The Challenges

Working on this project pushed the boundaries of what most would call a fast-paced work environment. Our product design team was tasked with rebranding and redesigning Apartment Finder’s website and native applications. This project presented more than a fair share of unique challenges and absolutely tested our mettle as a team in the midst seemingly chaotic circumstances.

But in all chaos there is calculation.Lorde

The first challenge was lack of resources within our product design team (with only 2 designers, including myself). At the time, we would also had to adjust losing a front-end development resource due to the cultural changes. We were out numbered and had to support 7 dev teams and 2 marketing departments across 3 US timezones on a project to be launched in 7 months (Dec 16th) without compromise. The circumstances not only tested our mettle but my own ability to help maintain team moral and mastery of concise of communication across the organization.

Lastly, one of the biggest challenges within the team was strategizing what to tackle, how and when. The catch was that all development teams needed deliverables for approved comps in order to start their sprint planning. It was clear, to deliver a great product on such an aggressive deadline. Concise communication and strong time management skills allow us to be successful.

Responsive Web

The Outcome

Straightaway, my team and I focused on defining a brand strategy that would differentiate Apartment Finder from its equally popular sister brand (and CoStar Group’s flagship apartment searching product), Apartments.com. Based on our findings, most major competitors provide a multitude apartment listings. However, no one in this space addresses the users’ specific need for finding the best value, and desired transparency of understanding the true cost of their next apartment. By empathizing with these primary users, we directly connected with our new tagline “Great Apartment. Great Deals.”

By way of the new tagline we were able to determine the context of the story that we wanted to tell for new Apartment Finder. Additionally, it created the divergence necessary to differentiate Apartment Finder (which is exclusive to only apartments) from Apartments.com (that caters to houses, townhouses, condos and apartments).

Exclusive innovative and value focused features were implemented across all platforms. The “Deals” call-to-action presented users with all apartments that had deals and more importantly text showcasing that a particular apartment “Rent was up to a specific percentage amount below the other apartments in the area based on # of desired bedrooms. Our most innovative featured was a “Cost Calculator” which gave renters the ability to calculate one-time and recurring (month) fee thus understanding the true cost their next move.

As UX and UI solutions were created, we had to be very attentive to consistency of the user’s experience across all platforms. Countless hours were spent the first couple weeks creating sketches and scrutinizing even the most minuscule of inconsistencies. After approval of the UX we worked 12-15 hour days to make up for the lack of resources within our team to have everything ready for all 7 development teams (simultaneously) in order for them to start sprint grooming and planning process for the project.

Behold! The Maker of Unicorn Designers.Cleo Henderson

With all comps approved, deliverables ready, specs complete and adapting to the new development processes. I challenged myself to devise a strategy that would position our team to insure product quality and solve our lack of resource issue simultaneously.

Subsequently, my UX/UI designer and I performed the responsibilities of UI Developers while also insuring product quality. Thus, creating the VQA (Visual QA) role responsible for assisting and finalizing all visual aesthetics before a development story can be deemed resolved and passed to QA.

In conclusion, we contributed 2 UI Developer resources instead on 1, sped up development processes by allowing both developers and quality engineers to only focus on functionality without being distracted by UI defects. The project launched on-time beautifully and all teams involved stayed pass midnight EST to insure deployment to product we well. CoStar Group executive leadership, senior management and Board of Directors all agree that acquired Apartment Finder team members exceed expectations and participation set the stage for the smooth launch in company history.