In this episode of [radically candid], host Ava Hinds sits down with Michael Lieberman, Vice President of Innovation at [cognition], to recap what the team has been building in Q1 and where innovation is headed for the rest of the year.

Who's This Conversation For?

This conversation is for anyone who wants to understand the technology and strategy behind [cognition]'s platform. Whether you're a partner looking to get more out of your measurement capabilities or someone in ad tech curious about how cross-channel measurement and Streaming TV attribution are evolving, this one's for you.

What You'll Learn By Listening

1) What the Headless Analytics Tag Actually Does Michael walks through how HAT connects the dots across the entire customer journey, from a Streaming TV impression to on-site activity to a form fill. Using a real-world example of someone watching Amazon Prime, searching on their phone, and landing on a dealer site, he explains how HAT stitches that full path together in a way traditional attribution tools can't.

• HAT isn't just another pixel. It's two components working together, on-site tracking and a pixel on the creative, to give clients a direct line from impression to conversion.

2) Cross-Channel Visibility Is Expanding HAT doesn't just measure Streaming TV. Because of the on-site tracking layer, clients are also gaining visibility into how search, social, and other channels are performing alongside their streaming campaigns. Michael explains how combining all of those signals is becoming a bigger part of what clients expect and leverage.

• Measurement isn't siloed anymore. Clients are starting to see the full picture of how every channel contributes, not just the ones [cognition] executes on.

3) OEM Programs Are Getting Smarter A big Q1 effort focused on helping clients who run OEM programs better manage, filter, and report on those campaigns. Michael shares a fun insight about how customer paths don't always go in a straight line, sometimes a tier-three ad sends someone to the OEM site first before they end up exactly where the ad intended.

• The data tells a story. Customers get where the ad wants them to go, but the journey is more complex than most people assume, and now clients can see that.

4) Media Execution Is Getting Faster On the execution side, Q1 was about making the managed service team more efficient and effective. Michael explains why speed of execution is one of the biggest pieces of value [cognition] brings to partners, and why a lot of behind-the-scenes work went into making that faster this quarter.

• Not every innovation is client-facing. Some of the most important work is operational, helping the team move quicker so clients see results sooner.

5) DV360 and Beyond [cognition] has been enhancing its DV360 offering with plans to integrate and support more platforms in the months ahead. Michael frames this as part of a larger mission: providing measurement and insight across every channel and DSP clients are working in, not just the ones [cognition] started with.

• The vision is platform-agnostic measurement. As new channels and DSPs are added, clients should expect consistent insight no matter where their media runs.

6) What's Next and Why Michael Is Excited Looking ahead, Michael points to new technologies, clean room capabilities, and the speed at which the team can now bring new products to market. At its core, the goal is the same: give partners the tools and insights they need to grow their business, because when they grow, [cognition] grows.

• The pace of innovation is accelerating. What's coming in Q2 and beyond is going to give partners yet another reason to lean into the platform.

In this episode of [radically candid], host Ava Hinds sits down with Renuka Lakra, Senior UX Designer at [cognition], for a conversation about why design is one of the most undervalued growth levers in business. Renuka shares her perspective on how great UX closes the gap between a product and the people using it, why function always comes before aesthetics, and how a single design decision can move millions in revenue.

Who's This Conversation For?

This conversation is for startup founders who want to understand how design drives real business outcomes, anyone building or managing a software product who wants to invest in UX the right way, and designers looking for language to advocate for the strategic value of their work.

What You'll Learn By Listening

1. UX Design Is Function Before Aesthetics Renuka reframes what UX design actually is and why it belongs at the start of the software development process, not the end. A product is a tool, not a piece of art, and if it doesn't function the way users expect, no amount of visual polish will save it.

• Learn why the word "design" creates confusion and why terms like UX strategy or UX architecture better communicate what the work really involves.

2. Empathy Is the Designer's Most Important Tool Renuka walks through two everyday examples, Gmail's forgotten-attachment reminder and Canva's template library, to show how the best products anticipate user needs before users even realize them.

