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Growth Engineering for Diabetes & Cardiometabolic Health

by Jason Shafton

Diabetes and cardiometabolic companies miss enrollment and retention opportunities because no one owns the technical growth work – the experiments, instrumentation, and funnel systems. We create the growth engineering layer that transforms ideas into shipped tests and compounding gains.

The Challenge

Growth ideas get stuck in the engineering backlog

Marketing has funnel and onboarding ideas, but they queue behind product roadmap work and never ship, so the growth loop never actually turns. In a category where small activation and retention gains compound over long patient relationships, that stalled backlog is expensive. Growth engineering exists to own and ship those changes instead of letting them rot behind the roadmap.

The funnel lacks enough instrumentation to identify what needs fixing

Without proper event tracking across the eligibility, onboarding, and activation steps, no one can see where patients actually drop off, so improvement is guesswork. Teams optimize the visible surface and miss the leak buried in a qualification step. Building the instrumentation to see the whole gated funnel is the precondition for fixing it.

Eligibility and onboarding friction is a technical issue with no clear owner

The drop-off at eligibility checks, health intake, and account activation is a systems problem – clunky flows, slow steps, avoidable friction – that marketing cannot fix alone and product deprioritizes. So it stays broken and leaks qualified demand every day. It needs someone who can engineer the funnel, not just recommend changes to it.

Testing happens ad hoc, so the gains never compound

Occasional one-off experiments with no system, no instrumentation, and no learning loop produce scattered results that never build on each other. The company runs tests but does not accumulate an advantage. A real experimentation system – prioritized, instrumented, and continuous – is what turns individual wins into compounding growth.

How We Help

We begin by properly instrumenting the funnel – tracking events across eligibility, onboarding, and activation – so the entire gated journey becomes visible and the true drop-off points are clear. This supports the [measurement](/services/measurement/) practice and replaces assumptions with a clear view of where qualified demand is actually leaking.

We establish an experimentation system, not a collection of isolated tests. Ideas are prioritized by expected impact, launched as instrumented experiments, and evaluated against real downstream events, allowing insights to accumulate and gains to compound rather than scatter. The system itself is the asset, connected to the [growth strategy](/services/strategy/).

Through our [product](/services/product/) practice, we take ownership of the technical funnel work that typically has no owner. We engineer eligibility, intake, and activation flows to reduce friction, ensuring the drop-off marketing cannot solve and product deprioritizes is finally addressed by someone able to ship the work.

We connect marketing ideas with changes that actually ship. Rather than allowing growth ideas to disappear into the backlog, growth engineering moves them from concept to live test to measured outcome, keeping the growth loop moving week after week. It is a capability most teams lack entirely.

We focus effort where it can compound. Since activation and retention improvements build across long cardiometabolic patient relationships, we prioritize funnel and lifecycle initiatives with the greatest compounding return over cosmetic changes, then validate them through instrumented results.

We do not simply give marketing a recommendation list. We create the growth engineering layer that launches experiments, removes funnel friction, and compounds enrollment and retention.

What we deliver

In diabetes and cardiometabolic health, the greatest growth gains sit within the eligibility and activation plumbing that marketing cannot repair and product deprioritizes—the companies that compound create a growth engineering layer to instrument the funnel and ship tests instead of letting ideas stall in the backlog.

Our Methodology

Our 90-day sprint creates a growth engineering capability that compounds, rather than delivering a set of one-off tests. Days 1-30 center on instrumentation and prioritization: we implement event tracking throughout the gated funnel to uncover actual drop-off, then prioritize the funnel and lifecycle work offering the greatest compounding return. This phase concludes with an instrumented funnel and ranked experiment backlog.

During days 31-60, we build the system and begin shipping. We establish the experimentation loop, engineer the highest-impact eligibility and activation flows, and launch instrumented tests measured against enrollment and retention. Growth ideas move out of the backlog and into production instead of stalling.

Days 61-90 focus on compounding and handoff. We continue operating the loop, invest further in what the data shows compounds, and document the instrumentation and experimentation system so your team can run it. Because growth engineering is an enduring capability, the sprint leaves you with an active system and the knowledge required to keep it moving.

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How We Work

During the first 30 days, we collaborate with your growth, product, and data leads because funnel instrumentation and experiment prioritization require all three. Expect working sessions focused on where the funnel leaks and which initiatives will compound.

Days 30-60 shift to building and shipping. Instead of offering recommendations, we establish the experimentation system, engineer the highest-impact flows, and begin launching instrumented tests connected to enrollment and retention.

Days 60-90 focus on compounding and handoff. We continue running the loop, concentrate on what the data proves effective, and transfer the instrumentation and experimentation system into your team's ownership. Since the value lies in a functioning capability, many engagements extend for several months, giving the loop time to compound and the internal team time to absorb it.

The team consists of a growth engineer who delivers funnel and experiment work, a growth strategist who prioritizes the backlog for compounding returns, and a measurement resource who makes sure tests are evaluated against genuine downstream events.

If your diabetes & cardiometabolic health company needs growth engineering leadership, we should talk.

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Frequently asked questions

How much does a growth engineering engagement cost for a diabetes or cardiometabolic company?

A growth engineering engagement generally costs $15K-$35K/month, based on the instrumentation and funnel engineering required and the desired shipping pace. Pricing reflects the build's depth and the experimentation system, rather than a predetermined number of tests. Since gains compound across long patient relationships, the investment is evaluated against sustained improvements in enrollment and retention, not the outcome of one test.

What is growth engineering, and how does it differ from marketing?

Growth engineering is the technical layer responsible for instrumenting the funnel, launching experiments, and resolving eligibility and activation friction that marketing can spot but cannot build. Marketing produces demand and ideas; growth engineering owns the code and systems that convert those ideas into shipped, measurable changes. Without this layer, growth ideas stall in the backlog while the funnel remains broken.

Why is growth engineering especially important in cardiometabolic health?

Because the funnel is gated by eligibility and clinical qualification, drop-off becomes a technical issue within flows that most teams do not own, while activation and retention gains compound throughout long patient relationships. Together, these factors make the plumbing exceptionally valuable and frequently overlooked. The growth engineering layer captures the compounding gains concealed within it.

How do you determine which experiments to run first?

We first instrument the gated funnel to identify where qualified demand is truly leaking, then rank experiments by their expected compounding return instead of what is easiest or most visible. This means addressing the hidden eligibility or activation friction causing the greatest leakage, rather than making cosmetic changes. Instrumentation – not guesswork – guides the prioritization.

How is the impact of growth engineering measured?

Each experiment is instrumented and evaluated against genuine downstream events – enrollment, activation, and retention – rather than opens or clicks, revealing which changes truly compound. Since the tests build upon one another within a system, their impact appears as cumulative funnel and retention improvement over time. Wins that fail to change downstream numbers are discarded instead of counted.

What does it look like to get started with growth engineering?

We begin by instrumenting the funnel across eligibility, onboarding, and activation to uncover the true drop-off, then create a ranked experiment backlog centered on compounding return. This provides a clear view of where engineering is needed before anything ships. If your diabetes or cardiometabolic company has growth ideas stalled in the backlog and a funnel you cannot completely see, we should talk.


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