Hey 👋 I’m Jacob!
Project Manager | Certified Scrum Product Owner | IT Business Analyst
Project Manager and Certified Scrum Product Owner with over four years of experience coordinating cross-functional initiatives, facilitating Agile delivery, and partnering with business and technical stakeholders to deliver strategic business and technology solutions.
Methods | Skills | Tools
Project Management, Agile Delivery, Scrum, Stakeholder Management, Cross-Functional Collaboration, Project Planning, Requirements Management, Risk Analysis, Backlog Management, Change Management, Business Analysis, User Research, Design Thinking, Technical Writing, Web Accessibility, Quality Assurance, Exploratory Testing, Usability Testing, User Acceptance Testing, Azure DevOps, SQL, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, REST APIs
Recent Experience
Minnesota Department of Employment
and Economic Development (DEED)
Associate Product Owner
January 2025 – Present
- Coordinating Agile delivery for enhancements to the Workforce One (WF1) case management system and WF1 Connect mobile application, partnering with business and technical stakeholders to plan work, prioritize initiatives, and deliver customer-focused solutions.
- Collaborating with cross-functional teams to gather business requirements, refine user stories, define acceptance criteria, and support sprint planning, backlog prioritization, and successful project delivery.
- Analyzing business needs, project dependencies, implementation risks, and technical constraints to enable informed decision-making and delivery of high-value system enhancements.
- Communicating project priorities, implementation status, testing outcomes, and release readiness with stakeholders, helping ensure transparency and alignment throughout the software development lifecycle.
- Producing training videos, user documentation, and product demonstrations that facilitate change management, improve user adoption, and communicate new functionality to internal staff and external partners.
- Earned Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) certification to strengthen Agile product ownership and project delivery practices.
Self-Employed
Freelance IT Business Analyst
January 2024 – December 2024
- Partnered with clients to analyze business needs, evaluate user workflows, and recommend improvements for a generative AI product using business analysis and user-centered design principles.
- Conducted exploratory testing and requirements validation to identify usability issues, implementation risks, and opportunities to improve product quality before release.
- Created SOPs, process documentation, recurring error reports, and workflow guidance that improved project transparency, documentation consistency, and testing efficiency.
- Collaborated across technical and business perspectives to prioritize issues, communicate findings, and enable the delivery of accessible, customer-focused solutions.
Equisolve
QA Lead
January 2023 – October 2023
- Led quality assurance efforts across multiple concurrent client website projects, coordinating testing activities, release readiness, and stakeholder communication throughout the software delivery lifecycle.
- Collaborated with engineers, designers, and project stakeholders to investigate defects, prioritize issues, validate fixes, and support successful project outcomes.
- Assessed project risks, dependencies, and issue severity to prioritize work, reduce the backlog of active projects, and improve release efficiency.
- Communicated testing progress, project status, release risks, and implementation readiness while helping deliver accessible, customer-focused digital experiences.
Web QA Specialist
January 2022 – December 2022
- Coordinated quality assurance activities across multiple client implementations by evaluating WCAG compliance, usability, functionality, and design accuracy before production releases.
- Reviewed project deliverables against user stories and acceptance criteria, documenting findings and facilitating consistent quality across Agile delivery teams.
- Developed SOPs, testing documentation, and issue severity guidelines that improved project consistency, defect prioritization, and cross-functional communication.
- Partnered with developers and project teams to communicate testing results, resolve issues, and support successful project delivery.
Galvanize
Technical Program Manager
August 2020 – August 2021
- Managed cross-functional initiatives involving admissions, instruction, marketing, and technical teams by coordinating priorities, stakeholder communication, and program delivery.
- Planned and prioritized multiple concurrent initiatives, balancing competing stakeholder needs while supporting strategic program objectives.
- Analyzed student feedback, competitive research, and operational data to identify improvement opportunities, recommend solutions, and inform program decisions.
- Evaluated end-to-end student workflows, identified process gaps and dependencies, and implemented scalable improvements that enhanced the prospective student experience.
- Communicated project updates, priorities, and recommendations across diverse stakeholder groups to maintain alignment and enable successful program outcomes.
Digital Media
UX Case Studies
🛠️ Client: Citizens League
UX Testing + Rapid Prototyping
Methods & Skills
Content Design, A/B Testing, User Interviews, Design Strategy, Moderated Usability Testing, Competitive Analysis, Qualitative Research, Quantitative Research, Wireframing, Rapid Prototyping
Tools
Figma, Sketch, Axure RP
Problem
Needed to create a digital debate space that could present important policy issues to everyday citizens in a way that's meaningful and free from biased arguments.
Solution
Utilized a message board (internet forum) system that allows users to hover over a debate argument to easily scan all of the essential top-level information pertinent to that argument without having to click on anything.
Beginning the Journey
For this case study, I created a new web application concept, called Policy Bytes, to showcase debates on significant policy issues for Citizens League. They are an organization dedicated to empowering all Minnesotans to be actively engaged in public policymaking.
These initial sketches illustrate early attempts to construct a new digital layout that could be free from bias and accommodate up to four debate voices. A grid system with collapsible text containers was utilized to present information at various levels, to not overwhelm the user, and to create a clear flow of information.
Feedback, Feedback, Feedback
I met with potential users in both groups and individually to better understand how they process and interpret information. It became apparent that they didn't want to be guided too much in navigating the interface, wanted to have the ability to scan information without having to click on it, and wanted a preview of the content before entering the debate space. Color was also hugely important, and shaped the way they perceived different argument claims.
