MY WORK /
BYTE
Overview
Company and mission
Byte was a DTC clear aligner company focused on expanding access to orthodontic care. Operating at the intersection of healthcare, ecommerce, and digital product, Byte paired remote treatment with clinical oversight from a nationwide network of licensed dentists and orthodontists.
Byte was acquired by Dentsply Sirona in 2021. In late 2024, amid evolving state-level regulatory requirements, Dentsply Sirona voluntarily suspended Byte's operations to review compliance and reporting standards.
My role
I joined Byte as Senior Content Strategist. After expanding my scope across product and revenue initiatives, I was promoted to Director of Product, Growth within a year. In this role, I led cross-functional initiatives spanning engineering, UX and content design, product analytics, and operational stakeholders.
I also partnered closely with executive leadership, marketing, legal, and clinical teams to align growth strategy with regulatory requirements and long-term platform scalability.
Impact
During my tenure:
- Helped scale annual revenue from $130M to $220M
- Drove 12%+ YOY growth through optimizations and features
- Grew the website to 1M+ monthly unique visitors
- Implemented compliance workflows to support evolving healthcare regulations
- Revitalized and delivered a stalled website platform migration
- Established a collaborative operating model across engineering, design, analytics, and leadership
- Managed an accessory product catalog on Shopify Plus generating $100K+ in monthly revenue
Checkout optimization
The slippery funnel
Byte had an unusual two-step conversion funnel: customers first purchased a modestly-priced Impression Kit to take molds of their teeth, then—if eligible—purchased aligners.
Years of optimizations had made the upper funnel extremely slippery, but there was a problem: too many customers were buying Impression Kits without converting to aligners.
My hypothesis was that the funnel was too frictionless. We were converting low-intent shoppers on Impression Kits who were never going to follow through. Worse, this was polluting our marketing algorithms with bad signal.
A counterintuitive test
I proposed an unconventional A/B test: deliberately slow down the purchase process to filter out uncommitted buyers.
For the test, we added interstitial screens before the Impression Kit checkout. These screens highlighted the benefits of Byte aligners while setting clear expectations about the full process and the commitment involved.
Big results
This became the single most impactful website optimization in Byte's history—a 9% lift in UV-to-aligner conversion.
The surprise? Impression Kit purchases also increased by 2%. The lack of clarity wasn't just letting uncommitted buyers through—it was scaring committed ones away.
Bottom line for the business: $10.6M in yearly contribution profit.
