NetCom Learning: Roles and Permission Tool Re Design
Cut role‑assignment time by 40% and strengthened governance for a multi‑country CMS
My Role
As a Product Manager and UX Designer, I led the Roles & Permissions redesign from problem discovery through delivery — conducting in-depth user research, defining the system architecture, designing workflows and UI, running usability tests, and partnering with engineering for seamless implementation. My goal was to balance strategic scalability with user-centered simplicity, empowering global teams to manage content governance effectively.
Collaborating team
Cross‑functional squad across Product, Engineering, QA, and Marketing
Research Methods
Stakeholder interviews, Workflow audits, Usability audits, Competitive benchmarking
Overview
The CMS powers content across multiple regions and business functions, but its Roles & Permissions system was holding back agility, accountability, and security.
Our mission: Redesign Roles & Permissions as a transparent, flexible, and secure system that empowers admins to manage content governance independently and efficiently.
Research: Discovering User Pain Points & Expectations
To ground the redesign, we interviewed Super Admins across countries, audited real‑world workflows, benchmarked enterprise CMS patterns (Adobe/Drupal), and ran usability audits on the current UI. These inputs shaped a Role Hierarchy (Super Admin, Admin, Creator, Viewer) and a Permissions Matrix mapped to tools, templates, and country contexts.
Onboarding New Team Members
Pain Point: New team members had to request CMS credentials from the Development team, creating inefficient delays and repeated follow-ups.
Expectation: Super Admins should onboard new users independently, with multiple Super Admin roles segmented by department.
Lack of Transparency in Role & Permission Management
Pain Point: Admins had no visibility over assigned roles and couldn’t update or revoke them independently.
Expectation: Super Admins should manage user roles and permissions directly—update, revoke, or reassign as needed.
Managing Country-Specific Teams
Pain Point: Permission management across geographies (us, en-in, en-bd, en-ae) was complicated and time-consuming.
Expectation: Super Admins should assign roles per country, and enable a single user to be Admin or Creator across multiple regions efficiently.
Unreliable Tool Experience
Pain Point: Buggy UI with missing basic functionalities led to frustration and dependency on developers.
Expectation: Admins want an intuitive, reliable interface for managing templates, roles, and permissions, with full visibility of who has what access.
Insecure Password Management
Pain Point: New user passwords were manually created and shared by Backend Admins—posing a security risk.
Expectation: Users should set up their own accounts securely during onboarding via OTP-based 2FA, eliminating manual password sharing.
Based on these deep insights, the redesign focused on:
Enhance Transparency
Track role & permission changes with searchable history logs.
Flexible & Scalable Governance
Invite new users, assign roles, edit roles, and deactivate roles.
Secure Onboarding
OTP / 2FA, session management, safer invites.
Enable Granular Control
Permissions at tool, template, and country levels.
Streamlined UX
Make assignment fast, intuitive, and error‑proof.
Operational Efficiency
Reduce admin time while improving compliance.
Existing UX
Existing UX feels stuck and cumbersome to use
User Flow
A comprehensive end-to-end user flow was created to align tasks, permissions, and interactions across the CMS.
Wireframes Ideation
To translate research insights into tangible solutions, we began by mapping out low-fidelity wireframes. These wireframes helped us visualize the new Roles & Permissions workflows — from user onboarding and role assignment to permission management across tools, templates, and countries.
Insights & Recommendation
Based on these deep insights, the redesign focused on:
Insight 1: Transparency gaps blocked accountability
Admins needed to know who changed what, when, and why to govern at scale.
Recommendation
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Add Permission History & Logs with filters (user, role, action, date) and diff. view.
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Implement Notification push on the CMS on every role change in the system.
Outcome
Higher trust in governance and faster incident audits.
Insight 2 — Granularity was missing for real‑world governance
Country programs and tool ownership required scoped access beyond global on/off toggles.
Recommendation
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Implement a multi‑level Permissions Matrix: tool → template → country.
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Formalize a Role Hierarchy (Super Admin, Admin, Creator, Viewer) with defaults.
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Allow multi‑role per user with clear precedence rules.
Outcome
Fewer escalations; clearer accountability for regional teams.
Insight 3 — Rigid role lifecycle slowed operations
Once assigned, roles were hard to revoke or modify without backend help.
Recommendation
-
Implement Create/ Edit / Deactivate for roles and users permissions for templates and tools
Outcome
Role setup time reduced; safer iteration without breaking live access.
Insight 4 — Account setup was insecure and outdated
Passwords were manually created and shared by backend admins, creating major security risks and poor onboarding experiences.
Recommendation
Introduce a secure, self-service account setup with OTP-based login, two-factor authentication, and automatic session expiry.
Outcome
Stronger security; seamless onboarding experience that builds user trust from day one.
Solutions
We redesigned the Roles & Permissions system to address the identified challenges:
Self-Service Onboarding
Super Admins can now independently onboard new users, eliminating the need for Development team intervention.
Enhanced Transparency
Admins have full visibility over assigned roles and permissions, allowing them to manage and update them as needed.
Country-Specific Management
Super Admins can manage user roles and permissions for specific country CMS instances, streamlining operations across geographies.
Reliable Tool Experience
The CMS tool was improved to ensure reliability and ease of use, reducing user frustration.
Secure Password Management
Users can now securely set up their accounts and passwords during onboarding, eliminating manual password sharing.
Implementation Challenges
As we moved from design to development, several challenges surfaced that shaped our implementation timeline:
Account Setup Flow
The new onboarding and account setup flow had to be implemented first to ensure Roles & Permissions worked seamlessly across the CMS.
Multi-Regional & Multilingual Dependencies
Templates and tools for different regions and languages required backend code updates to support flexible role assignments, creating dependencies outside the initial scope.
Global Tools Integration
Some tools were global and linked to multiple templates, which added complexity and extended development time.
Expanded QA Scope
Testing had to be conducted across all multi-regional and multilingual CMS instances. Since this wasn’t planned in the first phase, it pushed back the go-live timeline.
OutCome
40% faster role assignment
Streamlined workflows and intuitive navigation enabled quicker setup, reducing delays in granting access.
Higher transparency
Detailed permission history and activity logs improved accountability and made audits easier.
Stronger governance
Country-specific access controls minimized compliance risks and ensured safer content management.
Future-ready framework
A scalable permissions model built to support expansion across new regions and growing user groups.
Learnings
Research beats assumptions
Interviews with admins uncovered country-level governance gaps, highlighting blind spots that weren’t visible through assumptions alone.
Designing for scale
Modular permission structures future-proofed the system, making it adaptable to evolving governance needs.
Transparency builds trust
Admins valued detailed action logs more than new role types, proving accountability was their top priority.
Collaboration drives adoption
By co-creating with admins, the solution felt intuitive, practical, and immediately trustworthy.