Pictured from left to right: Eli Eijadi, Alan Jones, Amanda Gunderson, Commissioner Tomes, Willie Stephenson, Andy Rollins, Mark Hurlburt (Prime Academy President and Co-Founder), Christy Larsen (Prime Academy Director of Employer Partnerships)

Minnesota IT Services (MNIT) strives to connect with the broader Minnesota technology community – creating relationships with partners that inspire the emerging workforce to seek out opportunities within the state, and developing a stronger technology base across the state.

Recently, MNIT partnered with Prime Academy, an organization that has an 18-week immersive User Experience Design program that helps people with interests in design, organization, and technology build the foundational skills to start a career in user experience (UX). The partnership allowed UX students to develop their skills, while also providing feedback on a critical service that MNIT supports.

“Putting the people we serve at the center of our design is a fundamental aspect of technology at MNIT. I am immensely impressed by the level of empathy and analysis that these students displayed.”

Commissioner Tomes

The Prime Academy students took a deep dive into the Minnesota Service Hub, which allows state employees to do everything from report internet connectivity issues, to application service outages. MNIT is responsible for managing, responding to, and reporting on support tickets that come through the Minnesota Service Hub. We know that it is one of our most critical services that we provide to state agencies. The Prime Academy students interviewed users from around MNIT, developed a final report, and presented their findings to MNIT. Take a look at the photos from their final presentation and the user interviews to get a sense of the important role that UX work plays.

Prime Academy has been a great partner with MNIT’s ITS Trainee Program and helping us build a pipeline of trained IT talent. Interested in working in UX or IT? Visit our Careers page to view all the opportunities for employment with MNIT.