Process Automation Designer

New product introduction

Project Background

ServiceNow customers are on a race to digitization, however they are challenged with legacy systems and point solutions. They often invest in niche solutions to solve a small piece of the puzzle and overlook the end to end process that drives their business outcomes. At the heart of this race is the need to automate processes. And often those that understand and / or drive those processes don’t possess the proper skillset to author these. Historically this was a job for the developers within or hired by an organization.

Our charge? Empower admins and process owners to become process authors in a no-code environment.

The expectation of the modern software user is to use clicks, not code.

And by making that shift we can maybe start to democratize the digitization process…

 

  • As a business owner and subject matter expert in my department, I am trying to quickly digitize our processes in ServiceNow. Currently I struggle to author them given I lack a deep understanding of ServiceNow and any development experience.

  • By providing an intuitive process automation experience for all processes (integrating other strategic systems of record) we can help customers realize their digital vision and achieve business outcomes, making their world of work better.

  • Our solution will enable process owners to easily author cross-enterprise workflows and provide end users with a simplified, task-oriented view of their processes.

    • Strategy

    • Research

    • UX Design

 
 


Understand

Internal Stakeholder Discovery
Without actual customers the first step was to interview company subject matter experts.

Purpose:

  • Alignment: Align the business on goals and assumptions

  • Journey mapping: Gain customer empathy across various industries

  • Capabilities: Identify a “table stakes” capabilities list


Learnings:

  • Not all Process Owners admins have the support of an admin for more complicated workflow

  • Brand awareness is an issue - we’re seen as ticketing tool. We look like a ticketing tool.


Secondary research

  • Competitive analysis

  • Market research

 
 


Ideate


Frameworks
Knowing where to start meant having a shared understanding of the space.

 
 



Exploration
Following discovery, the team explored various models to support the identified user needs.

Techniques employed:

  • Card sort exercise

  • Mental model inquiry

  • Layout preference testing

 
 



Initial design concepts:

 

Default View

Filter panel

 
 
 

Adding an activity

Configuring an activity

 

Define

Iteration:
Initial concept validation was followed with usability testing on low fidelity prototypes.

Internal funding:
The product concept was well received but needed internal funding in order to be go to market. Through a grassroots effort to bring attention to the product’s many potential applications - we were able to secure funding from the platform team.

A natural synergy was found between the PAD tool and ServiceNow’s Playbook component. The Playbook experience provides fulfillers with visibility into cross-business workflows and the actionable tasks used to complete these workflows. The playbook itself is a component that shows up in the contextual side panel of a fulfillers workspace.

PAD was retooled to allow it tool easily generate a playbook on the fulfillers. It was a natural fit and helped us to acquire additional development resources to get PAD off the ground.

 


Implement

MVP Experience:

 

Landing page

Configure an activity

 
 
 

Add a lane

Email activity creation

 



Results

  • Currently 283 production customers within first year of use

  • ~ 100k process executions in a month

  • ~ $14M realized revenue yearly

  • Customers demand and regular feedback is driving investment in the product


Next steps

  • 23 roadmapped features

    • Led by process derivatives

  • Team exploring 3 year vision now

Next

ShoppingHub