Hey everyone! If you missed the Community Week finale livestream on November 8th, you missed quite the sendoff. Lauren McManamon brought together the entire developer advocacy team along with product leaders from ServiceNow’s biggest developer products for one final interactive AMA session.
Disclaimer: This post was created with help from Claude AI, working from the livestream transcript.
The Setup
This wasn’t your typical livestream. The panel was stacked with representation from across ServiceNow’s developer ecosystem, including Earl Duque, Kristy Merriam, Travis Toulson, Laszlo Balla, Andrew Barnes, Jay Couture, and Brad Tilton. The goal? Give the community one last chance during Community Week to get their burning questions answered directly from the people building and advocating for ServiceNow’s developer tools.
Favorite Community Week Moments
The conversation kicked off with the team reflecting on their favorite moments from the week. Andrew Barnes highlighted when Earl brought community member Ben onto his Wednesday stream to collaborate live—a perfect example of the community-first approach that defined the entire week.
As Kristy pointed out, Ben was an absolute trooper dealing with stream delay while simultaneously being trolled by an unnamed team member (we all know who it was, Earl). These spontaneous, authentic moments are exactly what makes the ServiceNow community special.
Key Discussion Topics
The AMA covered a wide range of developer concerns, but a few themes really stood out:
UI Builder vs. Service Portal
This perennial question came up again: which should you use for custom portal pages? Travis (Brad) Tilton provided clarity on ServiceNow’s current stance:
- For fulfillers working high-volume tickets: Use Workspaces, customized with UI Builder
- For enterprise requestor portals: Service Portal remains the recommended choice, with its robust functionality for catalog, knowledge, and pixel-perfect design
- For everything else: You have flexibility. Choose based on your specific requirements—whether that’s UI Builder, Service Portal, or even Build Agent creating a React interface
The key takeaway? It’s persona-based, not a one-size-fits-all answer.
Getting Started with Build Agent
With the Build With Build Agent Challenge launching on November 12th, several attendees asked about the learning curve for ServiceNow’s new AI-powered development tool.
Jay Couture offered practical advice for newcomers:
- Start with the Now Learning course on Build Agent
- Familiarize yourself with TypeScript basics (though you don’t need to be an expert)
- Review the Fluent API documentation—it’s designed to be ergonomic for ServiceNow developers
- Look for the upcoming pro-dev academy from the App Engine team
The philosophy behind Build Agent’s design is clear: make it intuitive for people who already understand ServiceNow. The Table API is called Table. Constructors make sense. It’s about reducing cognitive load, not adding to it.
The Build Agent Challenge
Speaking of the Build Agent Challenge, this wasn’t just mentioned in passing—it was positioned as the natural next step after Community Week. Developers have access to Build Agent on their PDIs (Personal Developer Instances) to create applications and compete for some interesting swag. All the enablement content from Community Week was essentially a warmup for this challenge.
Questions from the Community
The AMA portion of the stream covered a lot of ground. Here are the key questions and answers that came up:
Build Agent and Now Assist: What’s the Difference?
Jay Couture clarified that Now Assist is the umbrella product for AI on ServiceNow, and Build Agent is one specific tool under that umbrella—specifically part of Now Assist for Creator. You can access Build Agent through a Now Assist for Creator license, or try it free on PDIs (10 prompts/month) or company dev instances (25 prompts/month via the store).
Andrew Barnes added that Build Agent is doing for developers what ServiceNow Studio did for metadata creation: centralizing multiple tools into one comprehensive development partner.
Source Control vs. Multiple Instances
A common question via LinkedIn DM asked: if you already have dev, sandbox, and production instances, why bother with source control?
Jay Couture’s answer was clear—they serve different purposes. Source control provides version history, rollback capabilities, collaboration features, and industry-standard development practices. Update sets only capture changes between instances; they’re not designed for comprehensive version management or multi-developer collaboration. With modern tools like the ServiceNow IDE and CLI, you get Git integration alongside your instance-based workflow.
Getting Started with Build Agent Without TypeScript Knowledge
Multiple attendees asked about the TypeScript learning curve. Jay’s advice was reassuring: you don’t need to be a TypeScript expert. Start with the Now Learning course on Build Agent, review the Fluent API documentation (designed to be ergonomic for ServiceNow developers), and understand that Fluent is just TypeScript—specifically a declarative subset.
The key insight? If you understand ServiceNow concepts like tables and records, you already have the foundation. The ServiceNow IDE provides type safety, error indicators, and type-ahead support that guide you as you learn. And as Jay pointed out with a laugh, he lets Build Agent write 99% of his Fluent code these days—if something breaks, just ask Build Agent to fix it.
Studio vs. IDE: What’s the Difference?
This question came up multiple times during Community Week. The team acknowledged they need better documentation comparing ServiceNow Studio (the web-based development environment) and the ServiceNow IDE (the modern, VS Code-based environment). Content specifically addressing this comparison is now on their radar.
Beyond the Official Channels
One of the most important reminders came from Earl Duque toward the end of the stream. While the developer advocacy team works hard to create enablement content, they represent just one voice in a much larger ecosystem.
The ServiceNow community includes an army of MVPs, rising stars, and active community members creating content based on their expertise and real-world experience. Earl encouraged everyone to:
- Follow hashtags like #ServiceNowDev or #ServiceNowDeveloper on LinkedIn
- Seek out community creators on YouTube
- Recognize that community members often produce more specialized, volume-driven content than any single official channel can
This wasn’t false modesty—it was a genuine acknowledgment that the community’s collective knowledge far exceeds any single source.
The Community Week Reflection
The team’s closing thoughts really captured what made Community Week special. It wasn’t just about celebrating MVPs or developer advocates—it was about celebrating the entire community. The timing right after Hacktoberfest was perfect, creating a continuous thread of community contribution and recognition.
The message was clear: we’re all here to help each other learn, grow, and answer questions. That’s where everyone started, and that spirit of mutual support remains the foundation of the ServiceNow community.
What Happens to Unanswered Questions?
With such an active chat, not every question made it into the hour-long stream. Andrew Barnes made sure to address this directly: if your question wasn’t answered, don’t let it disappear. Reach out through:
- Community forums
- Slack channels
- Direct contact with product experts
The team genuinely wants to hear from you. As Travis emphasized, they’re always looking for product feedback—it’s how these tools improve and become more usable.
And as Andrew Barnes put it: “Feedback’s a gift, so give it to us, please.”
Lauren backed this up with a crucial point: every product line represented on that call has implemented features as a direct result of customer feedback. Your input isn’t just welcomed—it actively shapes what gets built.
The Full Collection
If you missed any of Community Week’s seven livestreams, over 25 blog posts, or numerous capsule videos, everything is available on demand:
- ServiceNow YouTube channel (under the live and video tabs)
- ServiceNow Community site (under the events tab)
It’s a treasure trove of content that will remain available in perpetuity.
Final Thoughts
Community Week was a celebration, but it was also a reminder. The ServiceNow developer ecosystem isn’t just a product portfolio—it’s a living, collaborative space where product teams, advocates, and community members work together to push the platform forward.
The finale AMA embodied this perfectly. Product leaders sitting alongside advocates, answering questions in real-time, acknowledging both what works and what needs improvement, and consistently directing people to community resources beyond official channels.
Community Week might be over, but the Build Agent Challenge is just beginning, and the community conversation never really stops.
Thanks to everyone who participated, asked questions, and made Community Week what it was. Here’s to the next one.
