspire, Design, and Diagnose.

However, the only access she needs for her role is the ability to run Relationship Guides in Inspire and create teams in Design.

How user roles work in PI2

In the new PI software, permissions consist of five "access levels":

  • Organization admin - Admin access to all PI products, plus ability to modify organization settings and grant users cognitive access

  • Product admin - Admin access to a specific PI product, plus ability to grant users access to that product

  • Limited user - Has access to a specific PI product; can create/view/share within that product based on additional permissions

  • No access - Access is blocked to the specified PI product

  • Third-party user - Similar permissions to an organization admin; allows your PI Consultant to provide software guidance

Like in Legacy, these permissions are assigned on a per-user basis. However, unlike Legacy, access levels in PI2 are applied per product.

Example: Rachel, now a user in PI2, can be a product admin in Inspire, a limited user in Design, and have no access to Hire, Diagnose, or Perform.

She still has access to the areas of PI she needs, but no longer has access to the areas she does not need to see.

Default user permissions in PI2

To ensure a smooth upgrade process, we’ve given your employees permission defaults in PI2 that correspond with their user roles in Legacy PI. Here’s the full breakdown:

* Organization admin includes the cognitive admin permission, which can be toggled on/off by another org admin.

** If an employee had read-only access to teams in legacy Design, they will no longer have access to the software in PI2. You can restore their access by modifying their access level to "limited." (The employee will receive an invitation to log in to PI Design.)

*** Third party users have the same privileges as an organization admin, with some exceptions. Learn more about the differences.

Cognitive access defaults for PI2

By default, the only users with cognitive access in PI2 are cognitive admins and users to whom they've specifically granted cognitive access.

That said, if a user had cognitive access in Legacy PI, that cognitive access will carry over to PI2.

Example: A Power User in Legacy had cognitive access, allowing them to send Cognitive Assessments and view cognitive data.

In PI2, that same user will have cognitive access.

How to prepare for PI2

We understand this is a lot of information. If there's one thing we recommend you take away from this article, it's this infographic on how your user roles will translate from Legacy to PI2.

In most cases, we hope these defaults make sense for your users. That said, there are some important distinctions worth mentioning:

We took a conservative approach to these default permissions in PI2. (We'd rather be on the safe side when sharing user data.) That said, we encourage you to modify these permissions however you see fit.

Ways to modify permissions for PI2

  • If you have time ahead of your upgrade date, you can tweak user roles in Legacy based on the above chart.

  • Otherwise, we recommend waiting for your upgrade date and modifying access levels as part of your onboarding process.

Tip: Not sure which access levels to grant in PI2? Here are some recommendations based on role and responsibilities.

FAQs

I'd like to modify user roles in Legacy PI ahead of my upgrade date. How?

Follow the instructions in this support article — specifically the section titled "Edit and manage your users" and the video titled "Changing user roles."

You can also watch that same video below:

I'd prefer to modify user roles once I'm upgraded to PI2. What next?

Once you're upgraded to PI2, follow the "How to modify access levels" section of this support article.

How does cognitive access translate from Legacy to PI2?

Any users with cognitive access in Legacy PI will have cognitive access in PI2. (Cognitive admins in PI2 can grant/revoke cognitive access at any time.)

Example: A Power User in Legacy had cognitive access, allowing them to send Cognitive Assessments and view cognitive data.

In PI2, that same user will have cognitive access.


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