Sheri Brakus

Why this persona fits the audience

Helps run a 4-person civic-data side project while working in product. The group meets weekly over Zoom, tracks tasks in Trello, and occasionally posts on local meetup boards when they need someone with GIS or frontend experience.

• Age: 38
• Location: Manchester, UK
• Occupation: Product manager
• Income: £95k
• Education: Master's degree
• Company size: 200-500 employees
• Years in role: 5

“The real value lies in making complex information accessible and actionable for the people it affects.”

Sheri Brakus, 38, has carved a career path defined by a blend of strategic product thinking and a deep-seated desire for tangible, positive impact. Holding a Master's degree, she landed in product management, where her natural inclination for order and efficiency quickly made her stand out. She currently manages product development for a mid-sized tech firm in Manchester, a role that demands constant attention to detail, stakeholder management, and roadmap execution. Her income of £95k reflects her expertise and the responsibilities she carries, allowing for a comfortable lifestyle focused on quality and long-term stability rather than extravagance. She lives alone in a terraced house in Chorlton, her personal space reflecting her organised nature. Her commitment to civic improvement, however, extends beyond her day job. For the past two years, she's been a core member and operational lead of a four-person civic-data side project. This initiative, born from a shared frustration with local data accessibility, meets weekly via Zoom, with Trello serving as their central hub for task management. Recently, the team decided to dedicate specific sprint cycles to improving their data ingestion pipeline, a complex undertaking Sheri is meticulously planning. She also initiated a more structured approach to gathering user feedback from local community groups, recognising the need for clearer validation of their project's utility. Her personal time is often spent on her urban cycling, which serves as both exercise and a way to decompress from her demanding work schedule. This structured yet purpose-driven approach permeates her life, reflecting a strong sense of reliability and a drive for clarity in all her endeavours.

Background & daily life

A day in their life

Sheri's weekday starts at 6:30 AM with a quick check of emails and news headlines, followed by a 45-minute cycle commute to her office in Salford. Her workday is packed: 9 AM to 5:30 PM involves back-to-back meetings—stand-ups, backlog refinement, product strategy sessions—interspersed with deep work on feature specifications and analysis. Lunch is usually a quick affair at her desk. She has a 7 PM Zoom call with her civic-tech team to review Trello progress and plan the week's tasks. After the call, she might spend an hour reviewing data or drafting documentation for the project before winding down with a book or a podcast.

Lifestyle

Sheri lives in a well-maintained Victorian terrace in Chorlton, Manchester. Her income allows for comfortable living, but she's not frivolous, preferring to save for future travel or potential property investments. Her weekdays are tightly scheduled, revolving around her demanding product management role. Evenings and weekends are a mix of her civic-tech project, cycling to explore different parts of the city or nearby Peak District trails, and occasional social meetups with a close-knit group of friends. She prioritises her physical health through cycling and tries to maintain a balanced diet, seeing it as essential for sustained focus.

Work life

As a Product Manager at a mid-sized tech firm, Sheri navigates complex stakeholder landscapes and product roadmaps. Her days are a blur of sprint planning, user story refinement, backlog grooming, and stakeholder syncs. She relies heavily on Jira for task management and Confluence for documentation. While she enjoys the challenge of building products, she finds the internal politics and shifting priorities can be draining. Her civic-tech project, however, offers a different kind of satisfaction – tangible progress on issues she cares about, with a small, focused team that values her operational skills.

Relationships

Sheri maintains strong but selective friendships, primarily with colleagues from university and her cycling club. Her family lives in the South East, and they speak regularly, though visits are infrequent. Her civic-tech team members—a data analyst and two frontend developers—are her primary collaborators on that front, and their opinions carry significant weight within the project's operational decisions.

How they decide

Sheri approaches decisions with a strong emphasis on research and logic. She'll meticulously gather data, weigh pros and cons, and often create a simple spreadsheet to model potential outcomes before committing. Peer input is considered, especially from those she trusts for their analytical rigor, but the final call is usually based on her own evaluation of effectiveness and long-term viability.

How they sound

Speaks with a clear, measured cadence. Her vocabulary is precise, favouring functional terms over jargon where possible, though she'll use technical terms when necessary. She avoids overly casual slang or emotional appeals, preferring to stick to facts and logical reasoning. Her tone is generally calm and professional, even when discussing frustrations.