Don’t Start with Technology — Start with People

You currently lead platform products at ServiceNow. Could you walk us through the pivotal moments that shaped your journey from a technologist to a global product leader?
My journey started purely from a technology perspective. I began my career as a developer and coder, focusing primarily on building software systems. A turning point came when one of my managers encouraged me to start thinking beyond technology and focus more deeply on customer problems and business outcomes. She recognised that I had a natural inclination to understand customer challenges and translate them into solutions. Over the years, that shift in mindset gradually transformed my role, from technologist to product-focused leader. Working across multiple industries and organisations allowed me to refine that perspective further, and eventually that journey brought me to ServiceNow.

During your time at Wipro, you wrote extensively about productisation. Many business schools teach servitisation. How do you differentiate the two in practice?
In a traditional services business, revenue is directly linked to headcount. The more people you deploy on a project, the more revenue you generate. However, that model naturally limits how fast an organisation can scale. If a company wants non-linear growth, it must build intellectual property, and that comes from products. Product companies typically command margins of 80-90 per cent, while services businesses operate at much lower margins. So if a services organisation wants to transform and scale effectively, it needs to channel its learning from client engagements into the development of reusable products and platforms. That journey toward productisation allows companies to monetise knowledge repeatedly rather than selling effort.

You also ventured into entrepreneurship with your startup, Absence. Could you share some insights from that experience and the products you built?
After spending a significant part of my career building products for large companies, I wanted to explore solving problems that were more socially driven. Our startup focused on enabling economic empowerment for people at the bottom of the urban pyramid. The idea was to make access to opportunities, jobs, education, healthcare, and hyper-local news much easier for people in underserved communities. One of the products we built was Proxy, which connected individuals to opportunities within their local areas. For many people in this demographic, commuting long distances to work simply isn’t viable due to time and cost constraints. We also developed UGrid, a private network connecting students, faculty, and industry professionals. The startup experience taught us how to operate under tight constraints, constantly competing for attention, customers, and revenue. It was an intense but incredibly valuable learning journey.

For young entrepreneurs who aspire to build a platform company in the future, what matters more: assembling the right talent or building the right technology?
In my experience, people always come first. If you bring together the right group of individuals, people who are curious, capable, and focused on solving meaningful problems, great technology naturally follows. You don’t build technology first and then assemble a team around it. The most successful companies are built by teams that deeply understand the problems they want to solve.

ServiceNow positions itself as a “platform of platforms” rather than a traditional ERP or CRM system. How do you communicate that distinction to enterprise leaders making large technology investments?
At this stage, ServiceNow is a fairly established brand, so explaining the platform concept is straightforward. Our approach is to demonstrate real value through customer outcomes. We show how organisations similar to our prospects have used the platform to transform workflows, improve efficiency, and drive business outcomes. The key differentiator today is that ServiceNow isn’t just a software platform; it is increasingly becoming an AI-native platform for business transformation. AI is embedded across the platform as a fundamental capability rather than an add-on feature.

What do you consider ServiceNow’s biggest technological moat?
One of the most powerful differentiators is our single data model. While it may sound simple in theory, implementing a unified data model across a complex enterprise platform is extremely difficult unless it has been designed that way from the beginning. At ServiceNow, this principle has been part of our DNA from day one. The unified data model enables seamless workflows across departments and systems, and when combined with embedded AI capabilities, it creates a powerful platform for enterprise transformation.

Does ServiceNow use its own platform internally to solve organisational challenges?
Absolutely. We have a major internal initiative called “Now on Now.” In essence, we deploy ServiceNow internally wherever possible. We act as customer zero for many of our products. This approach helps us validate solutions at scale within our own organisation before customers adopt them. The success stories we generate internally often become powerful examples for prospective customers evaluating the platform.

With such a broad product portfolio, from ITSM (information technology service management) to security operations and HR workflows, how do you communicate the value of new solutions to enterprises?
Everything begins with the customer’s problem. If we can clearly demonstrate how a solution aligns with the customer’s needs and challenges, the conversation becomes much easier. The goal is not simply to sell a product but to show how the platform can solve real operational challenges and unlock new opportunities. When that alignment exists, adoption becomes a natural outcome.