our community is very special to us and our software releases bring a lot of innovation in this episode we combine the two with a live onstage conversation celebrating our MVPs and Washington DC release welcome to breakpoint the service now developer [Music] podcast hello service now admins Builders developers and of course all of the Curious individuals that I always say with the utmost love and respect welcome to or welcome back to breakpoint the service now developer podcast where we bring you the latest tools tips and tradecraft to accelerate your career my name is CH tamasi senior developer Advocate and my co-host Lauren is unable to join me on this intro but she does have a major part in the core of this episode because this time we've got something a little different you see Lauren and I were recently in Washington DC to celebrate the launch of the release of the same name and part of that presentation was dedicated to a 15-minute conversation with two members of our DC developer Community Alan Andreas and Kena tolver we wanted to get their views on the new release AI their career transformation and advice to newcomers it was really a wonderful time and I know Lauren has mentioned she wishes it could have gone on for hours so let's roll that [Applause] now [Music] woo woo woo yes thank you welcome thank you so much welcome to the big stage Ken and Allan how are y'all doing today I'm excited how y'all doing woo well thank you so much for joining me here today you two have some very storied and amazing careers that we will be talking about slightly later but first I got to ask you what did you think about Washington DC so far software-wise I'll Kena I'll kick things off with you sure so I am an itm product manager so currently I'm working on an amazing project where we are transform Transforming Our IT service desk to use the virtual chat agent so I'm super excited about some of the new features like integrating it with Microsoft teams I feel like this is going to enhance our self-service capabilities we're going to be able to communicate effectively more with our customers live agents will be able to you know get those reduction in tickets closed out and I just think that teams such a tool that we use here in the public sector within the government and I know that teams will definitely enhance our interactions with our um in users I'm also super excited about the large language modeling Discovery topics I think that that's going to really enhance us being able to discover topics more faster um we're of course we're using the Vancouver Vancouver version right now but I feel like you know we'll be able to discover topics you don't be able to have to require to be utilized utterances and intense and I think that that is going to be an amazing feature for the new release as well we have to chalk up that teams integration on our size well internally might be really fun to have Allan got any particular favorites yeah so there's a couple that I'd like to point out especially for the DC area uh the new imp platform support for KAC and pivar digital signing is a huge thing I think uh for a lot of the federal agencies and things out there that are using those uh previously you had to kind of there was a few options out there but one of the main ones was working with docu sign and so with that you had to actually have an executable installed on the client on the on the laptop and as you know that's probably not going to fly then you had to install a browser plugin as well on top of that and so now using Adobe Acrobat Reader which most application or most uh computers will have installed already uh you'll be able to leverage that right within the platform so super excited about that the other is the uh the software developer kit as you know it's really the last few re releases have been kind of low code Focus this one really swings the pendulum back towards the procode side of the house and the benefit here is that for people that grew up coding with the platform and kind of like you mentioned earlier it gives someone a pathway to say okay I've learned some of the basics now let's Branch out and move into a bigger uh opportunity here using third party libraries and things like that so that's just a few features I'm excited about very exciting now pivoting a little bit obviously we've talked a lot about AI today and I'd love to get your thoughts and feelings about how AI is not only progressing throughout the industry but also how it's transforming service now as a platform as well I'll keep on with you Alan okay yeah so with AI you know that increases accessibility to the platform and with that's coming you know the need for governance and so that's a big topic here where I see service now has been a part of those discussions even with the European Union and things like that with the new AI act that just kind of passed recently uh that is big on really making sure that you have a governance structure kind of stood up and I see service now kind of leading the way uh there the other piece is uh with the ability to listen to the community so service now is huge on the feedback give us you know what we're looking for as kind of kush mentioned during his presentation they're actively listening to the community and saying tell us more about that and so with service now where I see this thing kind of going is the AI around continuous Improvement so now you have generative AI which is generating text to code text to flow things like that now I see things going to continuous Improvement so we've had a version one or a first iterance or pass on that code now service now can review that again and actually say hey we've actually noticed that there's a way to tighten this code up or do something a little