Student Service: Leading the Chat Channel Pilot at the University of Melbourne

Introduction

At the University of Melbourne, communication was a double-edged sword. Students were frustrated by long waits for answers to crucial questions about enrolment, support services, or academic processes. Meanwhile, staff were drowning in email backlogs and struggling to keep pace with repetitive enquiries.

It was clear the traditional channels couldn’t keep up with modern expectations for instant, seamless communication. 

The university had chosen Salesforce as the platform for a new chat channel. My role was to lead the pilot project—not just to deploy the tool, but to make sure it truly solved the right problems for the right people.

The Challenge

• Understanding Real Needs: It wasn’t enough to launch a chat tool. We needed to ensure it addressed the actual frustrations and habits of students and staff.

• Driving Adoption: New technology often sits unused unless people trust it and know how to use it.

• Integrating Seamlessly: The chat channel had to plug into existing systems and processes without adding more complexity.

• Protecting Data Privacy: Compliance with strict data protection laws was non-negotiable, especially in an academic setting.

Discovery Phase

I led a comprehensive discovery phase, including:

• Facilitated Workshops: Led practical workshops with students, faculty, admin, and IT to surface pain points, test assumptions, and co-create use cases for the chat channel.

• Use Cases & Journey Mapping: Turned insights into concrete use cases and mapped end-to-end journeys to identify where chat could resolve friction and improve user experience.

• Competitor Benchmarking: Analysed how other universities used chat tools to identify gaps and opportunities for innovation.

• Stakeholder Analysis & Risk Planning: Identified key players, potential blockers, and built mitigation plans to secure alignment and reduce project risks.

• Project Planning: Translated findings into an actionable roadmap with phased iterations, ensuring we could deliver value early and refine based on user feedback.