DISCLAIMER: Some content in this article outlines how to use functionalities that will be publicly released to all clients at the end of December 2023. If you see differences between this article and your platform, check back at that time for updated content.

Introduction

Delegating activities to other users is a strategic move that enhances efficiency, empowers users, and ensures that the administrative team can focus on critical responsibilities. It's a win-win approach that benefits both admins and the organization as a whole.

Superadmins can delegate their activities to other users, called Power Users.

Depending on the size and structure of your organization, consider creating a Power User hierarchy, so that some Power Users can manage other Power Users to create a structured and efficient ecosystem, promote knowledge sharing, and enhance the overall support and user experience.

Consider assigning different responsibilities (such as user management, content management, support, etc.) to different Power Users to take advantage of their expertise in specific areas. Take inspiration from the Community Guide on Power Users Personas (opens in a new tab).

This article explains how to create Power Users, and configure Power User profiles with different permissions.

Requirements & Limitations

• Power Users with managing permissions on other Power Users cannot create Power Users profiles, only Superadmins can.

Learn More on DoceboU

Want to learn more about Power Users? Have a look at the dedicated course, Delegating Administrative Tasks with Power Users (opens in a new tab) on Docebo U!

Use Case Scenarios

• The definition of Power User profiles is very useful for the management of branches located in different countries, or in association with the Extended Enterprise App, to manage different domains.
• Superadmins can grant some Power Users permission to manage other Power Users, making them Super Power Users and creating a user hierarchy within the platform. Super Power Users are a step above Power Users: they have the authority to manage and oversee the activities of multiple Power Users across the platform, maintaining order, security, and efficient operations within the system.

Definition of "Profile"

When talking about Power Users, a “profile” has a double meaning:

Profiles as Sets of Permissions

Profiles are sets of permissions created by Superadmins that determine what actions Power Users can perform on the platform. Only Superadmins can create profiles and assign them to Power Users. Profiles streamline the platform management by allowing Superadmins to assign and adjust permissions for multiple Power Users based on their roles or responsibilities. Power Users are typically assigned to one or more profiles which define their privileges within the platform. For example, you might have profiles like "User Manager" or "Content Manager," each one with different permissions. Learn more about creating profiles.

Profiles as Resources

Profiles can be assigned as resources to the Power Users with permissions to manage other Power Users using the same assignment process of other resources (users, courses and learning plans, locations, etc.), so that they can, in turn, assign them to the Power Users they manage. Learn more about assigning resources to Power Users.

Creating a Power User

As a first step, create your Power Users either by following the standard user creation procedure, setting the user level as Power User or directly from the Power User management area. To do so, access the Admin Menu by clicking on the gear icon in the top right corner. In the E-Learning section, select the Power Users item. The Power Users Management page is composed of two tabs:

• Power Users. This tab lists all of the Power Users configured in your platform
• Profiles. This tab lists all of the Power User profiles already configured in your platform.

In order to create a Power User, click on the plus button in the top right corner, then select New Power User.

In the right panel that opens, select the users you want to define as Power Users and click on Confirm.

Creating a Power User Profile

A profile is a set of permissions that you grant to Power Users. Superadmins can configure as many profiles as they need in the platform but remember that you can assign up to 10 profiles to each Power User. Power Users with permission to manage other Power Users are not allowed to create profiles.

In order to create a new Power User profile, from the main Power Users Management page, click on the plus button in the top right corner, then select New Profile.

In the right panel, set a profile name and, optionally, a profile description. For security reasons, both the profile name and the profile description are checked according to the OWASP guidelines (opens in a new tab) and will be sanitized to avoid injections. Click on Create and Edit to start the configuration. 

Use the General section to edit the profile name and description, if necessary. Please note that the following characters < > \ | / = +  are not accepted in the profile name field, and you will not be allowed to save the changes related to the profile when the name includes those characters.

Use the Pre-Populate User Additional Fields area to select the user additional fields that will be automatically populated with the data of the Power Users associated with the profile when they create new users. To do so, click on Select Additional Fields, select one or more fields from the right panel that will open by clicking the checkboxes next to their field names, and click on Select to confirm your action. This step is optional. Please note that the user additional fields defined as Invisible to the user are not automatically populated upon the user creation. 

Move now to the Manage Permissions section to assign the rights to the profile, that is what the Power Users assigned to the profile will be authorized to do in your platform. Click Add Permission, and select an area from the corresponding dropdown, in the right panel that will open. Once you pick up an area, use the Type dropdown to define whether you want to assign all permissions related to the selected area to the Power User profile, or select the Custom Permissions option to choose a subset of permissions from the third dropdown. 

Please note! Have a look at the complete list of the permissions available for the configuration of Power User profiles to have an overview of the available permissions and relevant options.

Once you have completed your selection, click Confirm. The permission you have added is listed in the recap bottom area of the Manage Permissions section. Repeat the permission selection for all of the areas you wish to assign to the profile.

