Tokyo based · Working across Japan and international teams
Project Management · Creative Operations
Complexity becomes coordinated.
I run the operating side of complex creative work: integrated schedules, resource planning, cross-office coordination and delivery control. Teams get to focus on the work because someone is holding the structure around it.
Selected work
Each case study separates what the organization delivered, what I personally owned, and what changed as a result.
View all workHow I run projects
The same operating sequence applies whether the project is a six-month integrated campaign or a single production. Detail changes, structure does not.
See the full operating modelAgree what we are actually delivering, and who decides.
Turn the intent into a plan that survives contact with reality.
Keep the work moving and keep everyone able to see it.
Absorb change deliberately instead of silently.
Land it properly, then make the next one easier.
Operating artifacts
These are the working documents behind the projects. Each one exists to answer a specific question that otherwise gets answered in someone's head. Every example here is an original construction with invented data.
See all twelve artifactsShows how workstreams overlap and where they hand off. The value is not the bars but the dependency lines: they make it obvious which date cannot move without moving three others.
Localization starts before production ends. Moving the production end date moves launch.
One screen leadership can read in thirty seconds. Status is carried by a written word and a shape, never by colour alone, so it survives a print-out, a projector and colour-blind readers.
Each row carries a shape and a word as well as a colour, so status survives greyscale printing.
Removes the question 'who decides this'. Most schedule slippage is not slow work but work waiting on an unnamed approver. One accountable name per row, enforced.
| Deliverable | PM | Creative | Account | Client |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creative concept | C | A | R | I |
| Production schedule | R | I | C | A |
| Budget approval | C | I | A | R |
| Localization sign-off | R | C | I | A |
| Launch readiness | A | C | I | R |
R = Responsible · A = Accountable · C = Consulted · I = Informed
Selected outcomes
These describe what the operating work produced. They are not claims about campaign performance or business results, which depend on many people beyond project management.
Tools and capabilities
Scope, integrated schedules, budget visibility, risk, governance and stakeholder alignment across concurrent workstreams.
Resource planning, capacity and demand visibility, freelance sourcing and allocation, workflow standardization.
Coordination across strategy, creative, film, digital, social and localization, from pre-production to delivery.
Japanese and English meetings, documentation, approvals and cross-office alignment — not translated after the fact.
Feedback
Sayoko stays on top of the schedule and executes with consistency. She keeps the work organized, creates visibility across the team, and makes demanding creative timelines feel manageable.
Availability
Based in Tokyo, working with teams in Japan and internationally. Remote and hybrid both work.
Contact
Whether it is a role, a project, or a team that has outgrown its current way of working, start with the problem and we can work out whether I am the right fit.
