← Cognition
Cognition role-play cheat sheet
For the mock cold call at the end of most SDR interviews.
What they sell, in one line
Makers of Devin, an AI software engineer agent that takes on coding tasks for engineering teams.
Who you'd be calling
VPs and Directors of Engineering, CTOs and engineering managers at software companies and larger enterprises.
Your opener
“Hi Sam, this is Alex from Cognition, the team behind Devin, the AI software engineer. I know I'm calling cold. Does your engineering team have a backlog of routine work that never gets done?”
Problems you solve for them
- Engineering backlogs of bug fixes, migrations and routine tasks never shrink
- Hiring enough good engineers is slow and expensive
- Developers spend time on repetitive work instead of high-value projects
- Teams are under pressure to ship faster without growing headcount
Discovery questions to ask
- What eats most of your engineers' time that isn't new feature work?
- Have you tried any AI coding tools yet, and how did it go?
- Who would need to sign off if you wanted to test an AI agent on real tasks?
Objections they'll throw at you
“I'm busy right now.”
→ Understood, I'll be quick. Can I grab 15 minutes later this week to show what it does on a real backlog task?
“We're not interested.”
→ Fair. Is that because you don't trust AI to write code yet, or because the team has enough capacity? That helps me know what to share.
“We already use an AI coding tool.”
→ Good, so your team is open to AI. Is it more autocomplete help, or does it handle whole tasks from start to finish?
“Send me an email.”
→ Happy to. What type of task would be most interesting to you: bug fixes, migrations or tests?
Competitors worth knowing
GitHub Copilot, Cursor
Interview tips for this company
- Know the difference between a coding assistant that suggests lines and an agent that takes a task and works on it. Be able to explain that simply.
- Expect skeptical engineering buyers, so practice being honest and curious rather than hyping the product.
- Read up on how Devin is described publicly and bring one specific question about it.
Written from public information about Cognition to help you practice. Ask an insider what their role play looked like; it's the best prep there is.