Saviynt Employee Spotlight:
Di Xiao

Lorrie Cowan

Lorrie Cowan

HR Manager
Di Xiao

In today’s workplace, there’s a growing emphasis on the importance of human connections that has coincided with a dramatic increase in remote work. As many of us have shifted our workplaces to home offices and even kitchen tables, we’ve learned that staying connected, even if it now requires a little more effort, is essential. We’re more reliant on technology to keep us connected today than we have ever been before – which comes with an ever increasing need for security.

At Saviynt, we help the largest enterprises in the world transform their identity programs and protect their people, assets, and infrastructure. We believe that keeping technology secure while also making it accessible and easy to use is essential. We’ve built a global team of passionate and dedicated people and a positive, supportive workplace to make it all happen. In our ongoing Employee Spotlight series, we introduce you to the people building the most innovative cloud identity and access governance platform on the market.

Meet Di Xiao

Di is a Senior User Experience (UX) Designer in Saviynt’s Customer Experience and Innovation Department, Research and Development Division. She has worked at Saviynt since 2018. Based at Saviynt’s headquarters in El Segundo, CA, she is improving platform usability and product experiences for our customers.

When Di isn’t working, you can find her improving her skills on the tennis court each weekend. Di’s activities emphasize the importance of play, curiosity, and adaptability – something she also strives to find in her work.

Tell us a little bit about what you do every day at Saviynt.

My role as a Senior UX Designer at Saviynt puts me at the intersection of our users and our product. It’s my job in UX to improve our product’s usability for our customers. To do that, we gather a lot of feedback from people on the client side and analyze it so that we can envision ways to improve the user experience. Then we incorporate the latest technologies to design those improvements and bring them to life.

I work across several different teams – including product management and software development – and with product executives to innovate and design new features for our web application. The job involves a variety of tasks including research, analysis, collaboration, innovation, and design.

What do you do when you’re not working?

I began learning to play tennis last year. I have liked the sport for a long time, but I didn’t know how to play it. I love watching people play, seeing the ball bouncing up and floating. I was curious about it: I always wanted to learn how to play. So last year, I started working with a coach, and I work every weekend to improve my skills. I also do some photography in my free time and I like reading and watching movies.

What gets you excited as you start each day?

I’m a morning person. I love the morning light. I look forward to opening the curtains at the start of the day and seeing the sunlight come across my desk. And of course I look forward to that first cup of coffee.

I like to start each day with a curious mind and a sense of play, setting up the right mindset for the challenges the day will bring.

What brought you to Saviynt?

Saviynt is my first serious job, so I think Saviynt chose me! It’s been a wonderful opportunity. I thought the position would be interesting because it involved customer-facing products, which I’d never worked on before. I was intrigued by the challenges that working on a customer-facing product would bring, the emphasis on usability and the customer’s journey through the product. How would that focus be different from what I’d worked on before? During my interview, I also learned that the product was more complex than I’d originally thought. I was excited to dive in and learn more about it.

What’s your favorite part of working here?

I have two: the product and the people. I love my work on the product because I get the chance to touch a lot of designs and use different kinds of technology. I don’t think I could get that opportunity in other companies. There are so many exciting things happening with the product and that makes the design work very interesting. I also have great autonomy in my work here. I’m directly responsible for what I am designing and it’s exciting when my designs are incorporated and become part of what is displayed on the screen. 

I like the people here too because they respect the design and they respect the designers. They really value your input. The flat hierarchy means I get the chance to talk to whoever I want. They all give you good feedback. And because respect is part of the company culture, it’s easy to collaborate, which makes the work even more interesting and improves the product too.

Has Saviynt challenged you to become better at what you do?

Saviynt takes a continuous improvement approach to their product. Because of this, Saviynt’s products incorporate a lot of new technologies and I have the opportunity to work with them all. The learning opportunities are endless. There is always something new happening, so there’s a great opportunity to learn and grow as a designer. The more I learn about the product, the more I realize it’s just the tip of the iceberg. 


Di hiking in Alaska’s Denali National Park.

What would you say to someone who is considering working at Saviynt?

When I interview candidates for our product design jobs, I always say, “Come here, you won’t regret it.” I say this because I know that designers always want three things: ownership, autonomy, and good leadership. And you can get all three here at Saviynt. I tell them, “Your work will be respected and valued and you will be treated like a professional.” 

Saviynt is a great learning place. Working at Saviynt as a designer is like being a child in a classroom full of new and interesting toys. You are surrounded by an ever-changing assortment of challenging puzzles and games. You won’t be bored when working at Saviynt, because there’s always something new to try, something more around every corner.

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