A live Specialized sample project is in the field. The owner is out. Completes are still arriving, and someone on the team needs to check monitoring or pause the work without copying the project into another account. Shared workspace is built for that moment: open a colleague’s Audience workspace, keep the original owner, and work from the access the organization actually granted.
Why is team collaboration hard when every Audience project stays with its creator?
In many organizations, Audience projects lived only with the person who created them. Teammates could not open that list, so fieldwork became a single-person dependency. If the owner was unavailable, the rest of the team waited, or asked support to transfer access, instead of helping on the original project.
That wait is the real cost. Copying a project splits reporting. Transferring ownership is slow and is not what most teams wanted. They wanted to see, and sometimes manage, the same project under clear rules.
Research operations teams asked for a way to cover live work without moving projects or changing the owner. Administrators asked for a single place to decide who can view, who can change, and who can create Specialized samples, Instant answers, or Synthetic projects.
The product decision was a workspace model. Every user keeps My workspace. A Shared workspace is another person’s workspace in the same organization, opened only after the Primary user grants access. Permissions are enforced on the workspace, not by copying the project.
Shared workspace lets you switch from My workspace into a colleague’s workspace and see that person’s projects. The header shows whose workspace you are in and a chip for Read or Read and write.
What does not change is ownership. The person who created a project stays its owner, even when someone with Read and write pauses, resumes, or otherwise manages it. With Read and write, you can also create a project in that Shared workspace. Create project is hidden on Read access.
Click the workspace switcher at the top of the left menu. It shows the workspace you are in. Under Shared workspace, click the name of the person whose projects you need. The Specialized sample list then shows only that person’s projects.
To go back, open the switcher and click My workspace. Audience opens My workspace first after every login. The workspace you pick stays selected until you log out. If no one has shared a workspace with you, the switcher shows No shared workspaces.
What is the difference between Read and Read and write?
Read is for monitoring. You can view projects, project details, monitoring, and reports. You cannot change anything, so Push, edit, pause, resume, close, and Create project are hidden.
Read and write is for coverage. You can view and manage projects as you would in your own workspace. The project owner does not change.
The Primary user sets this per workspace. The default is Read and write.
Each organization has one Primary user. Only that person can give or remove access.
The Primary user opens the workspace switcher, clicks Organization access, and chooses Manage next to a user. In Project creation, they turn on Specialized sample, Instant answers, and Synthetic for that user. In Workspace access, Accessible workspaces controls which workspaces the user can open. For each one, they choose Read or Read and write, then click Update permissions.
Audience asks for confirmation before a workspace is removed from a user or before access is changed from Read and write to Read. If access is removed while you are in that workspace, you see Access unavailable and can click Go to My Workspace.
A research operations manager owns a live Specialized sample project. A teammate needs to watch completes while the owner is in another meeting. The Primary user has already granted that teammate Read access to the owner’s workspace. The teammate opens the switcher, selects the owner’s Shared workspace, and reviews monitoring and reports. Push, edit, pause, resume, and close stay hidden.
Later the same week, the owner is out and the project needs to be paused. The Primary user has granted a second teammate Read and Write access. That person opens the same Shared workspace, manages the project, and leaves ownership with the original creator. No copy. No ownership transfer. If they have Read and Write, they can also create a project in that Shared workspace.
What should research teams do next?
If more than one person in the organization needs to cover Audience projects, ask the Primary user to open Organization access and grant the right workspaces. Use Read when someone should only view details and reports. Use Read and write when someone must manage a live project or create a project in that Shared workspace.
Shared workspace is documented as available with Advanced, Team Edition, Research Edition, Communities, Customer Experience, and University — Research Edition. It does not transfer ownership, share across organizations, or add folders, project-level sharing, temporary access, or an audit log. For the product rules, use the Shared workspace help file.
