Retrospective Visibility by Role
Unpack uses a layered role system to control who can see, participate in, and manage retrospectives. Visibility is determined by a combination of your organization-level role and your team membership. This ensures that pod leads only see their own team's retros, while organization admins can view retros across all teams for rollup and reporting purposes.
Role Hierarchy
There are two levels of roles in Unpack: organization roles and team roles. Together, they determine what you can see and do with retrospectives.
Organization roles
- Owner — Full control over the organization. Can view retrospectives across all teams for cross-team visibility and rollups.
- Admin — Can manage teams and settings. Can view retrospectives across all teams for cross-team visibility and rollups.
- Member — Standard participant. Can only see retrospectives from teams they belong to.
Team roles
- Facilitator (pod lead) — Can create, manage, and run retrospectives for their team. Controls phase transitions, timers, and AI features. Can only see retros from their own team unless they also hold an org admin or owner role.
- Member — Can participate in retrospectives by writing cards, voting, and checking in. Can only see retros from their own team.
Visibility Rules
The following table summarizes who can see and interact with retrospectives based on their role combination.
| Capability | Team Member | Team Facilitator (Pod Lead) | Org Admin / Owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| View own team's retros | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| View other teams' retros | No | No | Yes |
| Write cards and vote | Yes | Yes | No * |
| Manage retro (phases, timer, AI) | No | Yes | No * |
| View retro summaries | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Create retro rollups | No | No | Yes |
* Org admins and owners have read-only access to retros from teams they do not belong to. To participate in or manage a retro, they must be added as a member of that team.
Pod Lead Isolation
Pod leads (team facilitators) have full control over retrospectives within their own team but cannot see or access retrospectives from other teams. This ensures that each pod's feedback remains private to the team and is only shared upward through retro rollups or when an admin reviews cross-team patterns.
A pod lead who needs to see retros from another team must be added as a member of that team, or an org admin can use retro rollups to surface cross-team themes without exposing individual cards.
Cross-Team Visibility for Admins
Organization admins and owners can view retrospectives from every team in the organization. This is designed for team leads or engineering managers who need to:
- Identify recurring themes and blockers across multiple pods
- Review retro summaries and action items across the organization
- Create retro rollups that synthesize insights from multiple teams
- Monitor team health and improvement trends over time
Admin cross-team access is read-only. Admins can view retro boards and summaries, but they cannot write cards, cast votes, or control phases on retros for teams they are not a member of. This preserves the team's autonomy during active retrospectives while still enabling organizational oversight.
For a structured way to aggregate insights across teams, use Retro Rollups instead of reviewing individual retros. Rollups are purpose-built for cross-team analysis and produce actionable summaries for leadership.
Common Scenarios
Scenario: Pod lead running a retro
Alex is a facilitator on the Backend team. Alex can create and run retrospectives for the Backend team, advance phases, use AI features, and manage action items. Alex cannot see any retrospectives from the Frontend or Mobile teams.
Scenario: Engineering manager reviewing all pods
Jordan is an org admin. Jordan can open any retrospective from any team in the organization to review the board, read summaries, and check action item progress. Jordan cannot write cards or control phases on teams they are not a member of. Jordan can create retro rollups to aggregate themes across all pods.
Scenario: Regular team member
Sam is a member of the Frontend team with no special org-level role. Sam can participate fully in Frontend retros (write cards, vote, check in) but cannot see retros from any other team. Sam cannot create or manage retros unless assigned the facilitator role.