Why is a Jira Product Discovery Contributor redirected to the Help Desk?

[Matthew Kirrane]

I recently added a user to our Product Discovery project, and assigned them the "Contributor" role. The project is set as Private so only users specifically added should be able to see it. I shared the URL to the project but when the user tries the link, they are immediately redirected to the Help Desk Portal, as if they were a Service Desk Customer, which they are not.

I checked in User Admin and they have Access to the Site but no specific product access. My understanding from the documentation was that they did not need a product license as a Contributor, only an account. Is this not the case?

[Matthew Kirrane · Accepted solution]

I think I've answered my own question so I'll share it here:

For Contributors to be able to access the product discovery project/board, they must fulfil these criteria:

• Be listed in the project's Access list; AND
• Have access to the Atlassian site i.e. be listed in the user list; AND
• Have an existing "Jira..." product license OR be assigned to the "Contributor" group which is only made available by flicking the switch described under the heading "How to create the contributors group" on this support page. (The wording of this setting made it sound like access would be granted for everyone at first which would have been undesirable, but actually they'll only have access if they also have access to the project itself.)

It should not be necessary to purchase a license for Contributors or indeed for them to be licensed for any product --  they only need a free Atlassian account.