I’m a customer-centric product leader with 20+ years of delivering meaningful experiences that drive growth and profitability. I’ve led teams at companies of all stages—from early traction to market leadership—and thrive on solving customer problems through technology and innovation.
I lead with extreme ownership, deep customer empathy, and a relentless focus on outcomes. Even in lean environments, I’ve scaled businesses by leveraging technology creatively, unlocking operational efficiency, and instilling product discipline. For me, great product leadership isn’t just about setting vision—it’s about execution, accountability, and empowering teams to build what matters.
• Proven executive leader aligning bold product vision with business outcomes to drive sustainable, profitable growth
• Culture catalyst—known for transforming legacy mindsets into high-performing, innovation-led teams
• Authority in real-world AI applications—unlocking efficiency, elevating decision-making, and redefining legacy workflows
• Seasoned builder—scales products from 0-to-1 and beyond, leading market-shaping innovations that redefine industries
• Integrated product and GTM execution to accelerate pipeline performance and drive growth
I’m also an active LinkedIn creator, sharing my perspectives on product leadership, innovation, and company culture.
Karen Chao has been a guest on 1 episode.
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When CPO Becomes CMO: The Expanding Role of Product Leaders | Karen Chao (Flowspace)
November 18th, 2025 | Season 1 | 27 mins 12 secs
business, digital experience, product management, technology
Today, we’re joined by Karen Chao, Chief Product Officer at Flowspace, an ecommerce logistics platform, where she’s also taken on a role as head of marketing. Previously, Karen held product leadership roles at Apple, Replicon, Innit, and more.
In this episode, Karen shares:
- How she ended up running Marketing on top of Product, and how bringing these two functions under one leader has improved go-to-market for Flowspace
- The biggest surprises she’s uncovered running marketing as a product leader, from chaotic tool stacks to the next wave of AI-powered go-to-market automation
- And how Flowspace’s product team uses AI tools like Cursor and Claude to accelerate discovery and prototyping, and even ship small bug fixes straight to production without Engineers involved
- How she ended up running Marketing on top of Product, and how bringing these two functions under one leader has improved go-to-market for Flowspace