Fractional COO & Interim Executive

Stop being the bottleneck. Build what runs without you.

Operations succeed at the human layer.

Workstream Studio designs the operational architecture that lets founders and leadership teams step out of every decision, without losing control of the ones that matter.

Start a conversation See selected work

18 years operating across

Strategy Roland Berger·Oliver Wyman Tech & high-growth Uber·Syfe Enterprise & institutions Mastercard·New World Development·HKJC
Approach

The layer most ops consultants skip

Most operational failures are human dynamics wearing a process costume. We read that layer first, who can actually step up, where the real friction lives, what the team will accept or resist, then build the systems around it.

Founders often describe the result as having a clone: someone who thinks like an owner, not a consultant. Systems only stick when they fit the organisation they are built for.

Decision-making architecture

Decision rights, meeting cadences, and accountability structures that make ownership clear, so the right calls happen at the right level.

Operational systems

Workflows, KPI dashboards, and documentation that actually get used, built into how the team operates rather than filed away.

Team & leadership capacity

Identifying who can grow into what, and building the conditions for it to happen, so capability scales with the business.

How we work

Three ways to bring an owner's thinking in

Engagements are scoped to the moment you are in, from ongoing partnership to a focused transformation to stepping into the seat itself.

01→

Fractional COO Retainer

Ongoing embedded partnership at one to two days per week. The operational backbone for founders who need senior leadership without a full-time hire.

Ongoing · 1–2 days / week
02→

90-Day Operations Sprint

A focused engagement to diagnose friction and install the core systems, decision rights, workflows, dashboards, in one concentrated push.

Fixed scope · 90 days
03→

Interim Executive Mandate

Stepping into an interim COO or CEO seat during a leadership transition, holding the organisation steady while the next chapter is built.

Hands-on · Transition period

The same frameworks apply to NGOs and social enterprises navigating growth, leadership transition, or major grant delivery.

Sectors: FinTech · SaaS · Professional Services · E-commerce · NGO & Social Enterprise

Selected work

A sample of recent engagements

Teach For Hong Kong · Education NGO

Interim CEO through a leadership transition

Currently serving as Interim CEO of Teach For Hong Kong through a leadership transition. Holding operations and the team steady, setting the organisation's forward strategy, and driving the fundraising agenda to secure its next phase, while preparing a clean handover to the incoming leader.

Interim CEO Forward strategy Fundraising drive Transition handover
before after
In their words

What it is like to work together

It felt less like hiring a consultant and more like cloning myself. Within weeks the team was making the calls I used to get pulled into, and making them well. The business finally runs when I step away.
CE Founder & CEOTech startup
Most advisors hand you a deck. Yenson read the room first, who could step up, where the tension really sat, then built structures the team actually accepted. As a board, we finally trusted the organisation to hold.
BD Board of DirectorsInternational NGO
We were mid-transition with no playbook. Yenson stepped in, steadied operations, and left us with documentation and decision rights that outlasted the engagement. Calm, rigorous, and genuinely trustworthy.
ED Executive DirectorSocial enterprise
Grant advisory

Turn a social-impact mission into a fundable proposal

Workstream Studio supports charitable institutions preparing for Hong Kong's major funding programmes, including the HKEX Charity Partnership Programme and the HKJC Charities Trust, with senior proposal strategy, drafting, and reporting support. Work runs year round rather than around a single application window, and other major Hong Kong funders can be covered on request.

An adjacent service line, drawing on the same operating judgment applied to charitable institutions raising restricted funding.

Programme
HKEX Charity Partnership Programme
Multi-year partnership funding for Section 88 charitable institutions, awarded through an annual application window.
Programme
HKJC Charities Trust
The largest charitable donor in Asia, funding across health, education, sports, culture, and sustainability. Expressions of interest accepted year round.

How we help

Funding Readiness Review

A focused diagnostic on funder fit and readiness: where the organisation stands on governance, delivery capacity, and evidence, and which programme is the strongest match.

Proposal Strategy & Drafting

Shaping the project story, defining outcomes, building budget logic, and producing the application narrative.

Impact & Reporting Support

Performance indicators, milestone reporting, and post-award updates that keep funders confident.

Senior judgment, moving faster

We use modern tooling to compress research and drafting time, so more of the engagement goes into strategy and review. Every submission is senior-led and human-owned.

Book a funding fit check

Workstream Studio is an independent consultancy and is not affiliated with HKEX, the HKEX Foundation, HKCSS, or The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust. We support proposal readiness and do not guarantee funding outcomes.

Yenson She, Workstream Studio
About

Built on 18 years of operating, not just advising

Workstream Studio is led by Yenson She, a fractional COO and interim executive. Over 18 years across global consultancies and high-growth companies, the work has spanned strategy, operations, and the leadership transitions in between.

The studio works with founders and leadership teams of 10 to 100 person companies who have built something real and are ready to build the infrastructure to scale it, across both commercial and mission-driven sectors. What makes the work different is an organisational-psychology lens applied to every engagement: read the people first, then build the systems around how the team actually operates. Alongside the operating work, the studio advises Hong Kong charitable institutions on grant readiness and funding proposals.

Experience & reach

18 yrs
cross-sector experience
3
regions of current clients
10–100
typical client team size
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Get in touch

Start a conversation

Tell us where the organisation is today and what you are trying to build. We will come back within two business days.

Prefer email? Reach us directly at yenson@workstreamstudio.io