Stella in Five Minutes
A Municipal AI Rollout Playbook
This is the exact process Kevin Kernan followed in the Town of Carmel. No giant task force—just a single champion, a quick configuration, and a website snippet. Use this checklist to spin up Stella fast.
How to Use This Guide
After publishing the Town of Carmel case study, many government teams asked how to replicate that momentum. This follow-up documents the real onboarding steps Kevin Kernan worked through with Stella and shares the light-touch templates he still relies on to keep residents informed.
Each section is written for small municipal teams. Expect short checklists, plain-language scripts, and prompts you can tailor for your community when you update leadership.
Why a Lightweight Playbook Works
AI pilots are exciting, but they can stall when they feel heavy. Kevin made progress in Carmel by treating Stella like a simple service upgrade—not an enterprise IT program. If you anchor on resident value and keep decisions close to the people who know the website best, you can launch quickly without sacrificing oversight.
- Residents receive consistent answers regardless of channel or staff availability.
- Staff stay focused on high-impact tasks because common questions are automated.
- Leadership can track the top requests in real time and invest resources accordingly.
1. Launch Stella in Under Five Minutes
Kevin handled the entire setup himself. Follow the same order and you can go live just as quickly:
- Share your public website URL with the Stella team so we can pre-train on approved content.
- Pick your preferred brand color, tone of voice, and greeting. We’ll pre-fill these based on your site, but you can tweak anything in Stella Studio.
- Copy the install snippet from Stella Studio and add it to your site template.
- Refresh the page—Stella is live. The whole sequence usually takes less than five minutes, and most web admins can follow the same path.
Tip: If your site is managed by a vendor, send them the snippet and ask them to paste it once. There are no additional integrations required.
2. Give Stella the Right Content
You don’t need a large working group—just a quick sweep of the information residents already rely on. Start with the pages that already answer your most common questions and make sure they are up to date.
One-hour content review
- List the questions you and your colleagues hear most often from residents.
- Verify that each answer on your site is current. Update copy directly on the page when you spot outdated fees, forms, or contacts.
- Upload any supporting PDFs or forms into Stella Studio so residents receive the same documents staff would otherwise email manually.
Because Stella only uses approved sources, you control the voice and policies automatically. When you publish a new page, click “Sync” in Stella Studio and the assistant updates within minutes.
3. Keep Residents and Staff in the Loop
Even with a lightweight rollout, a few proactive messages build trust. Adapt these quick templates for your municipality:
- Website banner (30 days): “Meet Stella, our virtual assistant. Ask a question anytime—staff are still here for complex issues.”
- Email blurb: Drop the same message into your next newsletter. Link directly to the page where Stella appears.
- Staff script (60 seconds): “If you need a quick answer after hours, try Stella on the town website. She has the same information we use at the front desk.”
Keep the tone conversational. Residents appreciate knowing a real person set the assistant up and remains available when needed.
4. Maintain a Simple Weekly Rhythm
A quick check-in keeps Stella aligned with your residents’ needs without creating busywork.
- Review unresolved questions: Open Stella Studio, accept suggested answers, or mark anything that needs a policy decision.
- Note trending topics: Capture the themes you see most often so you can keep leaders informed.
- Share wins: Save a few standout conversations to highlight how the assistant is helping residents.
If you ever need to involve another department, forward the exact conversation link. They can suggest edits directly inside Stella Studio—no separate training required.
Quick Implementation Checklist
- Send Stella your website URL and confirm branding preferences.
- Add the Stella snippet to your global header or footer.
- Verify the top pages residents rely on and upload any supporting documents.
- Publish a short “Meet Stella” banner and staff script.
- Schedule a short recurring check-in to review conversations and wins.
Next Steps and Additional Support
Ready to move from planning to action? Our municipal success team will spin up your workspace, share the snippet, and stick around until you see the first resident conversations roll in.
Prefer to explore solo first? Try Stella free and invite colleagues to collaborate inside your workspace.
Need help pasting the snippet?
Schedule time with our team