My name is Jacob Cogan and I create awesome things, whether through leadership or hands-on making.
One creative instinct expressed through different materials — sometimes a product roadmap, sometimes a canvas, a sculpture, or a sensor-driven installation. Leadership and art aren't separate lanes; they're the same process of taking ideas from ambiguity to something real, in different mediums.
01 · Leadership
Leadership & Product
From enterprise software to edtech to creative technology, I've spent a decade turning ambiguous problems into shipped products.
5+
Products shipped
Messenger Pigeon, Habitat Admin, Coral, Beehive, Podium Solution
5
Years at Habitat Learn
Up to 3
Person design team
Two junior designers and a co-op
100
Largest workshop group
Solution workshops from small working sessions up to groups of 100
Career path
IBM
SAP / enterprise IT
OCAD Ambient Experience Lab
Lead Interaction Designer
Habitat Learn
UX Designer → Design Lead
Tricycle
App rebuild + 2 sub-products · 2 years
Habitat Learn
Design Lead → Product Owner/Manager → VP of Product
- At IBM, contributed to enterprise products used by organizations including the Department of National Defense and Toyota, reaching 10,000+ users.
- At the OCAD Ambient Experience Lab, built a semi-passive competency tracker for artists and designers as Lead Interaction Designer.
- At Tricycle, led one major app rebuild and two new sub-products over two years.
Built a strategic hardware relationship with Apple to bring accessible classroom technology to universities
Worked with
- Toyota
- Department of National Defense
- Berkeley
- Apple
02 · Making
Hands-On Making
I take creative work from idea through to a finished, public thing: the same concept-to-launch instinct as the product work, applied to art.
6
Exhibitions
Group design shows and personal painting exhibitions
50
Paintings sold
20
Workshops run
Art and creativity focused
3
Independent digital products shipped
Reaching 5,000+ unique visitors online
Painting & traditional fine art
Oil and acrylic painting, large-scale murals, silicone casting and mold making.
Digital & installation work
Blender, and ambient, sensor-driven pieces.
Freelance design
Jacob Cogan Art & Design.
04 · Philosophies
Philosophies
Five principles on getting things made.
Move fast for real feedback
Speed to a testable version matters more than polish up front. Get things in front of clients fast.
Clients as thinking partners
Not just decision-makers or sales targets. The best ideas often come from genuinely collaborative relationships with clients.
Lead through ambiguity, then release into trust
Be comfortable steering the fuzzy front end. Once requirements are clear, give the team real autonomy and get out of the way.
Clear definition is a leadership duty
A leader's job is to define things well enough that others can run with them. Vague requirements aren't creative freedom; they're a failure to lead.
Communication fluency across formats
A dividend of a design background: knowing when a detailed doc, a video walkthrough, a sketch, a 3D model, or printed cards is the right tool for the person and moment.
05 · Contact
Contact
If something here sparks an idea, I'd like to hear about it.