Top Talent like Jacob are on Pangea

Pangea, a YC company, connects companies with fractional talent. Fractional hiring allows companies to move faster and work with more specilaized talent, while giving talent more flexibilty and independence. If you are talent open to fractional work, apply here. If you’re a company looking for high-quality fractional talent, learn more here.

Jacob Shapiro

Product DesignerGrowth Product ManagerUser ResearcherChicago, IL, US
Product Design
Product Management
UI/UX Design
Figma
User Research
Usability Testing
Data Analysis
Product Strategy
Available for hire fromNegotiable
Contracts
Full-Time Roles
Product Designer with 7 years experience building impactful, delightful products.
I'm a Designer who speaks Product. I’ve helped build products that let 10 million investors connect with companies they invest in, 3X’ed conversion rates in an application flow, and made it 42% easier to trade one-of-a-kind alternative assets. What sets me apart from other Product Designers is that, with a background in Growth Product Management, I've owned and delivered business outcomes. As a Product Designer, I've designed apps and websites for mobile and desktop around themes like AI, music, and finance. As a Product Manager, I've shipped web and iOS products around product growth, APIs, and data analytics.

Projects

Selftalk

Selftalk is a privacy-first AI chatbot that lets you gain insight from past experiences by talking to your journal. I conceptualized, designed, and prototyped the app. On the linked project page on my portfolio is a writeup of what inspired the product and why I designed it this way. By letting you talk with your journal, Selftalk helps you unlock insights from personal experiences that you’ve written about but may have forgotten. Selftalk doesn’t give advice, it reflects your own thoughts back to you. Selftalk does all of this through the use of an AI chatbot that helps you see patterns and celebrate progress. But Selftalk is not just another chatbot, it’s a tool that enables a dialogue with your past, present, and future self. By helping you reflect on, and engage with, past experiences, Selftalk helps you be better prepared for what’s happening now.See More

Top Ones

Top Ones is a mobile app that lets users view their top streaming artists on-demand. After connecting their Spotify account, users can unlock their top 25 artists by taking a quiz where they guess which artists they listen to the most, and unlock the rest of their top 50 by sharing the app with friends. Top Ones is designed to be shared with friends, with custom "share" images for every artist.See More

Small Business Website Redesign

Client testimonial: “Jacob took the time to really understand my business and my customers, and his final design was a wonderful combination of my vision, my customers’ perspective, and his own ideas. What impressed me most about his work was his keen eye for detail – everything from the overall page design down to the button colors was intentional and thoughtful.” I redesigned the website of a small consulting business so that they could better showcase their services to prospective customers. The goals were to pitch themselves to clients, provide high-quality blog posts and video content, and establish credibility in a niche consulting space. I first met with the client to understand their business goals, who their customers are, and other constraints for the project. I then designed a new information architecture and created low-fidelity wireframes to ensure that my vision aligned with the client's. Finally, I created production-ready high-fidelity designs, after designing a set of reusable components to ensure efficiency.See More

Robinhood Investor Q&As

Investor Q&As is a feature in the Robinhood app that lets everyday investors connect with companies that they invest in. Companies like Tesla, Coinbase, and Palantir use Q&A to connect with their investors by taking questions from them on earnings calls and other events. Investors can post their own questions and upvote other questions, and companies answer the top-voted questions. As the API Product Manager on this project, I led the integration of an API that enables Robinhood and other brokers to build this feature into their app. I also worked with the team that built the in-app user experience. In order to prepare the API for launch, I led an engineering effort to scale the API to handle 10x previous peak volume. This project led to a 21% increase in average participating users per Q&A.See More

Ampla Product Growth

As Growth Product Manager at Ampla, a B2B financial platform for small consumer goods brands, I led efforts to grow the customer base across all products by optimizing application and onboarding flows. By combining disparate application flows for separate products into a single intuitive flow, we tripled (3X) the application completion rate. And by redesigning the application flow to clearly communicate product value propositions, we achieved a 26% increase in completion rate. We consistently delivered our roadmap on schedule: in Q3-Q4 2024, we delivered 94% (16 out of 17) of our commitments by the estimated delivery date. We used A/B testing, data analysis, and customer research to identify potential optimizations and measure their impact.See More

