Admin Controls

How admins manage members, define roles, and remove access—82 instances across 10 systems.

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Member Management
Role Models & Scope
Role Definitions
Destructive Actions

Introduction

Admin controls are the surfaces where people with power build and manage the permission system. Across 82 admin-facing instances from 10 systems, we found strong consensus on some verbs—"Invite" dominates member lists (8 of 10), "Remove" dominates destructive actions (6 of 9)—but wide divergence on architecture. Role complexity ranges from 2 tiers (Linear) to 8 (Asana).

Member Management

Instances: 26 of 152 (17.1%) Present in: All 10 systems

The member list is the admin home base. The core pattern is consistent: a table of people with names, roles, and status, plus an invite CTA.

Slack admin member management table showing columns for full name, member ID, display name, email, account type, billing status, and authentication method — Slack's admin view includes billing status and authentication method—data most systems hide from the member list

Permission Admin Controls: Member Management, Role Models & Removal Patterns from 10 Enterprise Systems | Northbase

System	Segments
Notion	Members, Guests, Groups, Contacts
Slack	People, Channels, External, Invitations
GitHub	Members, Outside collaborators, Pending, Invitations, Failed invitations
Airtable	Collaborators, Pending invites
Asana	All, Members, Guests, Invited, Removed
Trello	Workspace members, Guests, Join requests

System	Org Roles	Resource Roles	Tiers	Custom Roles
Asana	Super Admin, Admin, Member, Guest	Project admin, Editor, Commenter, Viewer	8	Yes (Enterprise+)
Notion	Workspace owner, Member, Restricted member	Full access, Can edit, Can comment, Can view	7	No
Figma	Owner, Full, Dev, Collab, View	Can edit, Can view	7	No
GitHub	Owner, Member	Admin, Maintain, Write, Triage, Read	7	Yes (Enterprise)
Atlassian	Organisation admin, App admin, User access admin, User	Administrator, Member, Viewer	7	Yes (Premium)
Airtable	Owner, Creator, Editor, Commenter, Read only	Creator, Editor, Commenter, Read only, Client	6	No
Slack	Primary owner, Owner, Admin, Member	—	4	No
Dropbox	Team admin, Member	Can edit, Can view	4	No
Trello	Workspace admin, Member	Admin, Member, Observer	4	No
Linear	Admin, Member	—	2	No

Concept	Variations
Full control	Owner (Notion, Figma, Airtable), Super Admin (Asana), Primary owner (Slack), Organisation admin (Atlassian)
Standard access	Member (6 systems), User (Atlassian), Editor (Airtable)
Read-only	Can view (Notion, Figma, Dropbox), Viewer (Atlassian, Asana), Observer (Trello), Read (GitHub)
External	Guest (Notion, Asana, Trello), Outside collaborator (GitHub), External (Slack, Dropbox), Client (Airtable)

System	Gated Feature	Plan
Notion	Restricted member role	Enterprise
Figma	Dev / Collab seats	$5-15/mo
Slack	Custom roles	Pro
GitHub	Custom roles	Enterprise
Asana	Custom roles	Enterprise+
Atlassian	Premium features	Premium
Trello	Permission controls	Premium

Admin Controls

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Member Management

Admin Controls

Have questions about Permission & Access Control?

Table of Contents

Introduction

Member Management

Tabs and Segmentation

Pending Invites

Plan Limits on Member Lists

Role Models & Scope

Two-Layer vs Flat

Scope Layers

Naming Conventions

Plan-Gated Permissions