Sara Faatz is Director (Developer Relations) at Progress. She has spent most of her career in the developer space, building community, producing events, creating marketing programs and more.
With more than 20 years of experience leading corporate and product marketing and community building for organisations that target the developer audience primarily, Faatz has a proven track record of conceptualising and orchestrating campaigns that evolve the brand and positively impact the company’s image and revenue.
Over the years, she has run marketing departments (both large and small), built community programmes from the ground up, created partner programmes, and acted as a brand ambassador and spokesperson for various organisations.
When she’s not working, she likes diving with sharks, running, and watching hockey.
She is a regular contributor of articles for e27 (you can read her thought leadership articles here).
In this candid interview, Faatz talks about her personal and professional life.
How would you explain what you do to a five-year-old?
Explaining Developer Relations to a five-year-old would be challenging; even adults often struggle to wrap their heads around it.
In a nutshell, my team is responsible for so much — content creation (blogs, videos, live-streaming, webinars, etc.), social media, events (producing them as well as speaking at and sponsoring them), community and influencer outreach, as well as being an advocate for the technology, community and product.
I would break my work down into two areas. First, my company makes tools for people to build all kinds of apps; for a five-year-old, I would liken them to the ones they play with on their phone or computer.
And the people who work on my team are storytellers and teachers who help people use our tools. They write stories about building cool websites and applications for your computer, phone or table. They make Youtube videos to teach people how to use the tools to make their work easier and faster. They teach classes online and in person so that people building those sites know how to use the tools and how to build the applications and websites best.
Then I would tell them that my team also spends considerable time with people. They have the equivalent of playdates in groups of all sizes with people who also like the same technology. And they are explorers and learners themselves — learning about the technology we use and helping the people building our products and using our products have the best experience.
What has been the biggest highlight/challenge of your career so far?
When the pandemic hit, my team had to pivot quickly and completely modify how they engaged with the community. Before COVID-19, the team spent most time engaging in person. Many of my team members were on the road for 30-50 per cent of their time. Without skipping a beat, we came together to create CodeItLive, our twitch channel.
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In the first nine months, we live-streamed almost 500 hours of content to more than 25,000 unique viewers and exchanged more than 31,000 chat messages during those streams. Everyone on the team had to learn a new skill. We fostered a spirit of experimentation, fun, creativity, and collaboration that has continued as we enter this new post-pandemic world.
I am incredibly grateful for the people I work with and am always in awe of their expertise, ability and resiliency. The team and the creation of the live-streaming channel and strategy are a highlight of my career so far.
How do you envision the next five years of your career?
I think about this question often.
At Progress, we focus quite a bit on career path planning for ourselves and the people on our teams. What I love about how we think here is that career progression is not like climbing a ladder; rather, it should be more like climbing a wall.
There are many different paths to make you feel the most accomplished. Growth and evolution do not have to mean upward mobility. They can mean learning and mastering a new skill, exploring a new career, or more.
When I think about what that means, I think about what makes me happy and satisfied in my current role. I love the people I work with, my work, and the opportunity to be creative, experiment, and learn.
In five years, I would love to be able to say the same thing about my role. Regardless of the title or what I am responsible for, I will be thrilled if I can continue to say that I am still learning, experimenting and being creative with amazing people.
What are some of your favourite work tools?
StreamYard is one of my favourites; we use it to stream on our Twitch and YouTube channels, but it is also super easy to record videos to share.
I am on video calls most of the day, so a good camera, mic and headset are key. I have a Logitech 920 camera, a Yeti microphone, and a pair of Bose noise-cancelling headphones.
And then this tool might surprise you the most — a notepad and pen. I love to take notes by hand and make lists. Lots of lists. There is something therapeutic about it.
What’s something about you or your job that would surprise us?
You might be surprised to know that I am a technical diver. The deepest I’ve gone is 220 ft (~67 meters). It is a hobby my husband and I share, and we have loved exploring deeper wrecks worldwide. Our daughter is also a diver, although she is too young to dive to those depths. As a family, we have been able to spend time in the water, and we love seeing sharks of all kinds.
Do you prefer WFH or WFO, or hybrid?
My answer is that it depends on the scenario and what you are trying to achieve.
Flexibility in today’s work environment is key. I have been a remote employee for more than 20 years. Even as a remote team member, I often travel to meet with people in person. Remote or WFH is different today than it was pre-pandemic. It is far more complex than it used to be because there are so many different ways people meet and interact.
That said, some of the general guidelines still hold true. Sometimes, being in person is the best option – long, all-day planning meetings, working sessions, team building, and creative brainstorming sessions. But there are other times when remote meetings are more than sufficient. So I am a proponent of the scenario that will net the best result.
What would you tell your younger self?
So many things. I would first tell my younger self not to try to boil the ocean. This is something I have to remind myself of, even today. Think big and then simplify – break a project or idea down into phases. The more complex a project or idea is, the more difficult it is to execute. You don’t have to do everything at once.
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I think I would also tell myself that work-life balance is a dynamic state. It is not always an even split. There will be times when your personal life takes the most of your attention and vice versa. The key is to know when to make that switch.
And I would tell myself that the people I work with and the company I work for are the most important thing in my career. When you think of the benefits of your workplace, the biggest advantage is how you are treated and who you collaborate with daily.
Can you describe yourself in three words?
- Loyal: To the people I love, my friends, family, team, and colleagues.
- Problem-solver: Instead of focusing on the problem, I always look for a solution. They always exist if you look hard enough.
- Optimistic: In my heart, I believe that everything happens for a reason, even if we don’t understand it, and I believe everything will work out in the end.
What are you most likely to be doing if not working?
If I am not working, you will find me in one of two places — on the water or at an ice rink somewhere around the US. I live in Southwest Florida, and we spend a lot of time at the beach, on the water and outside. I love warm weather and sunshine.
I also have a teenage daughter who plays travel ice hockey. While ice hockey is strong and growing in Florida, there aren’t many girls in the southeast who play it. To find any real competition, we travel for tournaments and showcases across the northeastern and mid-western parts of the United States. She is incredibly passionate about and dedicated to the sport. I feel incredibly fortunate to spend so much time with her before she heads off to university in a few years.
What are you currently reading/listening to/watching?
The last two books I read were The Culture Playbook by Daniel Coyle and The Resilience Factor by Karen Reivich and Andrew Shatté. Both were easy reads and interesting.
I have two fiction books I plan to read – Sara Ackerman’s The Codebreaker’s Secret and Megan Miranda’s Such a Quiet Place. I have been saving those as a reward to myself. Reading is my guilty pleasure.
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