Rally Discovery and Growth

As Product Manager for Discovery and Growth, I led initiatives to improve marketplace liquidity on Rally, an investment platform for one-of-a-kind alternative assets like cars, sports memorabilia, and watches. This included making it easier to buy and sell shares of these assets, as well as navigate Rally's connection of 400+ assets across 20+ categories. For example, we achieved a 42% increase in matched bids by implementing push notifications for price changes. We also achieved a 8% increase in asset views by redesigning the asset discovery UX/UI. Our primary tools and methods to optimize the user experience included A/B testing, data analysis, and user research.See More

Work History

F

Product and Web Designer

Freelance Product and Web Design- Designed, and developed product strategy for, AI-enabled real estate research platform that helps users understand zoning regulations - Designed and prototyped Selftalk, an AI-powered app that lets users gain insight from past experiences by talking to their journal - Designed and prototyped Top Ones, an AI-powered app that lets users view their top streaming artists whenever they want - Redesigned website for a small consulting business, including information architecture, wireframes, and high-fidelity mockups
A

Growth Product Manager

AmplaFull-time EmployeeApr 2023 - Jan 2024 • 10 mosLed the Product Growth team, responsible for growing the user base across all of Ampla's funding, banking, and financial operations products. Ampla is a B2B financial services platform that helps consumer goods brands grow and run their businesses. Achieved results including: - 3X increase in application flow conversion rate, driven by consolidating separate flows into one - 26% increase in conversion rate, driven by communicating product value props in user flow - 94% (16 of 17) of development goals delivered on time in Q3 and Q4 2023 by the squad I led as Product Manager
R

Product Manager, Growth and Discovery

RallyAug 2022 - Apr 2023 • 9 mosProduct Manager for Growth and Discovery. Helping users discover and understand Rally's collection of 400+ unique alternative assets. Rally is an investing platform with unique assets like collectible cars, sports cards, and watches that historically have only been available to rich investors. Achieved results including: - 42% increase in matched bids, driven by implementing price notifications - 8% increase in number of users viewing assets, driven by redesigning asset discovery UX/UI on iOS and mobile web - 6% increase in number of users placing bids, driven by adding new screens giving context about asset lifecycle and how Rally works
R

Product Manager, Broker Products

RobinhoodApr 2021 - Jul 2022 • 1 yr 4 mos(formerly Say Technologies, acquired September 2021) Product Manager for Broker Products. Managed APIs that let brokers build in-app experiences like shareholder voting and a Q&A forum for everyday investors to ask questions to companies they invest in. Also managed a dashboard that let brokers monitor shareholder communications and engagement. Q&As are currently available in the Robinhood app for companies like Tesla, Coinbase, and Palantir. Achieved results including: - 21% increase in average number of Q&A participants, driven by effort to build Q&A feature in Robinhood - 10X increase in API peak capacity, driven by effort to scale API in preparation for Robinhood integration - 2 additional B2B customers for the shareholder voting API, driven by email marketing campaign that I created and designed content for
N

Lead Product Designer

NextCapitalAug 2018 - Apr 2021 • 2 yrs 9 mos(Acquired by Goldman Sachs) Worked on the advice and forecasting engine, the part of the software responsible for investment advice and projecting users wealth and income in retirement. Translated financial advice methodology into software requirements, and worked with developers to build the advice engine. NextCapital is a robo-advisor for retirement accounts like 401(k)s and IRAs.

Education

University of Michigan

Bachelors Degree, Cognitive Science (Minor in Computer Science)2013 - 2017

Duke University

AI Product Management Certification, AI Product ManagementMar 2024 - Jul 2024

How Pangea Works

Effortlessly discover top talent

We’ve distilled the candidate search from endless hours down to just a few minutes. Using Pangea’s AI-powered search tools, you can find top fractional talent able to take on your next project. Our system looks at your company’s niche and your needs to find the perfect match faster than any traditional hiring platform.

Start working with talent today

The top talent on Pangea is ready to get started with you right now. You can message or hire a candidate right from their profile page and start assigning work as soon as they respond. And the best part? Pangea’s fractional contract structure lets you start small and ramp up as your needs change, keeping your costs manageable and your team’s capabliities flexible.

Track work and invoices in one place

Assign tasks, track progress, and complete invoices all on Pangea. We’ve combined every part of the hiring process into one platform to eliminate the miscommunication that’s unavoidable on other freelance platforms. We even send out 1099s to your contractors at the end of the year!

