Delivering Amazing Experiences
Summary
ServiceNow builds enterprise products that help companies and their end-users work smarter, faster, and easier. As a team, we strive to create product experiences that people love and make work, work better for people. In this presentation, George and Joy, designers at ServiceNow, will explore what it means to deliver amazing experiences throughout the design process focusing on our end-users. We will share a case study that empowers designers on building great, sustainable products that are user friendly, visually beautiful, empowering and super charge productivity.
Key Insights
-
•
COVID-19 accelerated ServiceNow's development cycle from the usual six months to a biweekly release cadence for return-to-office applications.
-
•
ServiceNow's return-to-work product integrates with partners like Microsoft for contact tracing and Uber for essential worker transportation.
-
•
Employee sentiment surveys are embedded to ensure companies respect readiness and comfort levels when returning to the office.
-
•
Facility management features include PPE ordering and desk cleaning scheduling linked to actual occupied workspace data.
-
•
ServiceNow's Atomic Design-based system organizes UI components into four hierarchical layers: base components, experience components, page templates, and core experiences.
-
•
The drag-and-drop UI builder enables designers to create and tweak interfaces themselves, conserving engineering bandwidth for backend work.
-
•
Designers collaborated remotely across multiple time zones using tools like Miro and Figma, enabling rapid, creative iteration during the pandemic.
-
•
The demo for a fictitious apartment rental platform was built in two weeks, including front-end design, backend data integration, and realistic content like federal housing links.
-
•
ServiceNow employs its own products internally before public release, facilitating immediate feedback and early problem detection.
-
•
Their publicly available design system on developer.servicenow.com provides reusable components and usage guidelines to reduce reinventing the wheel for customers.
Notable Quotes
"We ramped up from six-month release cycles to releasing every two weeks to keep ahead and still deliver experiences that wow."
"We met with local health officials, governments, and partner health companies to define best practices for returning to office safely."
"Employees can self-report COVID-19 status, get temperature checks, and request rideshares like Uber all within one workflow."
"We organized UI components hierarchically so designers focus on solving user needs rather than building basic elements."
"The drag-and-drop UI builder frees engineers to focus on backend data integration while designers create and tweak layouts."
"We use realistic demo content, like equal housing opportunity links, so demos feel relevant and authentic."
"We’re drinking our own champagne—using our products internally months before release to stress test and improve them."
"Collaboration during COVID was successful using tools like Miro to do remote whiteboarding and brainstorming across time zones."
"Designers connected with engineers closely, sometimes building templates themselves to quickly validate visions."
"Our design system and components are public on developer.servicenow.com to encourage customer reuse and consistency."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Amazon Echo is the first technology my artist wife really loves because it's genuinely useful and gets smarter over time."
Greg PetroffEverything is About to Change: Software as Material
June 8, 2016
"I worked through a volunteer task force of 15 people across the company to drive radical design collaboration."
Michael PolivkaScaling Design through Relationship Maps
November 7, 2017
"Public data has a life of its own; it is sometimes one thing, sometimes another, depending on context and display."
Bryce Benton[Demo] AI-powered UX enhancement: Aligning GitHub documentation with USWDS at Austin Public Library
June 4, 2024
"Being authentic and sharing what makes you different is what really stands out."
Dave Hoffer Joanne WeaverUX Job Search AMA #2 with Joanne Weaver and Dave Hoffer
April 3, 2025
"People don’t want a quarter inch drill, they want a quarter inch hole."
Jim KalbachJobs To Be Done
February 25, 2021
"Our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, adjust to new ideas, remain vigilant, and face the challenge of change."
Bassel Deeb Will OsbornDo More With Less: Equip and Lead Design Orgs Through Adversity
October 2, 2023
"Engineers started questioning old assumptions and product wasn’t just adjusting roadmaps, they were reframing decisions around user needs."
Sean McKayCoexisting with non-researchers: Practical strategies for a democratized research future
March 11, 2025
"An experiment coach spends about 10 to 20 percent of their time helping the team change mindsets and actions."
Alissa BriggsHow to Coach Enterprise Experimentation
May 14, 2015
"Use tech checks before sessions to put participants at ease and build rapport early."
Amanda Kaleta-Kott Lea Martin, PhDThe Joys and Dilemmas of Conducting UX Research with Older Adults
March 11, 2022
