Capabilities matrix — who can do what (and why)
This is the internal cheat sheet for "which menu appears for whom." It is not a guarantee — individual staff permissions, customer contracts, and feature rollouts can affect what a specific login sees. Always verify in a real account before a customer demo.
Why Skilladder has so many roles
- Tenant safety — A company admin sees only their own organisation, not another company's candidates or assessments.
- Content vs operations — The Directory admin ("Content admin") exists so skills taxonomy and reusable content stay high quality, without giving every HR user full editing rights.
- Portfolio scale — The MCA role lets a single managed-service operator monitor and deploy across multiple companies without switching logins.
- Least privilege inside a company — Company staff get specific toggles (create assessments, view results, invite candidates, etc.) so not every team member has full admin power.
- Participant focus — Talent and Candidate users get a minimal view (dashboard + skill profile) so assessment-taking stays simple and safe.
Sidebar & major areas
Legend: ● = yes · ◐ = conditional (depends on staff permissions or specific setup) · — = no
| Area | Platform | Directory (Content admin) | MCA | Company primary | Company staff | Staff viewer | Talent / Candidate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dashboard | ● (internal view) | ● Content admin view | ● Multi-company view | ● Company metrics | ● (if not restricted) | ● Read-oriented | ● Participant view |
| Assessments | ● | ● Content stewardship | ● Portfolio scope | ● | ◐ Create assessments permission required | ● View (depends on role) | — |
| Templates | ● | ● | ● Deploy / duplicate where allowed | ● | ◐ Manage templates permission required | ● List read | — |
| Candidates | ● | — (directory admins focus on content, not hiring ops) | ● | ● | ◐ View results & analytics permission required | ● | — |
| Skill Profile | — | — | — | — | — | — | ● |
| Skills (taxonomy) | ● | ● Strong focus | ● | ● | ◐ Often tied to View results & analytics permission | ● | — |
| Question Bank | ● Operator | ● Operator | ● Browse / portfolio | ● Browse / use | ◐ Question bank (browse) permission required | ● Read | — |
| Companies | ● | — | ● | — | — | — | — |
| Portfolio access / Registration domains | ● | — | ◐ Assignment-dependent | — | — | — | — |
Question Bank operators = Platform and Directory admins (can create, edit, review, import, and retire questions). All other roles browse or insert from the bank when building assessments.
Company staff permission toggles
These toggles are set by the primary company admin in Account Settings → Team → Edit access.
| Toggle label | What it unlocks | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Create assessments | Build new assessments using the wizard, JD flow, or CSV upload | Grant to staff who own assessment authoring |
| View results & analytics | Access to the Candidates directory, exports, and results data | Grant to managers who review candidate performance |
| Invite candidates / share | Send assessment invites and share access links | Grant to recruiters or coordinators who run distribution |
| Question bank (browse) | Open and search the Question Bank (read and use, not edit) | Grant to staff who pull questions into assessments |
| Manage assessment templates | Create, edit, and manage assessment templates | Grant to staff who maintain the template library |
If permissions fail to load (for example after a configuration error), Skilladder may deny access to these features until it's resolved — treat that as an incident, not a user error.
Where to read more
- Platform & Directory admins — elevated internal roles
- Multi-company administrator (MCA) — portfolio context
- Company administrators & staff — customer roles and their granular permissions
- Talent & candidates — participant experience
- Question Bank — bank-specific access and lifecycle
For a specific customer login that seems wrong — Slack #producttech_cooking with the user's email and company name.