The book
Three Pipe Problems — the art of seeing what others miss and solving what others won't. The method I bring to every problem.
Read the book → Product · Design · Brand · AI JASON
JASON
VANLUE
AI-Native Product & Design Executive
For over twenty years I've been obsessed with using design, technology, and AI to solve problems that matter — I even wrote a book about it. I've built and sold companies, led teams, and served organizations of every size, from Google to small nonprofits. I'm an operator, tactical leader, and above all, I design for the other side of the screen.
Fig. 01 J. VanLue · St. Augustine
Selected Clients
Google Cisco NBC-Universal Arnold Palmer Hospital UCF University of Colorado Tulane Dropbox GitHub Caterpillar Pluralsight Hundreds of nonprofits & mission-driven businesses
My Philosophy
As building gets faster, taste & judgment are more essential.
AI can generate a hundred answers now. The rare skill is knowing which question is worth asking. Judgment, empathy, and the courage to act matter more than ever. I've spent twenty years on that part of the work — it's the conviction behind everything I build, and the whole idea behind Three Pipe Problems.
01 — Who I am
An operator who leads.
An operator who leads.
A builder who ships.
I started in design and never really left it — I just kept following problems into harder rooms. Brand became product. Product became platform. Platform became AI. Along the way I helped build two agencies, grew platforms to exit, led enterprise product and design teams, and learned the same lesson every time: the work that matters is always for the people on the other side of the screen.
The full story → Section 02 · Case Index
Cases
Over 20 years of work, these are a few of the cases worth opening.
01 Virtuous Helped carry a bold vision from a single CRM into a market-leading, AI-forward platform that thousands of nonprofits rely on. Active 02 Code School An immersive, game-driven way to learn to code. 500k+ developers, and a bootstrapped exit to Pluralsight. Exit, 2015 03 UCF Online A conversion-driven redesign of the online experience for one of the nation's largest universities — built to make 100+ programs findable, and to fit a system that's still in use today. Live Today 04 Arnold Palmer Hospital From a single legacy logo to an entire brand system that Florida's leading children's hospital runs on. A year of work, much of it still in service today. Endures 05 Mangrove Surf Company The whole thing, built from zero — strategy, brand, design, store, words, and all — for a local surf company my son is taking into its next chapter. The one in the casebook I love the most. Active & family-run 06 Penguin Packaging Giving a food-packaging company a personality the entire industry lacked — and watching it become one of the most respected names in the space. From zero to $40M+ in five years. Delivered
03 — The Method
The method behind the work.
Holmes called the hardest cases "three pipe problems," the ones worth sitting with until you see what everyone else walked past. Over twenty years of tackling tough problems, that work settled into a five-phase shape. It's the foundation that's underpinned all of my work, and it's what the book is about.
01
See the Problem
The skills to recognize the real problem, and the courage to act on it.
02
Shape Yourself
Know your strengths, cultivate the rest: critical thinking, empathy, grit, courage.
03
Build Your Arsenal
Design, technology, business — the principles it takes to make something real.
04
Rally the Team
Nobody solves the hard ones alone. Build the people and the trust.
05
Strike the Match
Start where you are. Take the next right step. Let the impact compound.
04 — 2026 · Second Edition
05 — Writing
Articles
Field notes on problem-solving, design, and building in the AI era.
Read the articles → 06 — Stages · Teams · Rooms
Speaking
I bring two decades of product leadership and problem-solving to audiences looking for practical wisdom and real impact.
See speaking → 07 — By Request
Ways to work together
Outside the day-to-day, I keep a short list of talks, workshops, and advisory conversations. If you're a team, a conference, or an organization doing work that matters, the door's open.
- Speaking — Keynotes and talks on problem-solving, design, and building in the AI era.
- Workshops — Hands-on sessions that run the method against a real problem your team is facing.
- Advisory — Occasional conversations with founders and mission-driven leaders. Limited, and by request.