Manage user groups

How to get there: Go to Settings → User Groups.

Learn how to create user groups in ProductLift to restrict boards to specific segments of your audience, such as beta testers, enterprise customers, or internal teams.

What are user groups?

User groups are named collections of users you assign manually. Their single functional purpose is to gate access to boards: a board with visibility set to "Specific Groups" is only visible to members of the selected groups (and admins).

Each group has:

  • A name
  • An optional description
  • A list of manually added users

That is the entire feature. There are no auto-assignment rules, no CSV import, no icons or colors, no nested groups, no expiration dates, and no vote weighting attached to groups.

User groups vs. user segments

User groups and user segments are different features:

Feature User Groups User Segments
Purpose Board access control Analytics and filtering
Assignment Manual (admin adds users one by one) Auto-calculated from user data
Examples "Beta Testers", "Enterprise" "High MRR", "Trial Users"
Controls what a user sees? Yes (which boards) No (analysis only)

See User Segments for segment details.

When to use user groups

Beta testing

Create a "Beta Testers" group, add the users you want in beta, then create a board with visibility set to "Specific Groups" and pick "Beta Testers". Only those users (plus admins) see the board.

Enterprise or VIP roadmap

Create an "Enterprise" group, add your enterprise customers, and create a private roadmap board scoped to that group.

Internal team board

Create an "Internal Team" group, add your employees, and give them a board for internal discussions.

Partner or client boards

Create a group per partner or client and scope a board to each so they only see their own board.

Creating a user group

  1. Go to Settings → User Groups.
  2. Click Add new group.
  3. Enter a Name (2-60 characters, unique within the portal).
  4. Optionally enter a Description.
  5. Click Save.

The group appears in the list with its ID and any users you have added.

Adding users to a group

From the group

  1. Go to Settings → User Groups.
  2. Click Show Users on the group.
  3. In the "Add User" search box, start typing a name or email.
  4. Select the user from the results.
  5. Click Add User.

Repeat for each user. Users must already exist in your portal, either because they signed up, were invited, or were imported.

From a user's profile

  1. Go to Users in the top-level sidebar (/admin/userlist).
  2. Click the user you want to manage.
  3. In the user detail panel, find the Groups row and click edit.
  4. Pick a group from the dropdown and click Add.
  5. Click Save.

Removing users from a group

  1. Go to Settings → User Groups.
  2. Click Show Users on the group.
  3. Click Remove next to the user.

Or from the user profile in Users → click the user → edit the Groups row → remove the group tag → Save.

Bulk-inviting users (into any group)

ProductLift does not have a "CSV import into group" feature. If you need to invite many users at once, use Settings → Import & Export to invite them, then add them to a group afterwards.

Using groups for board access control

Board visibility is set per board and has exactly four options:

  • Public: anyone can see the board, including logged-out visitors (subject to your portal's public/private setting).
  • Members and Admins: any logged-in user in this portal (any Member or Admin).
  • Admins only: only Admins.
  • Specific Groups: only Admins plus users who belong to at least one of the selected groups.

To restrict a board to specific groups:

  1. Go to Settings → Boards.
  2. Click the board you want to restrict.
  3. In Access Level, choose Specific Groups.
  4. Select one or more groups from the multiselect.
  5. Save the board.

Users see the board if they are an Admin, or if they are a member of any of the selected groups. Users outside those groups do not see the board in the portal at all.

Group access control operates at the board level. There is no per-post group visibility.

What groups do NOT do

To keep expectations aligned with the product, these things are not supported today:

  • No auto-assignment rules: you cannot auto-add users to a group based on plan, MRR, email domain, or tag. Add users manually.
  • No CSV import directly into a group: use the normal import flow, then add the users to a group.
  • No expiration / time-limited membership: memberships stay until you remove them.
  • No nested groups / parent groups: groups are flat; there is no hierarchy or inheritance.
  • No vote weighting: everyone's vote counts the same regardless of group.
  • No group-based notifications: changelog and post notifications go by follower/subscription status, not group membership.
  • No per-post group visibility: only per-board visibility uses groups.
  • No icon or color per group: only a name and description.

If any of these matter to your workflow, please share the use case so we can prioritize.

Best practices

Name groups clearly

Use descriptive names that map to a real access decision:

  • Good: "Beta Testers", "Enterprise Customers", "Internal Team", "Client - Acme Corp"
  • Weak: "Group 1", "Special Users", "Temp"

Keep the set of groups small

Groups are a manual tool. Every user you add is one you'll eventually have to remove. Only create a group when you have a concrete board that should be restricted to it.

Rough guidance:

  • Small portal (< 100 users): 1-3 groups
  • Medium portal (100-1,000 users): 3-6 groups
  • Large portal (1,000+ users): as many as you have real access boundaries

Review membership periodically

Because there is no auto-cleanup, walk through each group's members every few months and remove users who no longer belong (churned customers, ended beta programs, offboarded employees).

Troubleshooting

Issue: user can't see a group-restricted board

  • Confirm the user is logged in (group visibility only applies to authenticated users).
  • Verify the user is in one of the board's allowed groups: Users → open the user → Groups row.
  • Verify the board is set to Specific Groups and lists at least one group the user is in: Settings → Boards → the board → Access Level.
  • If the portal is set to private (Settings → Security & Privacy), the user must also have an account.

Issue: I can't find "User Groups" in the sidebar

  • User Groups lives under Settings in the settings sidebar, not the top-level sidebar. If you are on a board or dashboard page, click the gear/Settings icon first, then look for "User Groups" under the Users header.

Issue: adding a user does nothing

  • The user has to already exist in your portal. If they haven't signed up or been invited yet, invite them first from Users → Add User, then come back and add them to the group.

Access control:

User management:

Board setup: