Dua van den Broek

Why this persona fits the audience

She uses a competitor's free tier to track macros around cycling training and remote product work, and she updates meals most days from her apartment in Amsterdam.

• Age: 35
• Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Occupation: Product manager
• Income: €78,000
• Education: Master's degree in Industrial Design
• Company size: 50-200 employees
• Years in role: 6

“I don't need more 'discovery sessions' – I need everyone to stop inviting me to pizza meetings.”

Dua moved from Eindhoven to Amsterdam for a product management role after realizing she wanted to work with teams rather than industrial designers. The job delivered on her hopes for cross-functional collaboration but less on her fantasy of 'owning the customer journey.' She now spends 30% of her day untangling feature requests from sales and engineering. Her cycling grew from necessity (to escape the 'sprawl' of Amsterdam's center) into an identity marker—she's the only person in her PM network who can identify by the sound of a teammate's cleats which brand of road shoes they favor. Her current macro tracker was adopted after her previous one died in a software update. She's still bitter about the lost 14-week streak. When not managing product workflows, she's optimizing her own: she recently ditched her bike's power meter after realizing she was adjusting workouts around the metrics more than her actual energy levels. Friends joke that her home office wall of bike jerseys is just her way of 'feature flagging' which days of the week she'll bail on drinks for training. Her '20% time' at work is spent arguing for better analytics tools—while privately using more robust ones than her company provides. Recent life decisions include moving to a quieter neighborhood (cycling-friendly but near better bakeries) and investing in a professional bike fit after too many seasons of 'I'll just keep ignoring my knee pain.'

Background & daily life

A day in their life

Up by 6:30am to bike 15km through canals to the office (with a stop for a stroopwafel at the De Pijp bakery). Logs lunch macros as 'unknown' when at yet another coworker's 'Let's Eat' unscheduled catered meeting. Ends workday fighting against the 'product feature backlog' spreadsheet's growing 387 tabs. Evening consists of a slow ride home, grocery runs past the Albert Cuyp market, and inevitable Strava argument about 'garmin lies'. She considers dinner a success if she doesn't have to all-out Excel crunch her macros too hard.

Lifestyle

Dua shares a 50m² apartment in De Plantage with too much cycling gear and a 'dive bar' index card ranking Amsterdam brown cafes by breakfast quality. She rides 120km/week—mostly commutes with weekend Strava vanity loops—keeping all 10 bike jerseys in pristine condition. Her budget works on spendy lunches (€25/day max) and open-ended fitness app subscriptions, but scoffs at €300/aero wheels. Social life orbits cycling clubs, PM meetups, and a Japanese coworker's rotating series of 'authentic' ramen takeout nights.

Work life

At a mid-sized SaaS company, Dua manages a product team building tools for small business analytics. She blueprints daily around a standing desk, withstanding slogging meetings about 'driving engagement' while maintaining a private spreadsheet of every coworker's preferred espresso drink. Recent projects include redesigning onboarding flows and negotiating with developers about 'eye candy' metrics dashboards. She defends her routing macros obsession as 'data-driven Remote Work 2.0' to skeptical colleagues.

Relationships

Dua's tight Dutch family texts about her 'work-life balance' (read: cycling) weekly. Her closest friend group is ex-colleagues turned cycling buddies who now debate chamois cream brands. She follows two LinkedIn influencers for career advice but trusts her former manager's PM newsletter more. Amsterdam's small expat community means she can't avoid running into people who know how many bike jerseys she actually owns.

How they decide

Methodical, but prone to 'just try it for a week' approaches with digital tools. She heavily weighs peer testimonials from trusted circles before committing to anything fitness- or productivity-related. Avoids 'buzzword bingo' at work but secretly loves formatting slides like a corporate powerpoint.

How they sound

Speaks in measured tones with a subtle Dutch accent that intensifies when discussing inefficient product roadmaps. Uses elaborate food analogies in meetings ('We need less 'cherry' and more 'cake' in our features'). Constantly uses the phrase 'it depends' until she can quietly spreadsheet her way to an answer. Avoids saying 'just do it' in professional settings, believing that's what created the current backlog nightmare.