Essie Hoppe-Kozey

Why this persona fits the audience

Owns discovery for two squads at a 120-person B2B SaaS company, pulling customer quotes from Intercom, sales call notes, and analytics into Notion and Jira before writing specs. Works with four engineers and one designer on customer-facing features, and still tags a lot of feedback in spreadsheets when the week gets busy.

• Age: 34
• Location: New York, NY, USA
• Occupation: Senior Product Manager
• Income: US$165k base + bonus
• Education: B.S. in Information Systems
• Company size: 120-person
• Years in role: 4

“It’s about connecting those dots – the 'why' behind what users are saying with the 'how' of what we’re building. If we miss that bridge, we’re just guessing.”

Essie Hoppe-Kozey, 34, is a Senior Product Manager at a thriving 120-person B2B SaaS company based in New York City. Holding a B.S. in Information Systems from a reputable state university, she transitioned into product management after an initial stint in business analysis. Her career trajectory has been marked by a steady climb, driven by a combination of analytical rigor and a genuine passion for understanding user needs. She currently navigates the complex landscape of product discovery for two distinct engineering squads, acting as the crucial conduit between customer feedback and the development team. Her daily grind involves meticulously pulling qualitative and quantitative data from sources like Intercom, sales call transcripts, and product analytics platforms, consolidating it within Notion and Jira. She then translates these findings into comprehensive specifications for her team of four engineers and one designer, focusing on customer-facing features. While she strives for structured documentation, the inherent pressures of a fast-paced tech environment often see her resorting to spreadsheets for rapid feedback tagging when weeks become particularly hectic. Essie is pragmatic about her career, saving diligently, and is consciously working towards greater financial stability, eyeing eventual homeownership. Her personal life is a deliberate attempt to balance professional demands with well-being, incorporating regular trail running and the quiet satisfaction of nurturing plants in her urban apartment. She views time as a finite, valuable resource, meticulously allocating it between work, personal growth, and maintaining meaningful relationships.

Background & daily life

A day in their life

Essie's typical weekday begins with an early morning run (weather and energy permitting) or a quick breakfast prep before diving into emails and Slack. Her morning is usually blocked for cross-functional meetings: a stand-up with one of her squads, a sync with engineering leads on a feature in development, and perhaps a customer discovery call. Lunch is often a working affair, reviewing user session recordings or synthesizing notes from earlier calls. The afternoon is dedicated to focused work: drafting product requirements documents (PRDs) in Notion, updating Jira tickets, or analyzing recent usage data. She tries to block off an hour for 'deep work' before logging off around 6:30 PM, often followed by a quick check of overnight messages before dinner. Evenings are for unwinding, prepping for the next day, or tending to her plants.

Lifestyle

Essie lives in a modestly sized, well-organized one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn that she's slowly filling with thriving plants, a testament to her urban gardening hobby. She's up by 6:30 AM most weekdays for a quick run, either on the local trails if time permits or a brisk jog through Prospect Park. Her apartment is clean and functional, reflecting her desire for order amidst a busy life. She cooks most of her meals during the week, often experimenting with recipes from a plant-based cookbook. Weekends are a mix of catching up on errands, meeting friends for brunch, and dedicated 'deep work' time for personal projects or research. She's conscious about her finances, saving diligently for future travel and aiming to eventually own property.

Work life

As a Senior Product Manager at a 120-person B2B SaaS firm, Essie's days are a whirlwind of synthesis and communication. She's responsible for the discovery phase for two product squads, translating raw customer feedback from Intercom, scribbled notes from sales calls, and usage analytics into actionable insights. She meticulously documents these in Notion and Jira, preparing detailed specs for the four engineers and one designer she collaborates with. The pressure to deliver customer-facing features is constant, often leading her to resort to tagging feedback in spreadsheets when timelines tighten. She juggles multiple stakeholder requests, from engineering to sales, striving to maintain focus on the most impactful initiatives.

Relationships

Essie maintains a close-knit circle of friends, mostly met through university and previous jobs, whom she sees for bi-weekly dinners or weekend outings. Her parents, who live in suburban New Jersey, are a constant source of support, and she calls them weekly. Her immediate work team—four engineers and one designer—are her primary professional collaborators; she trusts their technical expertise and values their candid feedback. She has a casual but friendly relationship with her direct manager, the VP of Product, who relies on her for accurate reporting on discovery outcomes.

How they decide

Essie's decision-making is predominantly research-heavy and data-informed, tempered by a strong sense of customer empathy. She meticulously gathers evidence from multiple sources – user interviews, analytics, sales feedback, competitor analysis – before forming a hypothesis. While she values input from her engineering and design peers, she ultimately synthesizes this information through her own analytical lens. She's not afraid to iterate based on new data but avoids making hasty choices, preferring a structured approach to problem-solving.

How they sound

Essie speaks with a clear, measured cadence. She's articulate and tends to use precise language, avoiding excessive jargon or overly casual slang, though she'll use industry-standard terms naturally. Her tone is generally warm and collaborative, but she can become more direct and analytical when discussing product strategy or data. She avoids hyperbole and prefers to ground her points in evidence or logical reasoning.