‘Fight for Fairness’ — How This Global Head of Design Champions Inclusivity

Amy Lokey likes making a difference. As the SVP, Global Head of Design at ServiceNow, a company that delivers optimized digital workflows that improve productivity and create great experiences, Amy gets to do this on a daily basis. She leads the global User Experience team including Design, Content, Research, Operations, and UX Technology and is focused on creating product experiences that people love.

Her role enables her and her team to make a huge impact on people’s quality of life when they improve both the products they use for their job and the products they use to benefit their end customers. For example, Amy’s organization is a critical piece of ServiceNow solutions like Vaccine Administration Management, which she describes as “helping solve one of the biggest workflow challenges of our generation by supporting the delivery of millions of COVID vaccinations across the globe.” 

Amy shared with Fairygodboss how she is able to use her role to promote inclusivity and gender equality, as well as some career advice that has helped her along the way.

Championing inclusivity.

The values of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (DIBs) are incredibly important to Amy and something she says she has been drawn to throughout her adult life. This passion was fostered in high school, where two inspiring teachers in English and Design used literature and art to instill lasting values of empathy and critical observation.

In college, Amy studied English and Mass Communications, with a focus on African American and Disability authors, as well as digital design. “I’ve focused the rest of my life on understanding the experiences of people with diverse backgrounds and capabilities, ensuring that my work can contribute toward improved access to opportunity and equality for all,” says Amy.

It’s no surprise then that Amy’s passion led her to a lasting commitment to increasing diversity in the tech industry and to a role at ServiceNow. “Diverse teams build better products,” she says. “That’s why we have a very diverse, cross-functional team. We have researchers, we have engineers, we have accessibility experts and we have people from a broad number of regions, cultures and backgrounds. We must have diversity in our team to build products that meet the needs of a global user base.” 

Helping other women achieve their potential.

One area that is important to Amy is helping other women. “As a female leader, I have spent my career focusing on improving the diversity of people working in technology, including gender balance and equality,” Amy notes. “I have dedicated substantial time to mentoring others, investing in future leaders and rising talent, recruiting underrepresented populations, actively supporting resource groups and training, and transparently sharing my personal experiences (the highs and lows) and how I approach various challenges.”

It helps that ServiceNow, as an organization, is deeply invested in diversity, inclusion and belonging, with resources like its dedicated Women at Now belonging group, leadership training and coaching, and “Power of 10” (P10) practice, which, as Amy describes, “creates close-knit groups of ten women who meet monthly to discuss a variety of topics relevant to women working at ServiceNow.” Amy herself leads a P10 group, is a participant and advisor in the DIBs leadership and training program.

On why she spends so much of her time dedicated to DIBs initiatives, Amy says that “I generally grab the chance to participate in any learning opportunities as I am personally on a life-long journey of growing as a person, a leader, and an advocate.”

Amy’s top advice:

1. Fight for fairness — whenever you can. 

2. Be aware, and raise awareness, of the extra work minority groups and women have to put in to fit the accepted ‘norms’ and have equal footing and opportunity. In doing so, Amy says, “we can identify where we are having to overcompensate —  and then raise awareness about the masks we wear, the extra hours we work and the extra toll that takes — to instead, bring our true selves to work and work toward a more equal and fair world.”

3. Don’t forget to focus on your own well-being. When you feel good and are at your best, you will better be able to help others achieve their potential.

Fired up? Learn more about the User Experience team at ServiceNow — they are hiring and would like to talk to you! 

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