When Your Superpower Doesn’t Scale: Why Data is the New “Sommelier Sense”

The following is adapted from Growth Data Analytics Playbook by Mengying Li, Joe Kumar, Yuzheng Sun.

A friend of mine is one of only 260 people in the world who can call themselves a Master Sommelier. It took him seven years of relentless study and testing to reach that level—a journey that demands expertise not just in wine, but in human behavior.

A sommelier’s job isn’t just about knowing the right vintage or region. It’s about reading the customer. My friend can recommend the perfect wine after just a few minutes of conversation. He notices your tone, your clothes, your energy. He connects the dots between who you are and what you’ll love. It’s not just impressive—it feels like magic.

But here’s the twist: when he tried to sell wine online, that magic disappeared.

The digital world stripped away what made him great—his ability to sense the customer. Without body language, voice, or atmosphere, he couldn’t tailor the experience. And that’s the same challenge most startups face when they begin to scale.

At the beginning, every founder knows their customers deeply. They can talk to users, hear their frustrations, and shape the product in real time. That personal touch is what fuels early growth.

But as a product expands, that intimacy fades. Suddenly, you’re dealing with thousands—or millions—of customers. They have different needs, different contexts, and different motivations. You can’t personally talk to all of them anymore.

And just like my sommelier friend, you risk losing your sense of the customer.

The companies that continue to grow are the ones that find a way to keep that sense alive—and they do it through data.

Data, when used effectively, becomes your new intuition. It helps you read patterns, discover preferences, and understand customer behavior at scale. It replaces the lost body language and eye contact with signals that, when interpreted correctly, are just as powerful.

That’s what growth analytics is really about. It’s not just charts and dashboards—it’s learning to listen through data. It’s how you uncover opportunities, understand what drives engagement, and ensure that your product keeps evolving in sync with your users.

The best growth leaders are like digital sommeliers. They combine human insight with analytical skill to craft experiences that feel personalized, even when they’re happening at scale.

If you can maintain your sense of the customer—whether through conversation or data—you’ll keep growing. If you lose it, growth stops.

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For a deeper look at how data can help you keep that sense alive, you can find Growth Data Analytics Playbook on Amazon.

Mengying Li is a data science and growth strategist who leads data strategy and drives Product-Led Growth (PLG) at Braintrust. She has held impactful data and growth roles at Notion, MotherDuck, Meta, and Microsoft, driving key initiatives to accelerate product and growth outcomes. Mengying advises early-stage startups as an angel investor and scout for Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), supporting founders on their growth journeys.

Joe Kumar is a senior staff data engineer at Meta with over ten years of experience transforming complex data into strategic insights. He has authored comprehensive playbooks on product analytics, product-market fit, and growth analytics, driving impact across priority products. Joe shapes Meta’s analytical landscape by scaling these playbooks through tooling, automation, and innovative data practices.

Yuzheng Sun, PhD, is a staff data scientist at Statsig.com. He drives best practices in product growth and experimentation, drawing on experience from Tencent, Meta, and Amazon. With over 300,000 online followers and over 200 prominent podcast guests, Yuzheng stands out as a leading voice in data and growth.