Talk with a Talent Expert

Members of our team are available to help you speed through the hiring process.
Available Now
Book a Call
Product Designer with 7 years experience building impactful, delightful products.
I'm a Designer who speaks Product. I’ve helped build products that let 10 million investors connect with companies they invest in, 3X’ed conversion rates in an application flow, and made it 42% easier to trade one-of-a-kind alternative assets. What sets me apart from other Product Designers is that, with a background in Growth Product Management, I've owned and delivered business outcomes. As a Product Designer, I've designed apps and websites for mobile and desktop around themes like AI, music, and finance. As a Product Manager, I've shipped web and iOS products around product growth, APIs, and data analytics.

Talk with a Talent Expert

Members of our team are available to help you speed through the hiring process.
Available Now
Book a Call

Top Talent like Jacob are on Pangea

Pangea, a YC company, connects companies with fractional talent. Fractional hiring allows companies to move faster and work with more specilaized talent, while giving talent more flexibilty and independence. If you are talent open to fractional work, apply here. If you’re a company looking for high-quality fractional talent, learn more here.

Jacob Shapiro

Product DesignerGrowth Product ManagerUser ResearcherChicago, IL, US
Product Design
Product Management
UI/UX Design
Figma
User Research
Usability Testing
Data Analysis
Product Strategy
Available for hire fromNegotiable
Contracts
Full-Time Roles

Projects

Selftalk

Selftalk is a privacy-first AI chatbot that lets you gain insight from past experiences by talking to your journal. I conceptualized, designed, and prototyped the app. On the linked project page on my portfolio is a writeup of what inspired the product and why I designed it this way. By letting you talk with your journal, Selftalk helps you unlock insights from personal experiences that you’ve written about but may have forgotten. Selftalk doesn’t give advice, it reflects your own thoughts back to you. Selftalk does all of this through the use of an AI chatbot that helps you see patterns and celebrate progress. But Selftalk is not just another chatbot, it’s a tool that enables a dialogue with your past, present, and future self. By helping you reflect on, and engage with, past experiences, Selftalk helps you be better prepared for what’s happening now.

Top Ones

Top Ones is a mobile app that lets users view their top streaming artists on-demand. After connecting their Spotify account, users can unlock their top 25 artists by taking a quiz where they guess which artists they listen to the most, and unlock the rest of their top 50 by sharing the app with friends. Top Ones is designed to be shared with friends, with custom "share" images for every artist.

Small Business Website Redesign

Client testimonial: “Jacob took the time to really understand my business and my customers, and his final design was a wonderful combination of my vision, my customers’ perspective, and his own ideas. What impressed me most about his work was his keen eye for detail – everything from the overall page design down to the button colors was intentional and thoughtful.” I redesigned the website of a small consulting business so that they could better showcase their services to prospective customers. The goals were to pitch themselves to clients, provide high-quality blog posts and video content, and establish credibility in a niche consulting space. I first met with the client to understand their business goals, who their customers are, and other constraints for the project. I then designed a new information architecture and created low-fidelity wireframes to ensure that my vision aligned with the client's. Finally, I created production-ready high-fidelity designs, after designing a set of reusable components to ensure efficiency.

Robinhood Investor Q&As

Investor Q&As is a feature in the Robinhood app that lets everyday investors connect with companies that they invest in. Companies like Tesla, Coinbase, and Palantir use Q&A to connect with their investors by taking questions from them on earnings calls and other events. Investors can post their own questions and upvote other questions, and companies answer the top-voted questions. As the API Product Manager on this project, I led the integration of an API that enables Robinhood and other brokers to build this feature into their app. I also worked with the team that built the in-app user experience. In order to prepare the API for launch, I led an engineering effort to scale the API to handle 10x previous peak volume. This project led to a 21% increase in average participating users per Q&A.

Ampla Product Growth

As Growth Product Manager at Ampla, a B2B financial platform for small consumer goods brands, I led efforts to grow the customer base across all products by optimizing application and onboarding flows. By combining disparate application flows for separate products into a single intuitive flow, we tripled (3X) the application completion rate. And by redesigning the application flow to clearly communicate product value propositions, we achieved a 26% increase in completion rate. We consistently delivered our roadmap on schedule: in Q3-Q4 2024, we delivered 94% (16 out of 17) of our commitments by the estimated delivery date. We used A/B testing, data analysis, and customer research to identify potential optimizations and measure their impact.