Granting Profiles to Power Users

Once the Power User profile has been created, you can grant it to Power Users. While on the profile creation page, move to the Power Users Assigned tab, click on the Assign Power Users button in the top right corner, select the Power Users you want to grant to the profile from the right panel, and click Assign. When you grant a profile to a Power User, you’re giving them the permissions assigned to that specific profile.

You can remove any of the Power Users granted to the profile at any time, from the Power Users Assigned tab. To do so, hover your mouse at the end of the Power User row, click on the ellipsis menu and select Unassign from Profile. Once a Power User is removed from a profile, they will no longer be able to use the permissions assigned to the profile, but will still be a Power User of your platform.

At any time, you can grant a profile to Power Users from the Profiles tab of the Power Users Management page by hovering your mouse over the ellipsis menu at the end of the profile row and selecting Assign Power Users.

To grant more than one profile to a Power User, select the profiles by clicking on the checkboxes next to their names, and select Choose Action – Assign Power Users in the bottom right corner of the table. The granting of more than one profile happens in the background, as a background job.

You can also grant a profile to a Power User from the Power Users tab of the Power Users Management page by clicking the icon of the Assigned Profiles column in the row of the Power User, or by hovering over the ellipsis menu at the end of the Power User row and selecting Assign Profiles. Use the Remove Assigned Profiles to do the opposite: remove one or more profiles assigned to the selected Power User.

You can check the profiles assigned to each Power User, as well as a recap on the pre-populated additional fields and the assigned permissions from the Power Users Management page by clicking on the Power User name and moving to the Properties tab.

From this page, click on Grant Profiles to grant additional profiles to the selected Power User, selecting them from the right panel that opens. As you add profiles, the Permissions Recap section populates with the list of permissions linked to the granted profiles.

Please Note! You can grant up to 10 profiles to every Power User.

Assigning Resources to Power Users

The permissions that Power Users inherit from the profiles granted to them apply to the resources they can manage. To assign resources to a Power User, click on their name in the Power Users tab.

Move to the Assigned Resources tab to assign the Power User to resources: users, groups, branches, courses, learning plans, catalogs, locations, folders of the Central Repository, and Power User profiles. 

Select the Resource Type from the left menu, click on Assign Resources, and proceed with the resource selection. 

As an option, you can quickly assign resources to a Power User from the main Power Users Management page. Click on the ellipsis menu at the end of the Power User row, then select the Assign Resources option. In the right panel, choose the type of resource you wish to assign, and click on the Next button to finalize your selection. 

You can also assign the same resources to a selection of Power Users with a single action. To do so, select the Power Users by checking the checkboxes corresponding to their rows, then click Choose Action in the bottom right corner of the page, and select the Assign Resources option. The total number of assignments cannot be greater than 1000.

Please Note! Resource assignments to Power Users are not effective until the Power User logs in for the first time after the assignment is made. This is valid both for direct resource assignments (e.g., assigning a group to a Power User) and indirect assignments (e.g., a user being added to a group to which the Power User is already assigned).

Notes on Resource Assignments

• When a Power User assigns a resource to a user (e.g., enrolls a user in a course, or assigns a subscription), other Power Users cannot undo the assignment. Only Superadmins can modify or invalidate the assignments made by Power Users.
• If a Power User is assigned to a user belonging to a branch the Power User is not assigned to, the Power User can assign the user only to one of the branches they are managing.
• When assigning an entire set of resources to one or more Power Users (all courses, all learning plans, etc.), the assignment is considered as a dynamic sum of all the resources, which changes depending on the resources created or deleted in the platform. This behavior is reflected in filters too. For example, if you filter Power Users using the Without Learning Plans filter, the results page will never include the Power Users assigned to all learning plans, even if there is no learning plan in your platform.
• If a Power User is also a manager, they will have visibility over the resources (courses, learning plans, catalogs, etc.) available to the users they are managing. As an example, when a Power User with manager permissions navigates the My Team page, they will be able to see the courses and the learning plans where their team members are enrolled, even when not directly assigned to them.
• When a Power User is assigned to a profile including the Notifications permission, the Power User will only be able to manage the notifications related to the resources assigned to them.
  •  If a notification does not include the resources associated with the Power User, then they will not be able to manage them (view, create, edit or delete them) no matter what permission they are assigned to. 
  • Similarly, when the Power User is not associated with the resources assigned to the notification, they will not be able to manage them.
• If you assign a learning plan as a resource to a Power User, they will also have visibility and managing permissions on the courses it includes according to the permissions on courses granted to the profiles they belong to.
• If you assign Power User profiles as resources to a Power User, remember to assign them also the Power Users they can manage as resources from the Users section of the Resource Type panel of the Power User’s Assigne Resources tab.
• If your platform has been activated before October 21, 2019,  when a Power User assigns the user to a branch they are managing, the user will be kept in both branches. If your platform has been activated after October 21, 2019, users can belong to only one branch. If the Power User assigns the user to one of the branches they are managing, the user will be removed from the previously assigned branch.

