Rodolfo McKenzie

Why this persona fits the audience

He owns a 6-person data consultancy in Dublin that builds Tableau dashboards for SMB clients. His week mixes discovery calls, Figma-to-dashboard handoffs, and support on extension-heavy client work, with most projects delivered by a small team of analysts and designers.

• Age: 33
• Location: Dublin, Ireland
• Occupation: Founder / BI Consultant
• Income: €58k salary + owner draws
• Education: BA in Economics
• Company size: 6 employees (1 founder, 4 analysts/designers, 1 admin)
• Years in role: 3 years as sole owner

“You can't just make a chart pretty; you have to make it tell the truth so someone can actually sleep at night knowing their inventory numbers add up.”

Rodolfo McKenzie, 33, is the architect behind a nimble six-person data consultancy nestled in the heart of Dublin's creative district. With a BA in Economics from Trinity College, he spent four years working as a junior analyst for a larger multinational firm before realizing the constraints of corporate bureaucracy stifled his desire for direct impact. Three years ago, he leveraged his savings and a small loan to launch his own practice, focusing exclusively on helping Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs) in Ireland and the UK visualize their operational chaos into actionable insights. His business model is built on a foundation of trust and craftsmanship; he doesn't just sell dashboards, he sells clarity. The team he leads consists of four talented analysts and one designer, all of whom he mentors personally, fostering a culture where 'good enough' is never the answer. Rodolfo's days are a delicate balance of being the face of the company to clients and the chief debugger for his team. He has become known in the local ecosystem for his ability to take messy, unstructured data sets from clients who have never used analytics before and transform them into elegant, intuitive Tableau interfaces. Recently, he made the strategic decision to pivot slightly away from purely reporting-focused projects toward predictive modeling, investing time in learning advanced Python integration within the Tableau environment. This shift has been challenging, requiring him to constantly upgrade his own skill set while managing the expectations of existing clients who prefer traditional reporting. Despite the pressures of cash flow management and the constant threat of scope creep, Rodolfo remains driven by the satisfaction of seeing a client finally understand their own business metrics. He views his work not merely as a job but as a craft, where the precision of a single filter or the clarity of a color gradient can fundamentally change how a business operates. Living in Ranelagh with his partner, he finds his energy replenished by early morning rides along the canal and the vibrant, albeit chaotic, rhythm of Dublin's startup scene.

Background & daily life

A day in their life

Rodolfo wakes at 6:30 AM, brewing a strong coffee and checking the weather to decide on his cycling route. By 7:45 AM, he is pedaling through Dublin streets, listening to an episode of a productivity podcast. At 9:00 AM, he arrives at his office, a converted warehouse space filled with whiteboards covered in logic diagrams. The first hour is dedicated to clearing his inbox and triaging urgent Slack messages from his team regarding a live dashboard glitch for a retail client. Mid-morning involves a 45-minute video call with a potential client in Galway, where he sketches out a data model on a digital tablet. Lunch is a quick sandwich eaten at his desk while reviewing a Figma mockup for a new manufacturing client. The afternoon is heavy on technical oversight: he joins a Zoom session to review a junior analyst's work, offering specific feedback on color palette accessibility and parameter logic. After a brief cycling break around 4 PM to clear his head, he spends the final two hours coding a custom JavaScript extension to solve a unique filtering problem for a logistics partner. He leaves the office by 6:30 PM, usually mentally exhausted but satisfied with the day's progress.

Lifestyle

Rodolfo lives in a modest but stylish apartment in Ranelagh, just off the Grand Canal, which he cycles to work along every morning regardless of the weather. He is an avid cyclist, treating his road bike as both a commute tool and a primary stress reliever, often logging 150km a week during summer months. His financial habits are cautious; he keeps a strict separation between personal savings and business reinvestment, prioritizing emergency funds over luxury upgrades. Socially, he balances his solitary design work with a tight-knit circle of fellow entrepreneurs and music lovers who gather at local indie venues or for post-ride pints. He avoids excessive alcohol, preferring quality over quantity, and maintains a disciplined sleep schedule to protect his cognitive energy for complex problem-solving tasks.

Work life

His days are a high-wire act of strategic oversight and hands-on execution. As the founder of a six-person consultancy, Rodolfo splits his time between high-level client discovery calls, where he translates vague business needs into data requirements, and deep-dive technical sessions reviewing Figma prototypes before they are handed off to his team for Tableau development. He spends significant hours debugging complex extension code and ensuring his analysts aren't drowning in manual formatting tasks. The pressure is constant: deadlines are rigid, margins are thin, and the expectation for 'pixel-perfect' dashboards is non-negotiable. He relies heavily on a mix of standard Tableau features and custom scripts, often staying late to personally resolve a stubborn filter issue that could jeopardize a client renewal.

Relationships

Rodolfo shares his life with Sarah, a graphic designer who understands the nuances of his creative frustrations better than anyone. They have a close group of five friends, mostly other small business owners in Dublin, who form a mutual support network for venting about clients and sharing resources. Professionally, he maintains strong ties with three former university professors who now serve as informal advisors. He is active in the local cycling club, where relationships are built on shared physical endurance rather than professional gain. His mother, still living in Cork, checks in weekly, providing a grounding emotional anchor away from the high-stakes tech world.

How they decide

Rodolfo is a calculated researcher who values peer validation over marketing fluff. When evaluating new tools or strategies, he typically starts by reading detailed user forums and watching unedited tutorial videos rather than sales decks. He prefers solutions that offer immediate, tangible ROI on time saved, often running small-scale pilots with one client before committing to a broader adoption. He is wary of lock-in and dislikes opaque pricing models, preferring transparent, usage-based costs. His decisions are rarely impulsive; he will sit on a decision for days if the data isn't clear, but once convinced, he acts decisively to implement changes across his team.

How they sound

Rodolfo speaks with a soft, measured cadence typical of urban Dublin, blending precise economic terminology with casual, friendly banter. He avoids jargon when speaking to non-technical stakeholders, opting for analogies involving sports or everyday logistics. In meetings, he asks probing questions like 'What does success look like for this specific user?' rather than accepting surface-level requirements. He rarely uses hyperbolic language or sales buzzwords, preferring concrete verbs and data-driven statements. When frustrated, he becomes quieter and more focused, often pausing to think before responding. He tends to use self-deprecating humor about the struggles of small business ownership to put others at ease.