- Testing Participant: "Who is arguing and making these points?"
- Testing Participant: "I want to have the most control possible, that's a lot of clicks to see the whole thing."
- Testing Participant: "This is guiding me too much."
- Testing Participant: "These are my favorite colors, they aren't making a statement."
- Testing Participant: "When did I sign up for this ride?"
Refining the Concept
After meeting with users, I synthesized my findings and moved forward with a new design that encapsulated all of the feedback I received. This concept utilizes a message board system to present the debate content. By hovering on a main argument/premise on the left side of the interface, the back-and-forth conversation between the debaters appears on the right. This allows users to easily scan and gather information without clicking on anything.
Final Thoughts
The final design concept uses muted earth-tone colors to avoid any preconceived subjective color biases. Users can also click on any main premise buttons and to anchor the back-and-forth conversation onto the page to explore any piece of evidence attached to that argument. With this design, it's simple to quickly understand what is happening in a debate by hovering over any argument, while also providing flexibility for the user to click through and dive as deep as they want on any given topic.
📱 Client: Stenovate
UX Audit + Responsive Design
Methods & Skills
Content Design, Journey Mapping, Design Strategy, Responsive Design, Moderated Usability Testing, Survey Design, Qualitative Research, Quantitative Research, Wireframing, Rapid Prototyping
Tools
Figma, Sketch, Axure RP
Problem
Needed to redesign the home page for an existing website so it could be optimized for mobile devices since a growing number of the user base prefer to access the collaboration tool from their iPads/tablets.
Solution
Broke down the grid system from the current design row by row to make the flow of information more clear on both desktop and mobile devices.
A Mobile Redesign
For this case study, I redesigned the home page for a new tech startup called Stenovate. They've created a collaboration tool for transcript professionals that allows them to streamline all aspects of their work into one application. The website currently uses a grid system for the "Transcript Tracker" so users can have access to all of their pertinent project details on the home page.
However, the site isn't optimized for mobile devices and a third of their user base proofreads transcripts on iPads/tablets, according to recent data. My design concept below makes it much easier to understand the flow of information on a mobile device, without losing any necessary information. I also redesigned the desktop home page, utilizing the same concept.
Next Steps
The grid system from the original design is just a little too clunky and makes it hard to know where to begin as a user. With my new design concept not only can users easily track all of their projects, but it's much more clear how to invite other people to collaborate, even when working from a mobile device. Before building this concept out completely, I recommend doing usability testing with the new designs to see if there are any other places to increase visibility in the UI.
🎯 Client: Aurelius
UX Audit + Rapid Prototyping
Methods & Skills
Content Design, User Interviews, A/B Testing, Competitive Analysis, Design Strategy, Journey Mapping, Survey Design, Qualitative Research, Quantitative Research, Wireframing, Rapid Prototyping
Tools
Figma, Sketch, Axure RP
Problem
Needed to decide how to best implement a new feature on an existing website designed to make the process of aggregating research findings and drawing out key insights/takeaways more efficient.
Solution
Focused on making it easy to update a report as new data is added, the ability to see updates from all team members in real time, software that can suggest potential tags/analyze data, and allowing users to export each report as a PDF.
The Great Idea
For this case study, I had to explore how to best implement a new feature on an already existing website for a research software company named Aurelius. Their core goal is to create an efficient digital space for user experience designers to aggregate their research and draw out high-level takeaways at an increased rate.
The new feature they want to add is called "Collections," which will allow future designers to distribute/present their findings directly from the Aurelius digital platform. I was given a time constraint of 80–160 total developing hours to guide my design process. I began by looking at the current Aurelius user journey and sketched out some possible design ideas.
Development Time Frame (132 Total Hours)
After careful consideration, I chose 4 designs to move forward with and created annotated wireframes illustrating why I chose those 4. The design ideas I picked were:
- Collection Groups: This will give users the capability to drag and drop notes, tags, documents, and key insights into a collection from the side navigation bar to easily create an Aurelius report (32 development hours).
- Presentation Collaboration: This functionality allows multiple users to modify a collection/project at the same time and see all changes as they happen in real time, very similar to Google Docs, Google Sheets, etc. (20 development hours).
- Suggested Tags: This provides the ability for Aurelius software to suggest potential tags/analyze data in a collection (60 development hours).
- PDF Report: This will make it easy to export collections as a PDF to send to clients who don't have access to the Aurelius website (20 development hours).
Moving Forward
- These proposed modifications will increase the shelf life of research, and provide extended benefits for older insights as new research propels a project.
- For each of these changes, it would be prudent to go heavier rather than lighter. That's why the total development time budget is 132 hours.
- These updates will help build more value when the next iteration of the website is deployed, and users will get closer to Aurelius' overall goal of getting UXers to make sense of information automatically.
Education & Certifications
Saint John’s University
Bachelor’s Degree: Theater, Cum Laude Graduate, 3.67 GPA
Scrum Alliance
Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)
General Services Administration
Section 508: What Is It and Why Is It Important?
IBM
Artificial Intelligence Fundamentals
Deque Systems
Accessibility Fundamentals - Disabilities, Guidelines, and Laws
Flatiron School
Software Engineering Bootcamp
Prime Digital Academy
User Experience Design Bootcamp
Who I Am
- Minnesota native currently residing in South Minneapolis after living in the Greater Seattle Area for 5 years.
- Passionate about using technology to solve complex problems and make the world a better place.
- Team player who loves teaching and being taught as we work together to achieve goals.
- See my full work history below, and I look forward to connecting with you!