In this episode of [radically candid], host Ava Hinds sits down with Travis Pedersen, Product Manager at [cognition], for a conversation about how products actually get built in ad tech. Travis walks through what his day-to-day looks like, how an idea travels from a client request all the way to live in the platform, and why attribution has become one of the biggest players in the industry. Along the way he breaks down the work happening around Headless Analytics, bulk tools, and stitching together the full customer journey across DSPs.

Who's This Conversation For? 

This conversation is for anyone curious about how product gets made, professionals thinking about a move into ad tech or product management, and those who want to understand how client feedback turns into real platform features.

What You'll Learn By Listening

1. Being a Former User Makes a Better Product Manager Travis spent years managing advertising campaigns before moving into product, and that background shapes how he builds. He keeps the user top of mind and works to make their journey as easy and frustration-free as possible.

• When you've been the person inside the platform, you understand why a clunky workflow makes someone not want to come back. That empathy is what turns features into experiences people actually use.

2. How an Idea Becomes a Feature Travis explains the path from feedback to launch. The team gathers input from internal and external users, looks for commonality, and prioritizes the changes that make the biggest impact.

• Sometimes one user flags a small fix that turns out to affect everyone. Other times pattern emerges, like several people struggling with attribution because their list sizes are too small, and that theme points toward a bigger vision for the platform.

3. Product Enablement Is in the Room Early Travis breaks down how he collaborates with developers and product enablement throughout the build. Enablement helps scope requirements up front and returns once there's a working shell to run through use cases.

• Bringing enablement in early means that when a feature rolls out, the sales team and account managers already understand it well enough to apply the new capabilities for clients.

4. Internal and External Releases Need Different Mindsets Travis describes why an internal release and an external launch call for different playbooks. Internal users often get early access and a chance to help expand how a feature is used.

• External releases require more communication. Users should never discover a new feature without being aware it's coming, so external launches lean into detailing exactly what's new.

5. QA Is Where the Edge Cases Surface Travis walks through the testing process, from basic unit tests on the code to users running happy path flows and a few edge cases. The goal is to catch the weird stuff before it reaches broader clients.

• Sometimes a user tries a tool in a way it wasn't designed for, and a bug appears. That moment matters. Maybe the tool could be used that way, and catching it early is what keeps the external experience clean.

6. Attribution Is the Industry's Biggest Shift Travis points to privacy and customer attribution as the most significant change in advertising. Eight years ago it was click attribution. Now the work is getting down to user attribution and pulling it into a unified view.

• This is where HAT (Headless Analytics Tag) comes in. While clean rooms inside Google and Amazon handle attribution from sales lists, HAT helps stitch together the full customer journey across different platforms and devices, so the whole picture comes back into one report.