Modern apartment building
Discovery Engagement Proposal
equityapartments.com

Defining the right
long-term approach.

A consultative discovery engagement to evaluate your current ecosystem, assess platform and architecture options, and establish a clear roadmap for implementation before committing to a direction.

Equity Residential
Largest apartment owner & operator in the United States
Co-led initiative: Marketing + IT
600K
Monthly users on equityapartments.com
85K
Apartment homes across 12 markets
40K
New move-ins annually
$177K
Median household income of residents
Mobile
Majority of site traffic is mobile-first
The Challenge

Why a structured
discovery phase matters.

EquityApartments.com is your primary lease driver and the decisions made in the next phase of its evolution will shape the platform for years. Evaluating the right ecosystem, understanding available architecture options, and defining the long-term solution before moving into implementation reduces risk, improves alignment, and produces better outcomes.

Engineering Dependency

Routine content updates and experience changes require engineering involvement slowing iteration, increasing cost, and creating organizational bottlenecks.

AI Search Readiness

LLMs and generative search engines are reshaping how renters find apartments. Content structure and schema decisions made today determine discoverability tomorrow.

Accessibility Gaps

A platform serving 600K monthly users carries significant accessibility obligations. Compliance gaps represent both legal exposure and missed conversion from a broad user population.

Measurement Blind Spots

Without the right analytics infrastructure, it's difficult to connect user behavior to leasing outcomes making data-driven optimization impossible at the speed the business requires.

Platform Uncertainty

Multiple platform and architecture options exist each with real trade-offs. Without structured evaluation, there's risk of committing to the wrong foundation for a multi-year investment.

Cross-Functional Alignment

Marketing and IT co-own this initiative but shared ownership without structured alignment can produce conflicting requirements and stalled decision-making at the worst moments.

What Guides Our Work

Core pillars informing
our approach.

Equity Residential has identified four pillars to guide evaluation and recommendations. We treat these not as parallel tracks, but as interconnected considerations every platform, architecture, and strategy recommendation will be evaluated against all four.

AI-Driven Search & Discoverability

LLMs and generative search (GEO) are changing how renters find properties. Content structure, schema markup, and information architecture decisions made during this discovery phase will determine whether equityapartments.com is visible in this new environment or invisible.

Accessibility

Modern accessibility standards (WCAG 2.2 AA and beyond) are both a legal requirement and a conversion driver. At 600K monthly users across a predominantly mobile, diverse audience, accessibility gaps have outsized business impact.

Reducing Development Dependency

The right CMS and architecture can shift routine content updates, A/B testing, and experience iteration to internal marketing teams reducing costs, accelerating time-to-market, and decoupling business agility from engineering capacity.

Analytics & Measurement

A platform at this scale needs more than page-level metrics. Connecting digital behavior to lease outcomes and enabling ongoing optimization requires deliberate measurement infrastructure built in from the start, not retrofitted later.

How We Work

Our discovery approach,
structured in three phases.

Each phase is designed to build on the last moving from stakeholder understanding to current state assessment to strategic recommendations. Alignment checkpoints between phases ensure that final deliverables reflect your organization's actual priorities and constraints.

Phase 1

Learn

Stakeholder interviews, business objectives alignment, user journey mapping, and analytics review.

  • Up to 8 stakeholder interviews
  • Marketing + IT alignment session
  • 3–4 core user journey maps
  • Analytics diagnostic review
Phase 2

Assess

Current platform audit, technical assessment, integration review, accessibility evaluation, and platform comparison.

  • Platform + CMS audit
  • Integration landscape mapping
  • Core Web Vitals + accessibility review
  • GEO + AI search readiness
  • 3–4 platform option evaluation
Phase 3

Strategize

UX recommendations, platform recommendation, implementation roadmap, effort estimates, and leadership readout.

  • Defended platform recommendation
  • UX + experience strategy
  • Governance + ownership framework
  • Phased implementation roadmap
  • Leadership readout presentation
Solid Digital discovery workshop Solid Digital workshop session
How We Start Every Engagement

The Discovery Workshop

Before any interviews, audits, or analysis, we bring your Marketing and IT teams into the same room for a structured half-day discovery workshop. This isn't a kickoff call it's a facilitated working session designed to surface shared goals, expose hidden tensions, and establish the shared language that will drive alignment throughout the engagement.

