Optimize and Capture use completely separate role systems, even though they live in the same product and can share a super-org. Holding a role in one doesn't give you any access in the other; someone can be a Capture Viewer and an Optimize System Admin at the same time, with no overlap in what each role unlocks.
Five roles in Optimize:
| Role | Product | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| System Admin | Optimize | Full control — manage settings, invite users, set up SCIM/SSO, turn mining on/off per team, add other System Admins, view all teams' dashboards |
| Org Optimizer | Optimize | Views all teams' dashboards; no access to settings |
| Team Optimizer | Optimize | Views their own team's dashboard only; no access to settings |
| Participant | Optimize | Gets mined for workflow data. Not automatically a dashboard user — just contributes data unless also given an Optimizer role |
Why Optimize has different roles from Capture
Capture and Optimize are architected as two distinct products with two distinct role systems, on purpose — not a shared permission model split into views. Capture's roles (System Admin, Team Admin, Creator, Viewer) govern who can create, share, and manage documentation. Optimize's roles govern who gets mined, who can see mined insights, and who can administer the mining setup — a different job entirely.
That separation shows up everywhere in the product:
- Settings pages differ. Capture-only admins see Billing, Sharing, Activity Log, Developer Access, Requests. Optimize-only admins see Workflow Mining settings. Neither sees the other's pages unless they hold both roles.
- "My teams" and the team sidebar are Capture concepts only — Optimize doesn't use them.
- Invites are product-specific. Inviting someone to Capture and inviting them to Optimize are two separate actions, even in the same invite modal.
- User management is split. The Team Members table shows Capture role/license info only for users with a Capture license, and Optimize role/mining status only for users with an Optimize license. A user with both needs a System Admin with access to both products to remove, deactivate, or reactivate them.
What this means practically
- A user's access is the union of whatever roles they hold in each product. If someone is only invited to Optimize, they won't see any Capture-only features, even if Capture is enabled for the org — and vice versa.
- Optimize's System Admin role is org/super-org-wide and not customer-facing as a separate "admin tier" the way Capture's is — there's no Optimize "Team Admin" equivalent; team-level dashboard access is handled by Team Optimizer instead.
- Only Participant seats are billable in Optimize. System Admin, Org Optimizer, and Team Optimizer roles don't count against seat limits.
- To become an Optimize System Admin, you must first be on an Optimize team — meaning a regular invite has to be sent and accepted before that role can be assigned.
How roles get assigned
Both Capture and Optimize roles can be assigned two ways:
- Manual invite — via Admin Settings, per user
- SCIM — mapping identity provider groups (Okta, Entra, etc.) to roles automatically
If your org uses SCIM for both products, they use the same directory connection, but each product's group-to-role mapping is configured separately.