Lisa Tortorici

Why this persona fits the audience

She is a market research associate at a boutique supply-chain advisory in Milan, supporting four consultants who serve SME exporters and private-label importers. Her current work is assembling customs data, buyer lists, and country-level trade stats into prospecting packs for client workshops.

• Age: 31
• Location: Milan, Italy
• Occupation: Market Research Associate
• Income: EUR 52k
• Education: Bachelor's in Economics
• Company size: 5-10 employees
• Years in role: 2.5 years

““I could build a spreadmodeTl that predicts a company’s tariff exposure, but if you won’t align your supply chain data, what’s the point?””

Lisa Tortorici, 31, lives in Milan’s Porta Romana, where she shares a co-op with two other young professionals. A graduate of Bocconi’s economics program, she joined her current boutique consultancy as their first dedicated research associate. The firm serves SME exporters and private-label importers, and Lisa’s role evolved from administrative support to a hybrid of data assembly and client-facing analysis. Her breakout project was a report on Eastern European textile imports that earned her a rare ‘well done’ from her usually taciturn boss. Lisa thrives on structure—she’s color-coded their shared Drive and implemented Slack workflows—but she chafes against colleagues who treat trade data as ‘just numbers.’ She spends weekends deep in trade analytics forums or cycling with friends, though she’s come to resent Milan’s bike infrastructure as much as she depends on it. Recently, she’s been experimenting with TradeMagellan’s trial for a stubborn client dataset, though she’s careful not to ‘over-rely’ on external tools. Her ultimate goal is to transition into a dedicated data analyst role, and she’s been taking online courses on her commutes. She’s also started a personal project: a trade-focused travelogue about historical European supply chains, with Lisbon as the first stop once she hits her savings target. She’s pragmatic about her salary (EUR 52k is ‘fine’ in Milan), but she’s irritated by how much time she spends ‘cleaning’ others’ data. Her biggest professional fear? Being forever known as ‘the researcher who won’t let them approximate.’

Background & daily life

A day in their life

Lisa starts at 7:15 AM with espresso and a quick scan of WTO updates. She cycles to the office, grumbling about a truck blocking her usual bike lane, arriving by 8:30. Her mornings are spent cleaning datasets for a client workshop—today, she’s mapping Italian wine exports to Canada. A consultant drops by at 11:30, asking for ‘anything actionable’ by EOD; she’ll reprioritize. Lunch is a quick panino at the corner bar, where the owner knows her standing order. Afternoons are meeting-heavy: a call with a Belgian importer, then a team sync where she defuses a debate over ‘trade barriers vs. logistical deficits.’ She wraps up with 30 minutes of self-driven research—today, she’s digging into TradeMagellan’s granularity for a tricky client. Post-work, she meets friends for aperitivo, where the conversation inevitably veers into ‘why is Italian bureaucracy so… Italian?’ She’ll edit a presentation draft at home, then rewatch the same 1980s Italo-Discoteca compilation before bed.

Lifestyle

Lisa lives in a shared co-op in Porta Romana, where she’s the unofficial spreadsheet coordinator for household bills. She rides her fixed-gear bike to work rain or shine, listening to Italo-Discoteca mixes, though she grumbles about Milan’s bike infrastructure daily. Her weekends alternate between reworked spreadsheets for consultancy projects and cycling with a group that meets at the Navigli canals. She’s health-conscious but breaks the habit with weekly gelato runs. Socially, she’s close with a small group of university friends, mostly other economists who appreciate her mix of dry humor and obsessive fact-checking. She’s saving for a solo trip to Lisbon, researching trade history along the way.

Work life

Lisa’s boutique consultancy serves SME exporters and private-label importers, so her days are spent compiling customs data, buyer lists, and trade stats into ‘prospecting packs’ for consultants. She’s adept at wrangling messy datasets but grows frustrated when clients ask for ‘more analysis’ without clear parameters. Her boss, a former negotiator, gives her autonomy but expects flawless delivery. Recently, she implemented a color-coded tagging system in their shared Drive to standardize research output. She juggles four consultants, each with different priorities—one wants ‘quick wins,’ another demands academic-level rigor. Her biggest pressure: explaining trade data to executives who see ‘tariffs’ as an abstract concept. She’s started using TradeMagellan’s free trial for a key client but keeps it on the down-low.

Relationships

Lisa’s closest friends are from her economics program at Università Bocconi, and they meet monthly for aperitivo debates about Italian industrial policy. Her mother, a retired high school teacher, checks in weekly—Lisa indulges her ‘are you eating enough?’ texts. At work, she’s the de facto research specialist, though she’s wary of being pigeonholed as the ‘data person.’ Her best friend, a logistics freelancer, keeps her grounded about real-world supply chains. She’s politely dismissive of coworkers who treat trade data as ‘just numbers,’ but she’s also the first to admit when she’s wrong (a rarity).

How they decide

Research-heavy but pragmatic—she’ll test tools independently before advocating for them, and she values peer recommendations (especially from ex-colleagues). She avoids impulsive decisions but gets impatient with overly cautious bureaucracy. She’d rather tweak a solution than overhaul a system.

How they sound

Lisa’s speech is measured, with a dry wit that emerges in one-liners. She avoids jargon when talking to clients but won’t dumb it down. She pauses to self-correct (‘not to be pedantic, but…’), and she’s prone to agitated sighs when systems fail. She’s more likely to say ‘It’s not that simple’ than ‘That’s just how it works.’ She avoids vague language—‘It needs more work’ is a criticism; ‘This does X, but not Y’ is constructive.