Amazon Quick Now Lets You Downgrade User Roles Easily

Amazon Quick is a tool that helps businesses create and share data dashboards. Until now, if you wanted to change a user's role—say, from an Author who can edit dashboards to a Reader who can only view them—you had to jump through hoops. That's a problem because Authors cost more per month, and if someone doesn't need editing powers, you're wasting money. Plus, giving extra access is a security risk.

Now, Amazon has shared two methods to downgrade roles. One is manual: you delete the user and recreate them with the new role. The other uses a command-line tool for a step-by-step downgrade. This matters because it lets you right-size your team's access, cutting costs and reducing the chance of accidental changes. For example, a salesperson who only needs to view reports can be switched from an Author to a Reader, saving potentially hundreds of dollars a year per person.

The catch is that you can't just click a button in the console to downgrade from Admin to Reader or Author to Reader directly. You have to use one of these workarounds, which might require some technical know-how. Also, if your company uses a separate login system like Active Directory, you'll need to change roles there instead. So while it's a step forward, it's not completely hassle-free.