What are Business Model Roles?
Business Model Roles (BMR) define the operating structure for a digital product based on how it goes to market. While platform governance roles (HR-000 through HR-500) govern the platform itself, business model roles are product-scoped — different products may have different role holders even for equivalent authority domains.
For example, a SaaS product might have a Subscription Revenue Analyst responsible for pricing decisions, while a Marketplace product has a Vendor Relations Manager responsible for supplier governance. Both roles escalate to the ITFM Director (HR-400) for financial decisions that exceed their authority.
Built-in Business Model Templates
The platform ships with eight pre-defined business model templates:
| Template | Focus | Key Roles |
|---|---|---|
| SaaS | Subscription software | Product Owner, Customer Success, Revenue Analyst, Growth Lead |
| Marketplace | Multi-sided platform | Marketplace Manager, Vendor Relations, Trust & Safety, Liquidity Lead |
| E-Commerce | Direct sales | E-Commerce Manager, Merchandising Lead, Fulfilment Manager, Revenue Analyst |
| Professional Services | Billable delivery | Engagement Manager, Delivery Lead, Practice Manager, Billing Manager |
| Media & Content | Content monetisation | Content Strategist, Audience Development, Monetisation Manager, Editorial Lead |
| IoT / Connected Products | Hardware + software | IoT Product Manager, Connectivity Lead, Field Operations, Revenue Lead |
| Developer Platform | Internal tooling | Developer Experience Lead, Platform Reliability, Adoption Lead, Monetisation Manager |
| API / Data Products | API-first products | API Product Manager, Data Governance Lead, Developer Relations, Monetisation Lead |
Each template is read-only. To customise, clone a template and adjust roles in Admin > Business Models.
Assigning a Business Model to a Product
- Navigate to Portfolio > [your product]
- In the Business Model section, select from the dropdown labelled “+ Assign business model…”
- The selected model and its roles appear as chips. You can assign multiple models to a product.
- To remove an assignment, click the × on the model chip.
Assigning Users to Roles
Once a business model is assigned to a product, its roles are available in the Role Assignments section below:
- Find the role you want to fill
- Use the “Assign user…” dropdown to select a user
- The user’s email appears next to the role — they now hold that authority domain for this product
- To remove an assignment, click Revoke
Each role can only have one active assignment at a time. The assignment is effective immediately.
HITL Tier
Each role carries a default HITL (Human-in-the-Loop) tier that controls AI agent autonomy for actions within that authority domain. All built-in roles default to HITL tier 2 (spot-check):
- The agent acts immediately on proposals within the authority domain
- The assigned role holder receives an async notification to review
- No pre-approval is needed unless the action escalates to a platform governance role
Escalation
If an agent’s action exceeds the BMR role holder’s authority, it escalates to the platform governance role indicated in the role’s escalation path:
- Most roles escalate to HR-200 (Digital Product Manager)
- Roles with financial authority escalate to HR-400 (ITFM Director)
- Roles with operational authority escalate to HR-500 (Operations Manager)
When no user is assigned to a BMR role, the action escalates directly to the platform governance role.
Creating Custom Business Models
Users with the manage_business_models capability (HR-000, HR-200, HR-300) can:
- Clone a built-in template to create a custom variant
- Create from scratch with up to 20 custom roles
- Edit the name and description of custom models
- Deprecate a custom model (no new assignments; existing assignments continue)
- Retire a custom model (only when no active assignments remain)
Access the business model manager at Admin > Business Models.