Interview with Harinath Pudipeddi, a specialist in product strategy and innovation systems, helping companies turn ideas into measurable outcomes. A feature exploring his journey in fractional leadership, industry challenges, and how he builds sustainable growth processes.
Harinath Pudipeddi specializes in building the systems needed for predictable growth. He works with B2B and mid-market companies across APAC & the Middle East to transform scattered ideas into focused, high-leverage Product Strategy and sustained, revenue-generating product bets. His focus is entirely outcome-driven: delivering better adoption, stronger retention, and higher ACV—not just strategy documents.
Hari’s defining capability is establishing robust Innovation Governance systems. He designs and implements comprehensive frameworks tailored to maximize the return on strategic investment, whether internal or external.
Client Focus & Expertise
- For VCs, Investors & Family Offices: Hari builds custom Venture Performance Governance systems, creating clear KPI processes and dashboards to measure the true output and financial impact of portfolio company investments.
- For Corporates: He implements rigorous Corporate Innovation Metrics and accountability frameworks, ensuring internal new ventures move from concept to measurable, scalable value realization.
Through Studio NAVAKA, Hari partners with leaders to:
- Strategy & Prioritization: Clarify product strategy and choose the right 3–5 high-potential bets.
- Innovation Process Setup: Design and test AI-native and digital products using repeatable frameworks, ensuring continuous customer validation and reduced launch risk.
- Portfolio Management & Scaling: Establish the architecture, resource allocation strategy, and roadmap needed to successfully scale winning products and efficiently govern the entire innovation pipeline.
- Fractional Insider: How was your transition from a traditional career to fractional leadership/consulting?
Harinath: I always wanted to be an Entrepreneur and I personally had a very strong conviction that I can offer a lot more personally rather than to be in a company. After 16+ Years in corporate environment, I thought it was a good time to start the journey and I did.
- Fractional Insider: What attracted you most to this model, and what challenges did it bring?
Harinath: Challenges are everyday – Client outreach is the most difficult in being a Fractional, many do not even understand the nature of how fractionals work. Instead of just being happy being a Leader in a corporate, I needed to learn to build a network, sales and marketing, proposal crafting and invoicing, all of which I will need to alone.
What attracted me is the ability to think bigger and contribute meaningfully to my clients with focus. No more politics.
- Fractional Insider: How do you choose the projects and clients you work with?
Harinath: I spent the first six month streamlining at what I do the best and then had to craft my Value preposition. I do two things – Product Strategy Consulting and Innovation Management (www.StudioNavaka.com). This clarity helps me to do outreach and people will come if they are interested.
- Fractional Insider: Tell us about a moment when you had a major impact as a fractional leader.
Harinath: A spell of around 8 months without new clients. This was the toughest.
- Fractional Insider: What are the main differences between being a full-time executive and a fractional one?
- Harinath: No team management (lot of time saved)
- No corporate politics (less stress and more focused work)
- 100% focus on outcomes (which is a real high value preposition for my clients)
- Fractional Insider: How do you explain the value of a fractional leader to a skeptical CEO?
Harinath: Interesting question – I approach both my offerings (Product Strategy & Innovation Management to Corporates & GCC’s) in different ways. In simple words, here is how I pitch:
For Funded & Mid Sized companies
Harinath: I bridge the gap between high-level strategy and hands-on execution, offering you the expertise of a 25-year technology veteran without the rigid overhead of a full-time executive. Unlike traditional consultants who leave behind slide decks, I operate as a builder focused on immediate ‘Speed to Value’: I have scaled global teams to 110 associates using a ‘Follow the Sun’ efficiency model and engineered revenue operations that drove an EdTech firm from $1M to $5M ARR. My approach goes beyond code to cultural transformation—implementing ‘Employee Driven Innovation’ frameworks, as I did for Mercedes-Benz, to ensure your internal teams take ownership long after my engagement ends. With me, you are not just filling a role; you are renting high-impact expertise to architect the solution, while retaining 100% of the results and IP.
For GCC’s (Global Capability Centers & Corporates)
Harinath: Global Capability Centers (GCCs) today face a critical pivot: moving from service delivery to strategic ownership. However, innovation cannot be mandated; it must be engineered.
As a former GCC leader who scaled Cerner’s operations to 110+ associates , and a current Strategic Advisor for organizations like Mercedes-Benz and IDYA.AI, I specialize in curating the ‘Employee Driven Innovation’ frameworks that make this transition possible.
For Investor Guild’s and Family offices
Harinath: As a Family Office or Investor Guild, your capital is deployed across diverse ventures, but your visibility is often limited to quarterly PDFs and fragmented spreadsheets. You rely on founders for updates, but data is the only true narrator of portfolio health.
I provide the technical infrastructure to turn that fragmented data into a unified ‘Command Center.
- Fractional Insider: What are the most common mistakes companies make when working with fractionals?
- Harinath: They assume they are Consultants. The biggest difference between consultant and fractional is:
- Experience & Focused Expertise
- Consultants need to have a person who tells them what to do, but a Fractional does not need anyone, just the objective of the project and they will drive the outcomes.
- Fractional Insider: How do you see this career model evolving in the coming years?
Harinath: I have seen a splurge in growth in the last 3 years and I am sure this will continue. It will evolve and continue to evolve.
- Fractional Insider: What advice would you give to a senior professional considering becoming fractional?
- Harinath: It’s a lonely journey. Be prepared.
- You have to build your network (if you have not yet built). If you are considering becoming a fractional, start preparing at least six months in advance, set your process, curate your offerings, build a website and start talking to potential clients.
- You need to unlearn your corporate mind-set.
- Be prepared for set-backs.
- Most importantly, kick the ego out of the window.
- Through his deep expertise and outcome-driven mindset, Harinath Pudipeddi is redefining how companies build product strategies and innovation systems.