bit differently so I see a continuous Improvement initiative uh with with AI leading the way and really starting to do that from a platform Health perspective as well so love to see that continuous governments or excuse me not government that's L here continuous governance is always a fantastic thing Kena what are your overall thoughts and feelings I'm super excited about the use of AI especially for developers I manage a lot of development teams currently right now and I think that AI is going to really enhance our development efforts we're going to be able to develop a lot faster developers are going to be able to leverage the things that they learned before the use of AI but we're also going to be able to save a lot of money with our customers so I'm extremely excited about the use of AI you know I like Lauren like um Allan had mentioned comment to code text to code there are just so many new features that I think are going to be super amazing for us to be utilizing um I'm so excited about being able to leverage AI not just for developers but for live agents for the end users to be able to leverage self-service capabilities um being able to connect with knowledge articles at a faster pce through the use of things like the virtual chat agent so I really think that it's not just going to benefit developers but it's going to benefit everyone that's going to be interacting with AI through the use of these amazing capabilities that are coming out fantastic now again I kind of teased a little bit earlier that we're going to speaking a lot about your careers and your stories as well these two are these two are absolute stars of our service now community and so I just want to start I'll start with you Kena how have you you've seen service now kind of enhance and improve your career and your kind of your your overall story first of all the service now Community has been amazing especially during the pandemic I started to actually use service now um I got introduced to service now in my current role uh I was pretty much KN didn't know anything about service now so I was extremely new to the platform but my manager came to me and he said hey we have this project where we're moving our service desk from remedy to service now would you like to lead the project and I'm like hey I was hired to work as a Drupal project manager but hey I'll jump in and work on service now so I I would say utilizing the online community has just really helped me jump start my career in this ecosystem I've been able to meet so many amazing people I've been able to leverage my knowledge a lot faster through my relationships through the content that's been been that's always been produced on a regular basis and I've been able to also show other people that they can do exactly what I have done by having zero knowledge so I think the service now has really helped me to get exposure to other projects like SEC Ops GRC case management applications and I would just say that I just feel like I'm constantly learning so I'm excited about it always be students the platform that's my mot too Alan what about you I I have heard as we were prepping for this conversation y'all have kind of been two ships passing in the sea of your careers have over laughed a little bit to my surprise yeah so for me you know I was in the Marine Corps for eight years Seer Seer five Seer easy easy all right uh yeah but I was in the Marine Corps for eight years and I did Administration in in there so you know I was everybody's best friend I kind of helped control the pay a bit so they were always trying to hang out and and all of that uh but anyway so when I got out you really do that transition you you evaluate how can I segue from military to trans to civilian can we do here what what's the opportunities and so for me I got out and I started as an administrative assistant and moved into being an executive assistant and one of those days you know after getting the person's dry cleaning and bringing it to their office they said hey can you bring me you know some coffees to this big meeting we were going to have and I'm walking down the hallway and I've got these two coffees and I go you know what this isn't my jam this is not what I'm supposed to be doing here and so I did everyone wants did you end up delivering the coffee I made the coffee made the coffe I delivered the coffees but then I turned around and I actually kind of just left out there so anyway fast forward as most of us fell luckily into the platform just happened to be at an organization that was using service now and then I started asking questions about hey why is this field this way what what could you do it this way that way and so they ended up saying hey you sound like you want to know a lot more about the platform won't you become an administrator and I kind of got lucky with that path there fast forward a few years uh I started to hear about the certified Master architect program from the expert programs with service now and so for me it was like the dream to get there so you start to plan out your path of how you're going to get there step one two three all of that and you start to try to put those Wheels into motion yourself and so for a lot of us you know we really limit our capabilities to what we do daytoday our impact our exposure to the platform is limited to what we do but for those of us that really want to Branch out there and do more you have to really get outside the box there and start to set own goals for yourself and so for me uh I ended up becoming a certified Master architect just last year so big achievement there thank you very much while prepping for knowledge by the way I will add he was part of the curriculum that was taking in knowledge last year uh doing