Managing Power Users

You can manage the Power Users you have created in your platform from the Power Users Management page, either individually or in groups. 

From the Power Users tab of the Power Users Management page, click on the ellipsis menu at the end of the Power User row to perform the following actions:

• Power User Overview. When you select this option, you will access a quick recap of the resources and the profiles assigned to the Power User, as well as an overview of the permissions they are granted on the basis of the assigned profiles.
• Edit. Use this option to edit the details of the selected Power User.
• Assign Resources. Use this option to quickly assign resources to the selected Power User. See the Assigning Resources to Power Users chapter of this article for further details. 
• Assign Profiles. Use this option to quickly grant profiles to the selected Power User. See the Granting Profiles to Power Users chapter of this article for further details. 
• Unassign Profiles. Select this option to quickly unassign more profiles from the selected Power User with a single action. 
• Log In as This Power User. As a Superadmin, you can temporarily login as a Power User in your platform to perform actions on their behalf to help with troubleshooting in their learning platform. The same option is available in the Power User profile, in the top right corner. Learn more about impersonating a Power User.
• Unassign All Courses. Use this option to unassign all of the courses, learning plans and categories from the selected Power User.
• Switch to User Level. Use this option to demote the Power User to a normal user. When you do so, all of the profiles and the resources assigned to the Power User will be unassigned. 

You can perform most of the above-mentioned actions on several Power Users at a time. To do so, select the Power Users by clicking on the checkboxes next to their usernames, and then click on Choose Action in the bottom right corner of the table to take advantage of the following options:

• Assign resources. Use this option to assign to the selected Power Users:
  • a custom selection of resources, see the Assigning Resources to Power Users chapter of this article for further details
  • all the courses available on your platform
  • all the learning plans available on your platform
  • all the courses and learning plans available on your platform
  • all the courses and the learning plans visible in catalogs. When you select this option make sure that the Power User is assigned to a profile enabled to manage catalogs. 
• Assign profiles. Use this option to grant one or more profiles to the selected Power Users. See the Granting Profiles to Power Users chapter of this article for further details.
• Unassign All Profiles. Use this option to unassign all of the profiles linked to the selected Power Users from them. Since this option results in the selected Power Users no longer being assigned to any profile, in order to proceed with this action, the platform will ask you if you also want to demote the selected Power Users to normal users.
• Unassign All Courses. Use this option to unassign all of the courses, learning plans and categories from the selected Power Users.
• Switch to User Level. Use this option to unassign the selected Power Users to their role, demoting them to normal users. When you do so, all of the profiles and the resources assigned to the Power User will be unassigned.

Creating and Managing Power Users via CSV Files

In your platform, you can create and manage users by means of CSV files. When creating or managing Power Users with this method, remember that you can assign up to 10 profiles per Power User.

To create a Power User via CSV file, set the user data field Level as poweruser and use the Profile Name data field to list the names of the Power User profiles you want to assign to the user. Profile names must be separated by the | character (pipe, or, vertical bar). When assigning multiple profiles to a Power User, do not use | as the separator in the CSV file.

Granting Free Seats to Power Users

You can grant Power Users free seats for courses on sale through catalogs, allowing them to enroll the users they manage into those courses for free. 

To do so, log in as a Superadmin and access the Admin Menu from the gear icon in the top right corner. Select the Course Management area in the E-Learning section. Click on the course for which you would like to allocate extra free seats, then move to the Seats tab. Click the Add Seats button in the top right corner, type and select the Power User name, and set the number of seats to assign to the Power User.

In order to be available for selection, the Power User must be assigned to the course you are managing free seats for, and must be associated with a Power User profile enabled to manage seats with the following permission: Course Catalogs -> Custom Permissions -> Allow Power User to buy and assign seats for courses and learning plans.

Power Users will be able to use seats to enroll themselves and other users in the course only if there are still seats available. If the number of users selected for enrollment by the Power User exceeds the number of available seats, the enrollment process will be completed on the basis of the number of available seats.

In the Seats tab, you can check the list of Power Users who are in charge of the seats for the selected course, the number of assigned seats, the number of seats the Power User has purchased, the number of free seats the Power User can still assign, and the total seats for each Power User. Once you configure this option, the Power User will be able to manage extra seats for other users for free.

Tips and Tricks

• The Power Users who have permission to create courses can also set course categories for the course. If another Power User has visibility to the same course category, the two Power Users are then able to work together to build out the courses in that category.
• If your platform is organized in branches and you must assign a Power User to each branch/sub-branch, use a CSV file instead of a manual assignment. During the CSV import, configure the Auto assign branches to Power Users functionality.