• Gmail isn't showing you a beautiful screen when it catches a missing attachment. It's preventing a mistake and building trust. Canva's templates aren't there to look pretty, they're there to remove the paralysis of a blank page so someone with zero design skills can produce professional work in five minutes.

3. One Design Decision That Doubled Airbnb's Revenue In 2009, Airbnb was nearly dead at $200 a week. The founders flew to New York, knocked on doors, and found the problem, terrible listing photos. They rented a camera, took professional shots, and revenue doubled in a single week.

• Same platform, same listings, same city. Just better photos. From 2010 to 2012, bookings went from almost nothing to nearly 5 million nights.

4. Amazon's One-Click Checkout and 300% Conversion Lift People already knew what they wanted to buy. The problem was the checkout process had too many steps, and that's exactly where the drop-off was happening. Amazon reduced the entire flow to one click.

• Conversion rates went from 2.5% to over 10%. More people who wanted to buy something actually completed the purchase.

5. Give Designers Goals, Not Tasks Give your UX designer a North Star goal, not a feature to design. Make them part of your product strategy and let them understand your business.

• Airbnb's goal was to increase bookings. Spotify's goal was to keep users listening longer. Duolingo's goal was to bring users back every day. None of those are feature requests. They're real business problems, and that's exactly where design should start.

6. Dark Design and Why Values Come First Renuka opens up about dark design patterns, the manipulative UX tactics some companies use to make it harder for users to cancel, unsubscribe, or leave.

• If your values don't align with designing against the user, don't do it. As a UX designer, Renuka's stance is clear: she advocates for users, always.

Connect with Renuka Lakra on LinkedIn here!

In this episode of [radically candid], host Ava Hinds sits down with Bill Schomberg, one of [cognition]'s founding advisors, to go all the way back to the beginning and explore how culture, values, and relationships built the foundation for everything the company is today.

Who's This Conversation For?

This conversation is for anyone who wants to understand what makes [cognition] different from the inside out. Whether you're a new hire trying to understand the DNA of the company, a long-time team member who wants to hear how it all started, or someone on the outside curious about what a values-driven ad tech company actually looks like, this one's for you.

What You'll Learn By Listening

1) How It All Started Before It Started Bill wasn't looking for an advisory role, he didn't even know it was a possibility. After connecting with Carson at a digital dealer meeting and having a two-hour conversation, an unexpected email and phone call changed everything. He joined [cognition] before most people knew it existed.

• The Payoff: Sometimes the most important roles aren't ones you apply for. Community and genuine connection open doors you didn't know were there.

2) The Founders Learned to Disagree In the earliest team conversations, Bill noticed a problem: nobody pushed back. Everyone agreed, which meant most of the room wasn't adding value. Today, that dynamic has completely flipped. Different opinions are welcomed, and that shift is one of the biggest reasons the company has scaled the way it has.

• 💡 Key Takeaway: Agreement isn't alignment. Real growth starts when people feel safe enough to challenge each other.

3) DIRT Values and the SOIL Framework Dare, Innovate, Respect, Trust, the core values that spell DIRT aren't just a poster on the wall. Bill connects them to his own framework, SOIL (Signs of Intelligent Life), drawing on his upbringing around Nebraska farming to explain why healthy culture, like fertile soil, has to be intentionally tended season after season.

• Culture isn't maintenance. It's constant effort, accountability, and expectation, and [cognition] treats it that way every day.

4) Failure Is the Fastest Way to Learn Bill shares the image of a brick wall where the failure bricks far outnumber the success ones, and that's exactly how it should be. At [cognition], failure isn't a setback. It's expected, encouraged, and treated as the engine behind innovation.

• The company is on a rocket ship trajectory, and the people who thrive here are the ones who let go of the idea that failure is a negative.

5) You Can't Teach Someone to Care When it comes to hiring, Bill and Ava land on the one quality that matters most: caring. Skills can be taught, products can be learned, but showing up every day wanting to make an impact is something a person either brings with them or they don't.

• That's the filter. If someone cares, everything else [cognition] needs from them can be built.

Connect with Bill Schomberg on LinkedIn here!