Leading through the pivots: Designing Sidebar for seamless agent collaboration

My role

As lead designer for Sidebar at ServiceNow, I took ownership of a fast-moving collaboration product that was mid-design and at risk of delay.

My role extended beyond individual contribution—I set the product's design direction, aligned cross-functional stakeholders, and enabled a small but mighty team to deliver an MVP that supported multiple simultaneous agent conversations.

While executing hands-on design, I established clear rituals, communication norms, and a strategic roadmap to ensure Sidebar could scale beyond launch.

“Working with Jessica on a high-visibility product was a great experience. She skillfully balanced early-stage ideation with refining live features, all while thoughtfully challenging product decisions to improve outcomes. Her collaborative approach and positive energy made her a true partner in building a better product. I'd work with her again in a heartbeat.”

— Vinay Mohan, Senior Principal Product Manager

Context

Sidebar serves to help agents collaborate more effectively—allowing real-time discussions across multiple cases within ServiceNow's platform.

When I joined:

The experience was optimized for working on a single case at a time
The project had missed milestones and was under pressure
Our team had little access to customers for feedback

Agents needed a better way to collaborate. I stepped in to help us pivot quickly without sacrificing quality.

How I led

Pivot #1: From single to multi-conversation

I brought together the design team and led a structured ideation workshop to address two key problems: agent anxiety from delayed collaboration and inefficiency in switching between cases—our winning concept—collapsible discussion windows with a smart overflow menu—balanced utility and clarity.

Establishing design sprints to deliver

To meet our new timeline, I implemented weekly design sprints. We aligned on goals every Monday and tracked progress in Figma. This clear cadence helped the team shift from reactive to proactive and allowed us to ship a fully specified MVP on time.

Pivot #2: Solving problems discovered mid-development

When development exposed usability issues (overlapping windows blocked key UI), I worked closely with design leadership and led guerrilla testing with internal agents to validate quick iterations. We tucked active conversations into a clean, tabbed overflow—resolving the problem without derailing the timeline.

2nd pivot: collapsing discussion windows

Principles I leaned on

These principles guided my team leadership and shaped our approach to working.

Transparency: Everyone had visibility into decisions and rationale
Inclusion: PMs, engineers, and stakeholders were active collaborators
Receptivity: Feedback was continuous, welcomed, and acted on

“Jessica is approachable and great to work with. I especially appreciated the workshops she led—they brought the right people together and captured ideas in a clear, reusable way that moved the work forward.”

— Vinay Mohan, Senior Principal Product Manager

Looking ahead

Shipping the MVP wasn't the finish line. I led a strategic initiative across Design, PM, and Engineering to define Sidebar's long-term direction. We hosted three workshops:

Workshop 1: Defined five core value propositions
Workshop 2: Mapped experience themes to bring the value propositions to life
Workshop 3: Created future-state storyboards to validate with customers

This gave the team a roadmap they could rally around—anchored in user value and strategic alignment.

Impact

The sidebar navigation redesign had a profound effect on user experience, productivity, and business outcomes.

Delivered on time

Two pivots, one tight deadline—specs were delivered on time and used directly by engineering

Elevated team clarity

Established sprints and role clarity, improving collaboration and decision-making

Built for the future

Spearheaded a strategic vision to ensure Sidebar could evolve with intention

“Jessica is the best UX designer I've worked with. On the Sidebar project, where requirements were often ambiguous, she consistently translated vague ideas into visual concepts that sparked meaningful discussion. Her early designs gave us a foundation to explore both happy paths and edge cases—ultimately leading to a highly functional solution.”

— Vinay Mohan, Senior Principal Product Manager

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