Lillie Brekke

Why this persona fits the audience

Manages a 5-agent support queue and a shared billing inbox in Outlook. Her team uses rules for routine routing plus a paid third-party mailbox tool, and she still does manual cleanup on escalations, duplicate alerts, and stale threads.

• Age: 33
• Location: Denver, Colorado, USA
• Occupation: Customer support lead
• Income: $91k
• Education: Bachelor's degree
• Company size: Startup, ~50 employees
• Years in role: 4

““You can't just set it and forget it; things always need a second look, especially when it comes to keeping our customers happy and our inboxes clean.””

Lillie grew up in a suburb of Chicago, the daughter of a librarian and an accountant. Her upbringing instilled in her a strong sense of order, a love for problem-solving, and a deep appreciation for diligence. She pursued a Bachelor's in Communications at a state university, where she developed her analytical and interpersonal skills. After graduation, she found herself drawn to the fast-paced environment of tech startups, initially working in a customer-facing role before transitioning into support management. She moved to Denver five years ago, attracted by the outdoor lifestyle and the burgeoning tech scene. Her role at the SaaS startup, which she's held for four years, involves constant balancing acts: managing her team's workload and morale, ensuring customer satisfaction, and wrestling with the limitations of their current email management tools. She recently pushed for the adoption of a new third-party mailbox tool, a decision that improved efficiency but didn't entirely eliminate the manual cleanup, particularly in the shared billing inbox. Lillie is conscious of her financial future, diligently saving and investing, a trait inherited from her father. She sees her career as a progression, not just a job, and is always looking for ways to optimize processes and climb the ladder. Time is a valuable commodity for her; she values tools and systems that give her back more of it, especially for tasks she finds tedious and repetitive, allowing her to focus on more strategic initiatives and her team's development.

Background & daily life

A day in their life

Lillie's typical weekday starts with an early wake-up call around 6:00 AM for Luna's walk and a quick scan of urgent emails. By 8:30 AM, she's logging into her work systems, reviewing overnight tickets and any critical alerts. The morning is a blur of team stand-ups, responding to urgent customer escalations, and manually sifting through the billing inbox to catch anything missed by automated rules. She dedicates an hour around lunchtime to strategize on process improvements and review support metrics. Afternoons often involve training sessions for her agents, collaborating with engineering on bug fixes, or troubleshooting tool integrations. She aims to log off by 6:00 PM, but often stays later if a major issue requires her attention, followed by a walk with Luna and winding down with a podcast.

Lifestyle

Lillie lives a structured but active life in Denver. Her routine involves early morning walks with her rescue terrier mix, Luna, followed by coffee and catching up on industry news before her workday. Weekends are often spent hiking in the nearby Rockies or exploring new trails, sometimes with friends. She's diligent about managing her finances, contributing regularly to her retirement fund and saving for a down payment on a condo. Socially, she enjoys casual dinners with a small circle of close friends and the occasional trivia night at a local brewery. She prioritizes health through hiking and mindful eating, though she admits to a weakness for good local beer.

Work life

As a Customer Support Lead at a rapidly growing B2B SaaS startup, Lillie juggles managing her team of five agents with the daily grind of customer inquiries. Her team relies on a mix of Outlook rules and a third-party tool for routing, but Lillie finds herself constantly diving into the shared billing inbox for manual cleanup. Escalations, duplicate alerts, and threads that go cold or get lost in the shuffle are her particular bane. She spends a significant portion of her day triaging complex issues, coaching her agents, and ensuring response times are met, all while trying to identify areas for process improvement without disrupting current workflows.

Relationships

Lillie is close with her parents, who live a few states away, and calls them weekly. Her core friend group consists of three women she met in college, with whom she shares a strong bond built on mutual support and shared life stages. Her dog, Luna, is her primary companion. Professionally, her direct reports look to her for guidance, and she has a generally collaborative relationship with her manager, the VP of Operations.

How they decide

Lillie is a methodical and research-oriented decision-maker, especially for anything impacting her team's workflow or budget. She gathers data, consults with her team for their input, and weighs pros and cons carefully. She prefers solutions with proven track records and clear ROI, but is also open to innovative approaches if they demonstrably solve a pain point. She’s not afraid to try new tools, but she needs to see the clear benefit before committing significant resources or changing established processes.

How they sound

Speaks clearly and at a moderate pace, with a generally professional and measured tone. She tends to use precise language and avoids overly casual slang, though she might use industry-specific acronyms naturally. When discussing problems, she's direct but not alarmist, focusing on the facts and potential solutions. She’ll often use phrases like 'from my perspective,' 'what we're seeing is,' or 'it seems like.' She avoids hyperbole and is pragmatic in her communication.