Assigning Idea Owners

Every idea moves faster with someone accountable for it. The Assigned Owner field gives each idea one clear owner. Owners know what’s theirs to review, and your team always knows who to ask.

What is Assigned Owner?

Assigned Owner is a built-in field on every idea. Each idea can have one owner, who must be an admin. You’ll find it in these places:

• On the idea: in its own section of the idea sidebar, between internal status and custom fields.
• In the Idea Grid: as an Assigned Owner column you can add to any view.
• In filters: use the Assigned Owner filter to find ideas assigned to you or a teammate, and combine it with other filters such as status or labels.
• In exports: Assigned Owner is a standard column in the idea export.

Ways to assign an owner

• From the idea: open the idea and choose an owner in the sidebar.
• In bulk: select several ideas in the Idea Grid and use Bulk Actions to assign the same owner to all of them. See Perform Bulk Actions on Ideas.
• With the UserVoice agent: ask the agent to assign owners to a set of ideas. See UserVoice agent.
• Through the API: set Assigned Owner from your own tools or workflows.
• Automatically: set forum and category rules so new ideas are assigned when they come in. See Auto-Assign Idea Owners.

Assignment notifications

When you assign an idea to someone, they’re notified by email, in-app notification and/or Slack DM. If you assign an idea to yourself, no notification is sent.

• Email: on by default. Each admin can turn it off in their notification settings.
• In-app notification: always sent.
• Slack DM: sent when the owner’s Team Chat setting is on. See the FAQ for setup details.

Ownership history

Every owner change is recorded, so you always have an audit trail:

• On the idea: a time-stamped entry appears in the idea’s activity.
• In the activity feed: see ownership changes across your workspace.
• In the activity export: ownership changes are included for reporting.

Filtering and views

Use the Assigned Owner filter in the Idea Grid to see exactly what each person is responsible for.

• See your own ideas: filter on Assigned Owner and choose yourself.
• Check a teammate’s workload: filter on their name to see everything they own.
• Narrow it down: combine Assigned Owner with other filters, such as status, forum, category, labels or custom fields. For example, you could show ideas assigned to you that are Under Review in the Mobile category. See Advanced Filtering.
• Sort and scan: add the Assigned Owner column to your grid to see owners at a glance.

Save it as a Grid View. After you set up a filter, save it as a Grid View so you can come back to it with one click. Turn on notifications for the view to get updates on new ideas, feedback and comments for the ideas you own. This is also how you hear about ideas assigned by auto-assign rules, since those don’t send notifications. See Grid Views & Custom Notifications.

Share views with your team. A shared view such as “Ideas by owner” or “Mobile team’s ideas” keeps everyone working from the same list. See Share your Grid Views.

Best practices

• Give every idea one owner. One accountable person keeps ideas moving. Use an Assign Admin custom field for reviewers or stakeholders, not a second owner.
• Set up auto-assign with a default forum owner. New ideas get an owner as soon as they come in, and the default catches anything not covered by a category rule. See Auto-Assign Idea Owners.
• Have each owner save a “My ideas” view with notifications on. It’s the most reliable way to keep up, especially for auto-assigned ideas.
• Reassign in bulk when your team changes. When someone changes roles or leaves, filter on their name and use Bulk Actions to move their ideas to a new owner. Don’t forget to update any auto-assign rules that name them.
• Use the activity export for reporting. Ownership changes are logged, so you can report on who owned what and when.
• Move off custom owner fields. If your team still tracks owners in a custom field, switch to Assigned Owner to get auto-assign, notifications and history. We can help with the move.

Assigned Owner vs. an Assign Admin custom field

You can also add admins to an idea with an Assign Admin custom field. The two work differently, and each is suited to different jobs.

Use Assigned Owner for ownership. It’s the only field that works with auto-assign, notifications and ownership history.

Use an Assign Admin field for everyone else involved. A multi-select field such as “Reviewers” or “Stakeholders” lets you list several people without changing who owns the idea.

Moving from a custom owner field

If your team tracks owners in a custom field, auto-assign won’t update it, and those owners won’t get assignment notifications or history. We can help you copy existing owners from a custom field into Assigned Owner. Contact our support team to get started. A few things to know:

• If your custom field allows several admins, only the first admin listed moves to Assigned Owner.
• The move doesn’t send assignment notifications.
• Your custom field stays in place. You can keep it for reviewers or stakeholders, or delete it once you’ve switched.

FAQ

Can an idea have more than one owner?
No. Assigned Owner holds one admin. To track more people, add a multi-select Assign Admin custom field.

Do auto-assigned ideas send notifications?
No. To keep up with auto-assigned ideas, save a Grid View filtered to your name with notifications turned on. See Auto-Assign Idea Owners.

What happens when I assign ideas in bulk?
The owner gets a single notification for the whole batch, not one per idea.

Why isn’t the owner getting Slack DMs?
Slack DMs need the latest UserVoice Slack app, and the owner’s Team Chat setting must be on. It’s at the bottom of Settings → Notifications and is on by default. This setting covers both assignment DMs and Team Chat mentions. It’s separate from Slack channel notifications.

Can I turn off assignment notifications?
You can turn off email and Slack DMs in your notification settings. In-app notifications are always on.

Can I see who owned an idea before?
Yes. Every change appears in the idea’s activity and in the activity export.