Goals & Constraints

Define what success looks like and what's off the table. Surface non-negotiables before they become late-stage blockers.

Stakeholder Alignment

Bring Marketing and IT to a shared understanding of priorities. Identify where they agree and where structured discussion is needed.

Discovery Roadmap

Co-create the questions this engagement needs to answer. Ensure the remaining phases are focused on what actually matters most to your organization.

Without this discovery
  • ✗Platform decisions made without structured evaluation of alternatives
  • ✗Marketing and IT misaligned on priorities going into implementation
  • ✗AI search and GEO considerations bolted on after architecture is set
  • ✗Scope creep and cost overruns from undiscovered technical dependencies
With Solid Digital's discovery
  • ✓Platform selected with full visibility into trade-offs and total cost of ownership
  • ✓Marketing + IT aligned on shared definition of success before work begins
  • ✓AI search and GEO baked into architecture and content strategy from day one
  • ✓Implementation roadmap with realistic sequencing, dependencies, and effort estimates
What You'll Receive

Discovery deliverables
at the conclusion of engagement.

At the conclusion of discovery, Equity Residential will receive a complete, documented set of findings and recommendations structured to inform platform decisions, implementation planning, and organizational alignment going forward.

Current State Assessment Summary

Platform, UX, accessibility, analytics, and integration findings organized by pillar

Stakeholder Interview Synthesis

Anonymized findings from all stakeholder sessions with key themes and tensions surfaced

User Journey Maps

3–4 primary journeys from discovery to lease signing, with annotated friction and opportunity

Platform Evaluation Matrix

Scored comparison of 3–4 platform options against your prioritized requirements

UX & Experience Recommendations

Strategic direction on IA, mobile experience, content strategy, and conversion optimization

Platform & Architecture Recommendation

A single, defended recommendation not a menu of options with supporting rationale

Technology Stack Considerations

Key decisions across CMS, search, personalization, analytics, and integration layer

Governance & Ownership Framework

Recommended model for site ownership, publishing workflows, and cross-functional responsibilities

Implementation Roadmap

Phased plan with milestones, dependencies, and workstream sequencing actionable regardless of who executes

High-Level Effort Estimates

Directional effort ranges by workstream to support implementation planning and budgeting

Leadership Readout Presentation

Executive-ready presentation deck delivered to joint Marketing + IT leadership, with structured Q&A and final documentation package

Schedule

Estimated timeline
for the discovery phase.

We estimate the discovery engagement at 6–7 weeks from kickoff to final deliverable, with structured milestones and alignment checkpoints at the conclusion of each phase.

Week 1
Kickoff

Project kickoff, access provisioning, stakeholder scheduling, analytics and platform access established.

Milestone: Kickoff complete, all access provisioned
Weeks 2–3
Phase 1 Learn

Stakeholder interviews, business objectives alignment session, user journey mapping, preliminary analytics review.

Milestone: Phase 1 findings summary delivered + reviewed
Weeks 3–4
Phase 2 Assess

Platform and CMS audit, technical performance review, integration documentation, accessibility assessment, GEO readiness analysis, platform evaluation matrix.

Milestone: Current state assessment delivered + reviewed
Weeks 5–6
Phase 3 Strategize

Synthesis of all findings, recommendation development, roadmap construction, effort estimation, draft readout preparation.

Milestone: Draft deliverables package delivered for review
Week 6–7
Readout & Close

Feedback incorporation, final documentation delivery, and leadership readout presentation to joint Marketing + IT leadership.

Final: All deliverables complete + leadership readout delivered
Investment

Discovery engagement
pricing.

The following reflects our estimated investment for the full discovery phase, including all phases, workshops, stakeholder sessions, and final deliverables.

Phase 1 Learn
$23,680
Weeks 1–3
  • Discovery kickoff meeting
  • 8 stakeholder interviews
  • Business objectives alignment
  • User journey mapping
  • Analytics diagnostic
Phase 2 Assess
$16,650
Weeks 3–4
  • Platform + CMS audit
  • Technical + performance review
  • Accessibility assessment
  • Platform evaluation matrix
Phase 3 Strategize
$22,200
Weeks 5–7
  • Platform recommendation
  • Implementation roadmap
  • Effort estimates
  • Leadership readout
Total Discovery Engagement
6–7 weeks · 11 deliverables
$62,530
Proposal valid through April 21, 2026
50%
$31,265
Due on signing / kickoff
25%
$15,632
Due on Phase 2 delivery
25%
$15,633
Due on final readout delivery
Relevant Experience

Similar engagements
we have led.

