Workspaces
Isabelle is the head of Quality Operations at a pharma company with three manufacturing sites: Brussels (sterile fill-finish), Dublin (API synthesis), and Lyon (packaging and distribution). She needs each site to have its own space in ProBeya, with departments and areas nested underneath. Workspaces are how she builds that structure.
A workspace in ProBeya maps to a real organizational unit — a site, a department, a production area, or a functional team. It is the container that holds your projects and controls who has access to them.
Your First Workspace in 60 Seconds
- In the sidebar, click the + icon next to "Workspaces."
- Name: type "Brussels Sterile Fill" — a URL-friendly slug (
brussels-sterile-fill) generates automatically. - Icon: pick Factory (for a production site). Other good choices: Flask for labs, Briefcase for admin departments, ClipboardList for QA teams.
- Color: choose a color to visually distinguish this workspace in the sidebar. Isabelle uses blue for Brussels, green for Dublin, and orange for Lyon.
- Click Create Workspace.
The workspace appears in your sidebar instantly. A success toast confirms the creation.
Mapping Your Plant Hierarchy
Workspaces support up to 3 levels of nesting, designed to mirror pharma and manufacturing org structures:
Level 1 — Site
Level 2 — Department
Level 3 — Area
Here is what Isabelle's sidebar looks like after setup:
Brussels Sterile Fill (Site)
+-- Production (Department)
| +-- Line 1 TIER 1 Board (Project)
| +-- Line 2 TIER 1 Board (Project)
| +-- Packaging SQCDP (Project)
+-- Quality Control (Department)
| +-- QC Lab (Area)
| +-- OOS Investigation Tracker (Project)
+-- Engineering & Maintenance (Department)
+-- Equipment Qualification Log (Project)
Dublin API Site (Site)
+-- Upstream Processing (Department)
+-- Downstream Purification (Department)
Lyon Packaging & Distribution (Site)
+-- Primary Packaging (Department)
+-- Secondary Packaging (Department)
To create a nested workspace, select a Parent workspace in the creation dialog. Each workspace can contain both child workspaces and projects at the same level.
Most pharma organizations fit cleanly into Site > Department > Area. If you find yourself wanting a fourth level, consider using projects to represent the lowest tier instead. For example, "Bioreactor Suite A" can be a project under "Upstream Processing" rather than a workspace.
When to Create a Workspace vs. a Project
| You need... | Use a... | Example |
|---|---|---|
| A container for a site or department | Workspace | "Brussels Sterile Fill" |
| An obeya room for a specific initiative | Project | "Line 3 TIER 1 Board" |
| A place to track a transformation program | Project | "2026 OEE Improvement Program" |
| A boundary for access control | Workspace | Separate workspaces for Production vs. Quality so each team sees only their boards |
| A logical grouping of related boards | Workspace | "Engineering & Maintenance" containing equipment qual, calibration, and PM boards |
Workspace Settings
Click the gear icon next to a workspace name in the sidebar:
- General — update name, description, slug, icon, and color. Use the description field to document the workspace's scope and key contacts.
- Members — manage who has access and their role within this workspace. Members inherited from the organization can be overridden at the workspace level.
- Notifications — configure default notification preferences for workspace activity. Useful for muting high-traffic workspaces during off-shifts.
- Delete — remove the workspace and all its projects (requires Admin permission). This is permanent and cascades to all child workspaces, projects, boards, items, and associated data.
All child workspaces, projects, boards, items, comments, and activity logs are deleted with the workspace. Consider archiving individual projects first if any data might be needed for audits or retrospectives.
Organizing Your Sidebar
- Reorder — drag workspaces in the sidebar to change their display order. Put the workspaces you visit most at the top.
- Favorite — star a workspace to pin it to the Favorites section at the top of the sidebar.
- Collapse — click the chevron next to a workspace to hide its child projects and keep the sidebar tidy.
Workspace Icons
The icon picker offers 12 icons for visual distinction:
| Icon | Suggested use |
|---|---|
| Factory | Production sites, manufacturing facilities |
| Flask | Laboratories, R&D centers |
| Briefcase | Administrative departments, management offices |
| ClipboardList | Quality, regulatory, compliance teams |
| Users | HR, people operations |
| Lightbulb | Innovation, OpEx, continuous improvement |
| FileText | Document control, regulatory affairs |
| Layers | Multi-level programs, portfolio offices |
Agree on an icon convention with your site admins before rollout. When 200 operators see the same Factory icon meaning "production site" across all three locations, navigation becomes intuitive without training.
Workspace Permissions
| Role | What they can do |
|---|---|
| Workspace Admin | Full control — settings, projects, members, deletion |
| Member | Create projects, boards, and items within the workspace |
| Viewer | Read-only access to all workspace content |
See Roles & Permissions for the complete permissions matrix.
Best Practices
- Use meaningful names — include the site name and function (e.g., "Brussels Sterile Fill" rather than just "Production"). When operators switch between 3 sites, clarity matters.
- Adopt a consistent icon and color convention — document it in your onboarding materials. Factory for sites, Flask for labs, Briefcase for admin. Blue for Brussels, green for Dublin, orange for Lyon. Consistency makes the sidebar scannable at a glance.
- Limit top-level workspaces — if you have 3 sites with 5 departments each, that is 18 sidebar entries before you even get to projects. Use collapsing and favorites to keep it manageable.
- Use Viewer permissions for auditors — when external auditors need to review your boards, give them Viewer access to the relevant workspace. They can see everything without accidentally moving a card.
Before rolling out ProBeya across your organization, sketch your workspace hierarchy on paper first. Map it to your actual org chart. Get sign-off from site leads. Restructuring workspaces after 500 items have been created is possible but inconvenient.
What Isabelle Built
After setting up her three-site workspace hierarchy, Isabelle noticed something she had never seen before: the dashboard aggregated SQCDP health across all three sites. For the first time, she could compare Quality KPI trends between Brussels and Dublin from a single screen — without asking each site to email a weekly report.
That is the power of a well-structured workspace hierarchy. It is not just about organization — it is about visibility across boundaries.
URL Structure
Every workspace has a URL-friendly slug used in the address bar:
https://acme.probeya.com/{workspaceSlug}/{projectSlug}/board
The slug is auto-generated from the name but can be edited during creation. It must be unique within your organization and contain only lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Solution |
|---|---|
| Cannot create a workspace | Verify you have Admin or Member permissions in the organization. Viewers cannot create workspaces. |
| Slug conflict error | Another workspace already uses that slug. Edit the slug field to a unique value. |
| Nested workspace option missing | You may have reached the 3-level maximum. Reorganize or use projects for the lowest tier. |
| Workspace not showing in sidebar | Refresh the page. The sidebar updates automatically on creation, but network issues may cause a delay. |
Related Documentation
For technical details on workspace API endpoints and data model, see the API reference on doc.probeya.com. For compliance considerations around workspace-level data isolation and tenant security, see the Security Architecture guide.
Next Steps
- Projects — create obeya rooms inside your workspace
- Interface Overview — understand the sidebar and navigation layout
- Dashboard — see organization-wide activity across all workspaces