About this episode
In this episode of the DevReady Podcast, Anthony Sapountzis, CTO and Co-Founder of Aerion Technologies and DevReady.ai | AI-Powered App Planning for Non-Tech Founders , is joined by Karina Carter, Fractional Chief Product Officer and Leadership Coach. With over 12 years of experience spanning the United Nations, government research, startups and global tech companies, Karina brings a deeply practical perspective on modern product leadership. She shares insights from her journey into product management, her work building technology across complex markets like China, and her current role helping underperforming companies realign strategy, teams and execution. This conversation is essential listening for founders, product leaders and teams looking to build better software through strong product strategy, customer insight and disciplined decision making.
Karina explains how transitioning from academic research at the UN into product allowed her to move faster, work directly with customers and turn data into action. Her experience running a venture studio in China required building bespoke technology to operate across the Great Firewall, giving her a unique perspective on solving complex problems in constrained environments. Today, as a fractional CPO, she is often brought into organisations that are struggling to perform, where she audits product strategy, uncovers misalignment and identifies untapped opportunities hidden in existing data. These discoveries frequently lead to new use cases and significant revenue growth without increasing team size. The discussion highlights how cultural context, data literacy and customer understanding are foundational to sustainable product growth.
A core theme of the episode is Karina’s belief that better products do not come from bigger teams, but from people with a growth mindset and a sense of radical responsibility. She explains how she uses data to understand what is happening inside a product, then pairs that insight with deep customer conversations to uncover why it is happening. Customer interviews, she argues, are not about asking users what to build, but about understanding their real problems, fears and motivations. This approach allows product, design and engineering teams to focus on value rather than features. Anthony reinforces that most customers buy based on perceived value, not technical specifications.
The conversation also explores why so much user research fails to deliver meaningful insight. Karina highlights how confirmation bias, inconsistent interview questions and poor research design often lead teams to hear only what they want to hear. She stresses the importance of structured interview frameworks, representative sampling and an understanding of cognit
