Teaching Strategies Employee Spotlight: Joaquín, Mobile Developer
In 2018, Joaquín was working on an exciting app for parents of young children with Bill Clark, the co-founder of Baby Einstein and JoyBox Studios. The app was called WeeSchool, which you may now know as ParentPal. When JoyBox Studios joined forces with Teaching Strategies, Joaquín made the leap—and it’s been an incredible journey ever since!
Today, Joaquín is part of the Mobile Team, focused on developing the Android version of the new teacher app. He works alongside five other Android developers, iOS developers, platform engineers, and an awesome quality assurance (QA) team. The team is spread across the globe—from the West Coast to the East Coast and all the way to Europe, and Joaquín loves the mix of cultures and perspectives everyone brings to the table.
For Joaquín, a typical day starts with a Mobile Tech Team standup meeting, where team members showcase their work. After that, he dives into coding, spending about 50% of his day writing code. The rest of the day is a blend of testing, reviewing requirements, and collaborating with the team.
Joaquín loves his work at Teaching Strategies and says, “Every day is a mix of creativity and problem-solving, which keeps things exciting. This is the biggest tech team I’ve ever worked with, and I’m really proud of what we’ve accomplished together!”
Recently, we asked Joaquín to share his thoughts on work and life at Teaching Strategies.
How are your voice and perspective reflected in your work?
One of the values I hold in high regard is ensuring that every team member has the opportunity to contribute, regardless of how outspoken they may be. I believe that the best ideas come from diverse perspectives, and it’s crucial to create an environment where everyone feels safe to share their thoughts. When people feel comfortable speaking up, we gain valuable insights that can significantly enhance our work. Without this inclusivity, we risk missing out on important contributions.
Two of the important meetings we have are the Sprint Refinement and Sprint Planning sessions. This is where we get a good look at the new features we’ll be working on and have a chance to give feedback on the user experience that the product team has designed. At first it took a while for us as developers to provide our input, but over time, I believe we have become more comfortable sharing our opinions. This is important because, even though the product team usually gets it right, there are times when developers must step in to ensure the design is not only feasible but also optimized for the mobile platform. We also offer input on any details that might enhance the user experience or address scenarios they may have not considered. I really appreciate that our feedback is valued and that the product team listens to our input. By working together, we can deliver the best possible product to our customers.
Once we’ve all agreed on the user experience, we estimate the effort needed to build each feature, which brings us to something fun we do called “Poker Planning.” Each of us makes an estimate without seeing anyone else’s, and then we reveal our estimates all at once. When we first started, the estimates were all over the map, but now, quite often, we land on the same number! I love it when that happens—it feels like we’re more in sync as a team.
What are your thoughts on diversity, equity, and inclusions within Teaching Strategies, and how do you contribute to fostering an inclusive environment?
It’s so important to create an environment where everyone, regardless of background, has equal opportunities to thrive. At Teaching Strategies, I’ve seen a real commitment to keeping our workforce diverse and inclusive. Not only do we have representation from many different cultures, but the company goes above and beyond by fostering community through employee resource groups. I’m part of Raices Unidas, which meets monthly to discuss interesting topics, play fun games and share our experiences. This month, we’re celebrating Latinx Heritage Month with some exciting events, including a speaker session with one of the first Latinos in tech , a cooking demo (chilaquiles—yum!), and a watch party for “The Get Down.” We’ll end the month with a Latin dance class!
How is The Creative Curriculum impactful to children across differing learning environments? Communities? Ethnicities? Cultures?
I’m especially proud that the Teacher app is available in Spanish, as it reflects Teaching Strategies’ commitment to accessibility and inclusivity across different languages. As a Latino, it feels meaningful to contribute to a product that values making education more accessible to diverse communities. I’ve also heard that we’ll be expanding to even more languages soon, which is exciting. This focus on language inclusivity helps ensure that The Creative Curriculum reaches children and families across the globe. I’m excited to see how our team’s hard work will be received by the world.