Solid Digital has experience leading discovery, strategy, and platform modernization engagements for organizations where a consumer-facing website is a primary business driver. The following examples are directly relevant to the scope of this initiative.

Residential Real Estate · Consumer-Facing Platform

Hometown America

Hometown America owns and operates 78 manufactured housing communities coast-to-coast. Their consumer-facing website functions similarly to a residential property search platform, with backend inventory data driving availability and listings across all properties. Solid Digital led a full discovery, strategy, and redesign engagement to modernize the platform and connect prospective residents to communities.

Platform Modernization

Backend API integration eliminated duplicate data entry. Marketing team can now update events and specials in the CMS without engineering involvement.

Resident Research

Conducted resident interviews that directly informed information architecture decisions, prioritizing community discovery over individual listing search.

Accessibility + Mobile

Rebuilt for ADA compliance and mobile-first experience, serving a 55+ audience where accessibility and ease of navigation are business-critical.

View case study
Large Consumer Platform · UX Strategy + Platform Rebuild

PSI Services

PSI powers the world's leading professional certification and licensure tests, serving two distinct consumer audiences: test takers and test sponsors. Their existing platform was outdated, inconsistent, and impossible to update without outside help. Solid Digital led a strategy and redesign engagement that restructured the information architecture for two separate user journeys and rebuilt the platform for ongoing marketing team ownership.

Multi-Audience UX

Restructured the platform for two distinct audiences with separate journeys, eliminating confusion that was causing test takers to submit sponsor forms.

Dev Dependency Reduction

Rebuilt so the marketing team could update the site independently, a core requirement that previous agency had failed to deliver.

Stakeholder Collaboration

Worked directly with PSI's internal designer and Digital Experience Manager throughout, incorporating feedback at each stage with no big reveals.

View case study
Platform Modernization · Marketing + IT Collaboration

OnBoard

OnBoard is a leading board management software platform serving organizations across higher education, nonprofits, and enterprise. Solid Digital led a website redesign and platform modernization engagement focused on clarifying the value proposition, improving conversion, and enabling the internal team to manage and update the site without ongoing agency dependency.

Marketing + IT Alignment

Collaborated closely with OnBoard's designer and Senior Digital Experience Manager throughout, building consensus and ensuring internal advocacy at each stage.

Platform Modernization

Migrated to WordPress CMS with cleaned architecture, updated codebase, and removed legacy plugins that were blocking iteration speed.

Conversion Strategy

Restructured user journeys with multiple CTAs and industry-specific pages, positioning OnBoard clearly against competitors across distinct buyer segments.

View case study
Who We Are

About
Solid Digital.

Solid Digital is a Chicago-based full-service digital agency specializing in strategy, design, and technology for organizations that operate at scale. We've helped marketing and technology leaders navigate exactly the kind of initiative Equity Residential is undertaking.

18+
Years delivering digital strategy and platform work for established organizations
Enterprise
Experience with large consumer-facing platforms, platform migrations, and Marketing/IT collaboration
Chicago
Based in Chicago available for on-site sessions at 2 N. Riverside Plaza when beneficial
Jesse McCabe
Jesse McCabe
President — Executive Lead

Executive oversight and client leadership. Participates in leadership-level stakeholder sessions and presents the final readout.

Derek Lauritzen Marla Aistrope
Derek Lauritzen & Marla Aistrope
Discovery & UX Strategy

Lead stakeholder interviews, user journey mapping, and UX strategy deliverables. Deep experience in consumer-facing platform strategy.

Travis McHattie Peter Ajtai
Travis McHattie & Peter Ajtai
Platform & Architecture

Lead the technical assessment, platform evaluation, and architecture recommendation. Deep expertise in headless CMS, enterprise platform selection, and integration architecture.

Diana Martinez
Diana Martinez
Project Manager

Owns the project schedule, stakeholder coordination, and communication cadence. Ensures deliverables arrive on time and dependencies are managed proactively.

We're excited about the possibility of partnering with Equity Residential on this initiative. The right discovery process will make every subsequent decision faster, cheaper, and more confident. We know how to run it.

Jesse McCabe
President, Solid Digital
jesse@soliddigital.com