Penn State Harrisburg hosts innovation accelerator for commonwealth employees

HARRISBURG, Pa. — This spring, Penn State Harrisburg’s Department of Continuing Education and the Harrisburg LaunchBox powered by Penn State launched the inaugural cohort of the Permit Accelerator — a 10-week, human-centered, design thinking and innovation program created to help Commonwealth of Pennsylvania employees tackle permitting challenges with fresh, human-centered approaches. 

The program brought together 15 participants from four state agencies: the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Labor and Industry, and the Office of Transformation and Opportunity. Each participant entered the program with a specific permitting-related issue they hoped to solve using user-centered design thinking principles. 

“The magic of something like the Permit Accelerator is that it really brings together talented, invested public servants and academics in a way that’s quite rare,” said Eliza Erickson, director of permit, license and certification in the Office of Transformation and Opportunity. “The participants get to learn skills from true experts, and then have the chance to immediately apply what they’re learning to real world challenges, which doesn’t happen often in the context of government and education.” 

Six pilot projects emerged from the first cohort. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Office of Transformation and Opportunity has committed to funding each one, as needed, up to $20,000. One project has already been fully funded. 

“The program allowed us to accomplish two goals: first, finding and elevating some really great pilot ideas around how the commonwealth can better process permits, and two, continuing to build on the culture of innovation and improvement that has been so important to Gov. [Josh] Shapiro since day one of his administration,” said Ben Kirshner, chief transformation officer in the Office of Transformation and Opportunity. “The accelerator gives us the chance to not only train employees in how to think differently about solving challenges, but also provides the funding to launch and test pilots, removing one of the major barriers to implementation.” 

One such pilot came from Anton Urban, a program analyst in the Office of Unemployment Compensation Tax Services at the Department of Labor and Industry. Urban focused on a long-standing bottleneck: When businesses leave Pennsylvania, they must confirm no outstanding unemployment compensation (UC) tax balances. But businesses without a UC account faced a manual, untracked and delayed process. 

Through the program, Urban and his team updated the Unemployment Compensation Management System (UCMS) to allow submissions without a UC account number, store all application materials together, and track requests with due dates. 

“This program taught me to be more streamlined and end-user focused,” Urban said. “It showed us how to think through problems to get the best result possible and involve end users as much as we can. There was also a strong focus on continuous improvement — measuring impact through key performance indicators and identifying further areas for change.” 

The curriculum is led by Professor Joseph Oberto from Penn State Harrisburg’s School of Business Administration. The program is offered in partnership with the Penn State Harrisburg Department of Continuing Education, led by Abigail Peslis, and the Harrisburg LaunchBox. Participants earn continuing education credits and a certificate upon completion. 

“Corporate and government leaders are tasked with complex issues to solve, and we all can easily get lost in process rather than centering around the user,” said Amma Johnson, director of the Penn State Harrisburg Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, who also oversees the Harrisburg LaunchBox. “We chose the human-centered design thinking process because it provides a clear framework and methodical and measured approach to help anyone test a new idea.” 

Johnson said the Harrisburg LaunchBox had been exploring ways to partner with the Penn State Harrisburg Department of Continuing Education to bring innovation training to professionals outside the startup world. 

“We believe our community needs innovation beyond the startup scene,” she said. “We know that intrapreneurship is growing, and we thought a user-centered design thinking program would be a perfect framework for companies to problem-solve.”

Looking ahead, Penn State Harrisburg will host its second Permit Accelerator cohort this fall, from Sept. 4 through Nov. 7. Organizers hope to expand participation to include eight to 10 agencies, with weekly sessions and a culminating Demo Day where participants present their work to department leaders. Those interested can learn more by visiting the Penn State Harrisburg Continuing Education Design Thinking and Innovation Program website. 

About Invent Penn State  

Invent Penn State is a commonwealth-wide initiative to spur economic development, job creation and student career success. Invent Penn State blends entrepreneurship-focused academic programs, business startup training and incubation, funding for commercialization, and university/community/industry collaborations to facilitate the challenging process of turning research discoveries into valuable products and services that can benefit Pennsylvanians and humankind.  Subscribe to the Invent Penn State monthly e-letter and follow Invent Penn State on LinkedIn and Instagram. 

Invent Penn State is financed in part by a grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Community and Economic Development.