Participants tab

The Participants tab on a session is the list of people invited to this specific session. It's deliberately session-scoped — separate from (and usually a subset of) the wider playbook team — so you can have a different mix of people in different sessions of the same engagement without churning the team membership.

This page covers the tab's mental model, the basic add-a-person flow, and how it relates to other surfaces. For the bulk operations — CSV import, bulk role changes, suggested-member quick-add — head straight to Bulk participant operations and CSV import.

Session participants vs the playbook team

This is the distinction that catches most people on day one:

The two are linked but separate. Adding someone to the playbook team does not automatically add them to every session — it just makes them a suggested member the facilitator can quick-add to specific sessions. Adding someone to a session does not add them to the playbook team — they're a participant for that session only.

The pattern: playbook team is the cast list for the engagement; session participants are the cast for one episode.

What's on the tab

The Participants tab has four interactive surfaces:

Surface	What it does
Participant list	The current attendees, with name, email, role, and per-row actions.
Add a participant	A single-row inline form to add one person by email.
Suggested members	The playbook team, presented as one-click adds at the top of the page.
Import CSV	Bulk import from a spreadsheet — see Bulk participant operations.

For bulk role changes, sorting, filtering, and the row-level multi-select, also see Bulk participant operations — that page covers the workflow accelerators in depth.

Adding a participant individually

The basic flow:

1. Open the Participants tab.
2. Type the participant's email in the Add a participant row.
3. Pick a role (Participant by default; Facilitator and Observer also available — see Roles overview).
4. Click Add.

If the email matches an existing workspace member, they're added with their existing identity. If it doesn't, they're added as an invited participant — they'll get the prep invitation when you publish the session, and can complete prep as a guest or by signing in.

Roles on the Participants tab

Each participant carries a role, set when you add them and changeable afterwards from the row's actions menu:

• Participant — the default. Can complete prep, see other participants' prep responses, and engage in the live agenda.
• Facilitator — co-facilitator powers. Can edit the session, see all responses, and run the live agenda.
• Observer — read-only access. Can see what's going on without contributing.

The full role definitions and what each can do live in Roles overview.

Walkthrough

1. 1

   Open the Participants tab

   From the Session Planner, switch to Participants. The current list (likely empty for a brand-new session) is visible, with the suggested members panel above it if the session belongs to a playbook with a team.

2. 2

   Quick-add the playbook team

   If the suggested members panel is showing, click each person you want to include. This is the fastest path for any session that involves the standing team.

3. 3

   Add anyone outside the playbook team

   For external participants — a customer, a one-off contributor, a partner — type their email in the Add row and assign a role.

4. 4

   For larger lists, switch to bulk import

   If you have more than 5–10 people to add, the Import CSV path is faster — see Bulk participant operations.

5. 5

   Review roles before publishing

   Scan the list for role assignments. Most people should be Participants; co-facilitators get Facilitator; anyone watching but not contributing gets Observer.

Tips & pitfalls

Related pages