CODE PA just hit 100 days. What does the Pennsylvania office do, again?

The Commonwealth Office of Digital Experience (CODE PA) celebrated its 100-day anniversary this week.

Gov. Josh Shapiro established the office via executive order back in April with the intention to make government services more accessible. At the time, he called it “Pennsylvania’s tech startup.”

“CODE PA is making our online services more human-centered, user-friendly, reliable, and accessible — and we will continue to create opportunities for Pennsylvanians to access the resources and benefits the Commonwealth provides online,” Shapiro said in a written statement on Tuesday.

Since then, the office has focused on improving three core services, and partnering with state agencies to do so. The first is permitting technology used by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Second, CODE PA is working with the Office of Transformation on a refund portal for permits, licenses and certificates. The third focus has been enabling consistent login credentials across state agencies with the commonwealth’s information security office.

CODE PA Executive Director Bryanna Pardoe told Technical.ly other leaders within state gov, such as DEP Secretary Rich Negrin, have welcomed the new office. CIO Amaya Capellán also noted her excitement about the office when she spoke to Technical.ly earlier this month, saying its work aligns with her goals to streamline digital services for commonwealth employees and constituents.

The office’s employees are becoming familiar with the processes in other state agencies, Pardoe said. For example: The work they’re doing with the Office of Transformation allows CODE PA to learn how all the agencies involved in refunds work together.

“Infrastructure, and then cross-agency experience and modernization, were really the three core areas that we wanted to make sure we knock out of the park as our founding stake in the ground,” Pardoe said of CODE PA initiatives.

CODE PA has also been building its leadership team, with six total employees so far, including Pardoe and the heads of UX design, UX research, front-end development, back-end development and operations. This new team brings a mix of private- and public-sector experience.

“Past experience in federal and city-level [government] brings us grounding, and [experience with] how government works and how we need to take that into account,” the ED said. “But we’re also pushing the boundaries of what has been traditionally accomplished in government by bringing some of those outside perspectives.”

What’s on deck for the next 100 days?

CODE PA just posted job listings for five more employees. Pardoe said she hopes to build up the team to 40 people over the next few years. She also wants to start releasing the products her team has been developing, and be able to show the impact of the office’s work.

“Our goal is to become a part of the culture, become a part of the culture of agency workflow, and bring some of that human-centered design as a best practice to the table,” Perdoe said.

Sarah Huffman is a 2022-2024 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.