a presentation for that but we had our last week 19 was during the knowledge conference so it was either study or go to knowledge and I said said yes we just did both right that was the slogan yes there you go so for me uh after that and I'm one of the few military veterans that are also cmaas so we're looking to get that branched out more let's get some more veterans in there uh but for that after that um I started working in public and private sector Consulting and things like that through my journey and that's where I ended up working as a lead architect for a consulting firm that uh did work with the Department of Treasury where Kena is at so luckily for me we actually had cross path uh previously um great project manager by the way uh and so for that uh that's you never know the community is so small but it's a lovely ecosystem and uh you never know who you're going to end up meeting or interacting with later so fantastic also again I want to acknowledge shout out to all of our troops and we extremely grateful for everything that you do for this country so thank you again for bringing attention to that community so thank you now going to steal a bit from our service Now podcast one of my favorite questions that I like to ask any guests that come on this podcast are if you're in the crowd right and you're seeing these stories and you're feeling inspired and you're wanting to follow in Kena and Allen's footsteps what possible do advice do you have for those people that are starting their service now Journeys I'll start with you yeah and so it's really don't be afraid to put yourself out there a lot of us you know we have this impostor syndrome and I and I'll be honest being a CMA I almost feel like it gets little bit worse because now you go into the room and they're like oh you're a CMA you you know everything and we none of us do and so if you think getting to CMA is going to get that all away and put that in the closet no you're going to have to deal with that impostor syndrome is real so don't be afraid to be yourself and the big thing as I mentioned before is set goals little bit by little bit knock them out one at a time and grow and the other thing is if you're not involved with the service now Community the forums social media slack the developer advocacy team get involved you can be right here where we are today sometime next year or the year after that you never know but you have to put yourself out there and if you like to be creative with what you're doing maybe you're like well I'm not technical but I know I I can do some good design work with Photoshop or I love to do things with uh making videos then be a content creator about things you've learned about the platform and so that's some of the big things I think for someone starting out is that you don't have to be a developer to get in absolutely not fantastic words of advice kenika I have saved the final word for you what type of advice do you have for the newbies in the audience that are excited to start their service now Journey so it is not a Sprint it's a marathon it's a good sound bite that's very true if you you do not have to learn everything all that one time because there's so much more to learn I learn something new every day on my job and I think sometimes those are those that are TR trying to transition into the ecosystem they're trying to be a specialize in everything and I think it's important to like figure out one or two things you want to specialize in initially and then make that your way to get into the job don't let job descriptions intimidate you because there's so much out there for you to learn but you're going to have to be a student of your career I think it's so important as you build your brand within this ecosystem is to create your own service now alra ego some people call themselves the mayor of service now I call myself the corporate Rabel of service now but I think it's important as you build your brand to build in public and bring your extra secret Souls what is your recipe that you're going to bring and add to the ecosystem and just continue to build relationships and you'll have an Unstoppable career I love that the service now Alter Ego that's fantastic I cannot tell you how happy am that I got to speak with you on stage today is my pleasure so please give a fantastic Round of Applause for both Kena and Alan thank you'all so much fantastic thank you so much and thank you wonderful listener for joining us today we hope you enjoyed that panel discussion maybe we'll have some more in the future if you want to find it on YouTube you can search for service now Community Washington full keynote pretty straightforward service now Community Washington full keynote and of course I'll have a link in the show notes as well and I invite you to check out our other podcasts we've got several of them over at servicenow.com commmunity under the events menu subscribe to this podcast for free and get it automatically delivered to you in fact you can subscribe to all of them for free and get them automatically delivered to you breakpoint this one is brought to you by service now the executive producers would be me and Lauren McManaman my co-host and to find out more about the service now developer program we always invite you to head over to developer. servicenow.com again thank you so much Lauren Ellen and Kena for sharing with us all that Washington DC goodness in Washington DC please let us know what you think about this podcast you can leave feedback or ask questions in the service now Community for more great information on service now development check out the service now developer portal at developer. servicenow.com thanks for listening sorry no bloopers Alan and Kena nailed it the first time