A week in the working life of
Maarten Heintz
Group IT Manager | Team Manager IT
By Bernard van Leeuwen from PNO Innovation Netherlands
Meet Maarten Heintz: IT manager, builder of systems (and teams), culinary enthusiast, and all-round team player. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to walk in Maarten’s shoes for a week, buckle up for a journey through office days, home office hacks, tech troubleshooting, and even a dash of tabletop gaming. Here’s how Maarten keeps the digital (and human) gears turning, Monday through Friday.
“Is there a checklist? Not exactly!”
“There’s always something to do: digital meetings about HubSpot, planning for Q4, and prepping the 2026 budget”
Monday
Kickoff and commute
Today is an office day. But before Maarten hits the road, there’s the morning routine: his 4.5 year old daughter Roos is being taken to school at 8:30, leaving the house quiet. Maarten grabs his laptop, checks emails, reviews appointments, and preps for the week’s first big event this week: the Operations team kickoff.
By 9:00, he is in the car, strategically avoiding the worst of the rush hour, and arrives in Utrecht just before the meeting. There’s a quick hello to colleagues, but then it’s straight into a phone booth for the team call. This weekly ritual brings together the system and service desk team, consisting of Robin Buit, Ronnie Maatman, Kevin Velasco, and Mark Kuik. They discuss everything from service desk updates and security incidents to hardware upgrades and the status of laptop replacements for the new teams in Italy. The meeting is a blend of planning, troubleshooting, and a bit of hardware talk (new monitors, anyone?).
After the team call, Maarten spends an hour with Robin, diving deep into system engineering: reviewing system changes, planning for new tools, checking maintenance, and keeping an eye on the budgets.
It’s a technical deep dive, but also a chance to ensure everything runs smoothly behind the scenes.
Is there a checklist? Not exactly. A digital board in Asana is used to track tasks, filter by team member, and keep the workflow transparent. Each week, they review what’s been done, what’s moving forward, and what’s still on the backlog; working in a way that’s reminiscent of Agile. It’s a living to-do list that keeps everyone aligned.
By noon, the team is ready for a well-deserved lunch. Always a highlight, especially with the Utrecht office’s famous warm lunches. The afternoon is reserved for catching up on communication, being present for the team, and handling whatever comes up. Mondays often ends with a variety of meetings, like troubleshooting a learning platform, the AI steering group, and other developments in PNO Digital. After a long day, it’s family time, a bit of exercise, and maybe a run through the countryside.
Tuesday
Meetings, meetings and meetings
Tuesday morning is often a blur of tasks and meetings, sometimes focused on HR projects, like drafting the improvement plan following the engagement survey. At 11:00, there’s a meeting with our recruiter about finding a new Senior System Engineer for the Operations team. The search is challenging, with discussions about expanding the search to a wider area and balancing team needs across countries.
After recruitment, Maarten joins a meeting with the PNO Digital responsibles, Valeria Marino and Daniele Colaiacomo, to discuss ongoing projects and developments, team well-being and the grand plan to create from the old Group IT and Innovation Engineering teams a group that functions as one PNO Digital. The afternoon brings one-on-ones with Mark Kuik and Lucy van Baalen, focusing on onboarding and offboarding processes, automation, and keeping everything properly registered. For the team, naturally, but also to meet our ISO27001 criteria. Mark keeps a close eye on the onboarding pipeline, ensuring new hires get what they need when they need it, while Lucy handles the administrative side.
Tuesdays also features the weekly HubSpot project meeting, which is currently a major priority for the teams. Later, it’s time for the monthly AI Innovators meeting, where consultants brainstorm how to use AI for writing European grant applications and other use cases. Maarten’s role is to make sure everything is organized to help colleagues translate these experiments into practical tools and training for the whole organization.
“The morning is often a blur of tasks and meetings ”
This Tuesday evening, Maarten gathers with some good old friends in Utrecht for a night of adventure and camaraderie playing tabletop games. They meet in one of their homes, a beautiful old canal house, complete with high ceilings and a grand wooden table. The atmosphere during these sessions is always special. The room softly lit, the table scattered with game pieces, dice, and character sheets. But more than the game itself, it is the sense of togetherness that make these evenings memorable. Maarten and his friends can spend hours immersed in fantasy stories about dragons and wizards, but also catch up on life, share jokes, and enjoy snacks and drinks. Unfortunately, this old tradition no longer takes place every week, but when it does, it is always a highlight of the week.
Wednesday
Audits and admin
Wednesday is another home office day. This week it kicks off with an annual IT audit from the accountants. They check the administration, review system access settings, and ensure everything is in order so our financial records can be considered reliable. The systems pass with flying colors. OK, maybe a dot here or there on their evaluation sheet is orange instead of green, but nothing major.
After a quick update with Kevin, who is our newest team member, Maarten picks up daughter Roos from school for their Wednesday lunch tradition. He keeps the afternoon meeting-light because school is closed every Wednesday afternoon, but there’s always something to do: digital meetings about HubSpot, planning for Q4, and prepping the 2026 budget.
The evening is for family, a bit of DIY or gardening (weather permitting), or unwinding with a series, book, or game.
Thursday
Back to the office
Thursday mirrors Monday: drive to Utrecht, office day, morning routines. This time, Maarten joins Jeffrey van Leeuwen and Neillon Carmichael for a deep dive into HubSpot, sharing insights on sales processes and consultant workflows. The rest of the day is a mix of emails, a meeting with Maarten’s manager Marc Elsinghorst, and being present for the team.
The team has a new tradition: a monthly all-hands ‘retrospective’ meeting for the team, giving everyone a chance to share updates, challenges and think of solutions. It’s a response to team growth and the need for more connection.
The day ends with a cozy family dinner. Sometimes Maarten cooks, sometimes his partner Iris does. Each with their own unique style, which makes their ‘deal’ to not get involved in each other’s cooking very important!
Thursday evenings are for gaming. Maarten’s current favorite? ‘No Man’s Sky’, a space exploration game, though he’s played everything from Call of Duty to Sim City. It’s a chance to relax, connect, and keep the competitive spirit alive.
Friday
HubSpot, handoffs, and tapas
Friday is a whirlwind. The morning is all about HubSpot: integration meetings with the Italian team, technical discussions with consultants, and planning training and adoption strategies. There’s a constant flow of questions about data syncing, user groups, and configuration templates.
By early afternoon, Maarten squeezes in a quick lunch before diving into this Connected interview. The week wraps up with a family tradition: Friday tapas night. After feeding the ponies, they gather around a large wooden platter, sharing small dishes, Iris and Maarten with a glass of wine, Roos in the middle with some lemonade. It’s a time to relax, reconnect, and celebrate the wins, both big and small.
Maarten’s secret ingredients
What makes Maarten tick? He’s a builder at heart, whether it’s systems, teams, or a great meal. He loves seeing things grow, improve, and flourish. He’s passionate about user experience, always thinking about how to make tools more intuitive and helpful. And while he claims not to have any special hobbies, his colleagues know better: from gaming to gourmet cooking, Maarten brings creativity and curiosity to everything he does.
His week is a blend of structure and spontaneity, technical challenges and human connections. And through it all, Maarten’s focus is on making life better for his colleagues, albeit one system, one process, and one Friday night tapas at a time.
Colleagues, if you ever need a recipe for balancing work, life, and a little bit of fun, just ask Maarten. Or better yet, join him for lunch in Utrecht: you might just get a taste of his secret sauce.
Which colleague would you like to get to know better?