Rally Discovery and Growth

As Product Manager for Discovery and Growth, I led initiatives to improve marketplace liquidity on Rally, an investment platform for one-of-a-kind alternative assets like cars, sports memorabilia, and watches. This included making it easier to buy and sell shares of these assets, as well as navigate Rally's connection of 400+ assets across 20+ categories. For example, we achieved a 42% increase in matched bids by implementing push notifications for price changes. We also achieved a 8% increase in asset views by redesigning the asset discovery UX/UI. Our primary tools and methods to optimize the user experience included A/B testing, data analysis, and user research.

Work History

F

Product and Web Designer

Freelance Product and Web Design- Designed, and developed product strategy for, AI-enabled real estate research platform that helps users understand zoning regulations - Designed and prototyped Selftalk, an AI-powered app that lets users gain insight from past experiences by talking to their journal - Designed and prototyped Top Ones, an AI-powered app that lets users view their top streaming artists whenever they want - Redesigned website for a small consulting business, including information architecture, wireframes, and high-fidelity mockups
A

Growth Product Manager

AmplaFull-time EmployeeApr 2023 - Jan 2024 • 10 mosLed the Product Growth team, responsible for growing the user base across all of Ampla's funding, banking, and financial operations products. Ampla is a B2B financial services platform that helps consumer goods brands grow and run their businesses. Achieved results including: - 3X increase in application flow conversion rate, driven by consolidating separate flows into one - 26% increase in conversion rate, driven by communicating product value props in user flow - 94% (16 of 17) of development goals delivered on time in Q3 and Q4 2023 by the squad I led as Product Manager
R

Product Manager, Growth and Discovery

RallyAug 2022 - Apr 2023 • 9 mosProduct Manager for Growth and Discovery. Helping users discover and understand Rally's collection of 400+ unique alternative assets. Rally is an investing platform with unique assets like collectible cars, sports cards, and watches that historically have only been available to rich investors. Achieved results including: - 42% increase in matched bids, driven by implementing price notifications - 8% increase in number of users viewing assets, driven by redesigning asset discovery UX/UI on iOS and mobile web - 6% increase in number of users placing bids, driven by adding new screens giving context about asset lifecycle and how Rally works
R

Product Manager, Broker Products

RobinhoodApr 2021 - Jul 2022 • 1 yr 4 mos(formerly Say Technologies, acquired September 2021) Product Manager for Broker Products. Managed APIs that let brokers build in-app experiences like shareholder voting and a Q&A forum for everyday investors to ask questions to companies they invest in. Also managed a dashboard that let brokers monitor shareholder communications and engagement. Q&As are currently available in the Robinhood app for companies like Tesla, Coinbase, and Palantir. Achieved results including: - 21% increase in average number of Q&A participants, driven by effort to build Q&A feature in Robinhood - 10X increase in API peak capacity, driven by effort to scale API in preparation for Robinhood integration - 2 additional B2B customers for the shareholder voting API, driven by email marketing campaign that I created and designed content for
N

Lead Product Designer

NextCapitalAug 2018 - Apr 2021 • 2 yrs 9 mos(Acquired by Goldman Sachs) Worked on the advice and forecasting engine, the part of the software responsible for investment advice and projecting users wealth and income in retirement. Translated financial advice methodology into software requirements, and worked with developers to build the advice engine. NextCapital is a robo-advisor for retirement accounts like 401(k)s and IRAs.

Education

University of Michigan

Bachelors Degree, Cognitive Science (Minor in Computer Science)2013 - 2017

Duke University

AI Product Management Certification, AI Product ManagementMar 2024 - Jul 2024

How Pangea Works

Effortlessly discover top talent

We’ve distilled the candidate search from endless hours down to just a few minutes. Using Pangea’s AI-powered search tools, you can find top fractional talent able to take on your next project. Our system looks at your company’s niche and your needs to find the perfect match faster than any traditional hiring platform.

Start working with talent today

The top talent on Pangea is ready to get started with you right now. You can message or hire a candidate right from their profile page and start assigning work as soon as they respond. And the best part? Pangea’s fractional contract structure lets you start small and ramp up as your needs change, keeping your costs manageable and your team’s capabliities flexible.

Track work and invoices in one place

Assign tasks, track progress, and complete invoices all on Pangea. We’ve combined every part of the hiring process into one platform to eliminate the miscommunication that’s unavoidable on other freelance platforms. We even send out 1099s to your contractors at the end of the year!

Talk with a Talent Expert

Members of our team are available to help you speed through the hiring process.
Available Now
Book a Call
Pangea empowers fractional work across the world for marketing and design roles.