By Bryan Knipe, founder of TriPinnacle Advisors
Nobody hires an interim COO when things are calm. Something changed: an operations leader left, the company outgrew the way it runs, a deal closed and now has to be made to work, or the CEO is spending every week on operations instead of the business. The interim's job is to take the operation off the CEO's desk, steady it, improve it and hand it to a permanent leader in better shape than they found it.
My own versions of this were taking over a large health system's entire analytics organization after an outsourcing deal at Optum, running the operations and finance of a business as COO/CFO, and stepping in as interim CEO of a digital health company. The scale and the industries differed. The first 90 days followed the same pattern.
Before day one: agree on the mandate
The most common failure in interim leadership happens before the interim starts: a vague mandate. Before I start I want three things agreed with the CEO or board:
- What success looks like at 90 days, in a few concrete outcomes, not "stabilize operations."
- Which decisions are mine without asking, which need a conversation, and which stay with the CEO.
- How long, and what happens at the end: hand-off to a permanent hire, a decision on whether the role is needed, or an extension.
It also matters whether the role is part-time or full-time. A fractional COO two or three days a week can run the operating rhythm and own the big decisions, but the team needs to know which days and how to reach them on the others.
Days 1 to 30: listen, map and fix what's urgent
The first month is mostly listening, done deliberately. I meet everyone who runs a piece of the operation and ask the same questions: what do you deliver, to whom, what gets in your way, and what would you change first? The same complaints come up from different people, and those are the real problems.
At the same time I build a simple map of the operation: what comes in, what goes out, who does what, what it costs and how it is measured. In the Optum transition, this map was what let us take over an organization that ran on its own tools, reports and habits without breaking the reporting the business depended on.
And I find the two or three things that cannot wait: a customer commitment about to be missed, a cash problem, a key person about to leave. Fixing those quickly earns the trust that everything else depends on.
What I don't do in the first month is reorganize. Changing the structure before you understand it is the fastest way to lose the people who actually know how the place works.
Days 31 to 60: set the operating rhythm
The second month is about making the operation run the same way every week, whether or not I am in the room.
- A short list of numbers that say whether the operation is healthy: delivery, quality, cost, cash and customer measures, chosen with the team, reported the same way every week.
- A weekly operating meeting that looks at those numbers, names owners for anything off track, and closes the loop the next week.
- Clear ownership: every important process has one owner, written down.
- A link to finance: the operating plan and the budget agree, and someone checks actuals against both monthly.
This is also when the bigger fixes start: consolidating duplicate tools or teams, cleaning up hand-offs, and deciding where automation or AI belongs. I build systems myself, so I can tell the CEO which of those ideas are worth funding and which are not, and build the ones that are.
Days 61 to 90: carry the change and prepare the hand-off
By the third month the operation should be steadier, and the work shifts to the change the role was hired for: integrating an acquisition, completing a transition, launching a new line or resetting the plan. At VK Digital Health, the order mattered: one shared definition of the company first, then the business plan, then go-to-market, then the fundraising strategy, each built from the one before.
From day 60 on, I am also preparing to leave well:
- The operating rhythm runs without me.
- The processes, decisions and open issues are written down where the team can find them.
- I help define the permanent role, and interview for it if asked, based on what the operation actually needs now.
- A real hand-off period overlaps with the new leader, not a goodbye email.
What to expect from a good interim COO
A good interim leader is visibly useful in the first two weeks, does not try to become permanent by making the operation depend on them, and tells the CEO uncomfortable things early. They should leave behind a steadier operation, a clear rhythm, documented processes and a sharper definition of the permanent job.
I do this as a fractional COO two to three days a week, or full-time for an interim stretch of three to six months while you hire or carry a transition.