PERKY celebrates Sara Meyer, MBA, PMP, PERKY’s Senior Product Manager, who was honored as a finalist at the 2025 TechRochester Technology Woman of the Year Awards. This recognition highlights Sara’s exceptional leadership in building technology that addresses real-world challenges for working parents and transforms how organizations deliver benefits with clarity and impact.

Sara led the creation and launch of PERKY Leave, the first free, public-facing tool designed to clarify complex parental leave benefits. In the U.S., navigating parental leave involves a confusing patchwork of federal laws, state programs, employer policies, and insurance benefits. Sara took this challenge head-on, translating a fragmented and often inaccessible system into a digital experience that is intuitive, accurate, and actionable.

She oversaw every stage of product development, from early research and requirements analysis to system architecture and policy logic. Her ability to align cross-functional teams around a shared vision made it possible to launch PERKY Leave within an ambitious three-month window.

One of Sara’s most significant contributions is her ability to transform regulatory complexity into clean, usable product logic. She developed and continuously updates the tool’s eligibility formulas, ensuring compliance with evolving state and federal regulations. She also established a rigorous compliance review process, including collaboration with external legal partners, to ensure that every user receives reliable, up-to-date guidance.

Sara didn’t just build a tool that works. She built a system that scales. Her attention to detail and long-term thinking allows PERKY Leave to support both individual users and large employer groups with equal accuracy and confidence.

Under Sara’s leadership, PERKY Leave has already helped thousands of users, with over 85% rating the tool as easy or extremely easy to use. As well as achieving a Net Promote Score of ‘excellent’.

What sets Sara apart is her relentless focus on execution. She doesn’t just think strategically. She ensures every line of code, policy rule, and user interface reflects PERKY’s commitment to clarity, compliance, and care.

Sara’s recognition as a Technology Woman of the Year Finalist is a milestone for PERKY and a validation of product leadership that prioritizes user needs, operational excellence, and meaningful impact. She continues to lead the evolution of PERKY Leave with the same focus and precision that brought it to life, ensuring that more families get the support they need, when they need it most.

Congratulations, Sara. Thank you for setting a new standard for what product innovation can achieve.