Dragons battled back from a half-time deficit in Belfast and were pushing for valuable league points before a late try ensured Ulster ran out 36-18 winners.
However, Jackman insisted the manner of the performance was a step in the right direction as his team created plenty of opportunities and really impressed in the final quarter.
“We didn’t do a huge amount wrong in the first half but we found ourselves 17-3 down,” he said.
“It would have been easy, with quite a young team in general, to let the game go. But we didn’t and we fought back.
“The killer was the try we conceded just before half-time. We scored in the 38thminute but we didn’t close that half out and that was where Ulster showed real composure and ability.
“You look at Leinster because they do it a lot, score before and after half-time. That is something we need to do, either stop them scoring or score ourselves.
“In general I am very proud,” he added. “There are frustrations with some of the little errors we made, they are errors of our own making. If we fix those we are going to be a team that can go away from home and get results.
“We had two five-metre lineouts, one on the left and one on the right, and we lost both of them in the second half. Our lineout was immaculate all night, in actual fact it was probably our best lineout performance both in offence and defence.
“It’s just that key moment when you need to catch the ball. We actually lost the lineout on the right, re-gathered it and a yard out went wide and put it in touch.”
Jackman will now hope his Dragons show more of a ruthless edge when they return to Ireland next week to face Connacht.
“You have got to be ruthless in those situations and not let teams off the hook when you get five yards out,” he admitted.
“There were opportunities there for us and we have got to be more clinical. It gives us confidence going into Connacht next week that we are definitely on the upward curve.
“We’re way ahead of where we were – but we were very far back,” he added.
“I looked at the team that played here last year and we’ve had a massive re-build. We’ve put a focus on young players from our Academy and we only had two players who were here last year.
“It’s a new group and we are trying to gel as quickly as we can and put our systems in place.
“The attitude, the hunger and desire is there and performances are getting better – we just need to get a result.”
