DreamBox Learning is changing the education industry through the personalized learning experience it provides kindergarteners through eighth-graders. This customized learning program guides and engages students through a rigorous math curriculum and motivating learning environment that's based on Intelligent Adaptive tech.
If you were to walk through the doors of the DreamBox office you would find dogs, kids and passionate employees co-existing. The laid-back tech environment at DreamBox inspires forward thinkers and a motivated team. The teams work cross-functionally toward the common goal of improving students' lives within the brightly painted walls.
Diving Into the Values at DreamBox Learning
The company has 4 beliefs that guide its vision of helping the next generation learn how to learn. Those beliefs are:
The company believes that every student has the ability to surpass expectations, as long as they are equipped with the right learning environment. This environment is one that adapts to each individual student.
We have a noble mission of changing the way the world learns that has a strong purpose and leads to a different way of waking up in the morning.
DreamBox is located amidst the growing tech environment in Downtown Bellevue, Washington. With easy access to metropolitan amenities and beautiful scenery, the office is truly the best of both worlds.
The Team at DreamBox Learning
The Team You've Been Dreaming of
The DreamBox team strives to stay ahead of any potential problems that may come up in the industry. In particular, the engineering team does that by using agile techniques like the Scrum of Scrums. This technique helps organize cross-team dependencies that tend to slow coders down.
The company places a high emphasis on its engineering team because it believes that's what makes the difference between companies that are successful and ones that aren't. That's why it's not negotiable that the engineering team is high performing.
"It all starts with hiring well and without compromise," said Lorenzo Pasqualis, VP of Engineering. "Once you've hired great people, you need to give them direction by defining reality in the form of clear expectations and business strategies. Once you've defined reality, you need to respect your people by giving them your full trust and getting out of their way."
Leadership is also good at making sure that each team's culture is thriving. By feeding each team with guiding principles to follow and giving the teams the room they need to grow, the company finds more success.
"I've found that there is a significant inflection point when engineering teams go from working on projects that have no dependencies to working on more complex projects that do. In my experience, you must deliberately tackle that complexity by introducing some form of dependency management," said Pasqualis. We solved the problem by creating the role of engineering owner, who is a leader responsible for coordinating the technical aspects of a particular stream of work with inter-team dependencies."
The Culture at DreamBox Learning
Dreaming of a Diverse Workplace
Diversity at DreamBox is especially important because it goes hand-in-hand with the company's mission and goal. The company believes that for women and minorities to have equal representation and opportunity, people need to have access to a high-quality education. That includes children.
"As a black female CEO in tech, some people might see me as an anomaly. I've even been asked to fetch coffee for an individual who did not realize I was waiting to pitch their team of investors," said CEO and President Jessie Woolley-Wilson. "What people do not realize is that there are thousands of talented people like me out there, working hard, overcoming adversity and waiting for their moment to soar -- they just need the opportunity."
In addition to embracing cultural diversity, the company offers a fast-paced environment that makes work fun and interesting. The culture at DreamBox is very energetic and unique. Plus it's a pet-friendly zone. And even though they've grown to more than 200 people, the company still has the culture of a startup with the benefits of a business.
If you're looking for a place to go further in your career while working with a team of passionate people who love what they do, look no further. DreamBox is here to change the world through education.
