Meet Travis Jacobs of JA Simulations in South Denver

Today we’d like to introduce you to Travis Jacobs.

Travis, before we jump into specific questions about your work, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I graduated from the University of Utah in 2004, I’ve been designing, developing and engineering products ever since.

I’ve worked in aerospace & defense, industrial and consumer products.

I’ve seen lots of failed projects.

The goal of our business is to reduce the failure rate of projects.

The biggest problems we see in product development are a lack of leadership & communication.

We use a wide range of tools to identify the obstacles & roadblocks that teams encounter.

From an actual football… we call it the talking football… to sophisticated 3D modeling to test the design virtually inside a computer.

We aim to eliminate the problems before they become problems.

We use a method called the thinking hats to quickly assess ideas… problems… solutions… so we can quickly move forward.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s never a smooth road, anyone who tells you otherwise… doesn’t know… or isn’t being honest with themselves or you.

I always tell my clients. “A plan is just a list of things that didn’t happen”

Everything takes longer and costs more than you think it should.

Getting the strategy right is a big first step… which is incredibly difficult… and the part most people skip.

We have adopted the concept from Jim Collins… the Hedgehog Concept… which is the intersection of three circles.

1. What can you be the best at?

2. What are you passionate about?

3. What will people pay you for?

Getting the hedgehog right is difficult and crucial… the next step that is very hard and requires discipline is sticking to it.

Finding the right clients that fit your hedgehog can be brutal and a daily grind.

Impatience and wanting everything done yesterday for $1 is one of the biggest problems we see on a regular basis.

We call this creating a $20,000 problem with a $0.99 drill bit.

Please tell us more about your work.
A lack of leadership & communication is one of the biggest reasons why projects fail.

We help leaders solve problems, teams work together more effectively and companies to get products to market faster for less cost.

One of the tools we use to do this is the use of virtual prototypes, a virtual prototype is a 3D model created inside of a computer, we can then test the physics of the product in this virtual environment.

One of things that is unique about what we do is what we call “Thinking Football” Technology.

The thinking football is composed of three components.

1. The Talking Football.

2. The Thinking Hats.

3. The Pink Elephant.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
My favorite childhood memory is a golden retriever named Murphy, and of course Lake Powell.

Pricing:

• We offer an individual approach to consulting
• 80 percent of the cost of a products development is determined by decisions made early in the design process
• By Spending $5,000 up front, teams can avoid expensive mistakes further down the road. These mistakes can end up costing $50,000 or more
• The cost to fix these mistakes increases exponentially the further you proceed down the design path.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ja-simulations.com/
• Phone: 303.818.0109
• Email: tjacobs@ja-simulations.com
• Twitter: jasimulations
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/travisjacobs/

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