You're Not a Number Cruncher. You're a Story Hunter!

It’s the end of the day. Your eyes are starting to cross as you stare into the same dashboard you’ve already looked at a dozen times today: heat maps, click paths, bounce rates, percentages climbing and dipping.

You lean in, willing the data to tell you something…anything that can begin to answer the questions swirling in your head:

• “Why isn’t this strategy working? The data says it should…”
• “Wait...they said they cared about price, but they’re not buying the cheapest option?”
• “We’ve got so much data…why aren’t we getting better insights?”
• “I feel like I’m missing something—what’s the real reason they’re not converting?”
• “If we just knew what they were actually thinking, we could fix this.”

If any of that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. In a world with more data than every, it is easy to get lost in it. The good news is, one key shift can change your entire experience. In short: stop crunching the numbers and start hunting the story.

That’s exactly what behavioral researcher Devora Rogers and I unpacked in episode 517 of The Brainy Business . As Chief Strategy Officer at Alter Agents , Devora has worked with brands like Verizon , Pinterest , and Activision . Her work reminds us that the best insights aren’t about “knowing the numbers.” They’re about listening and searching for the story behind the numbers.

What Is Story Hunting?

As Devora shared, data is more than measurement. It’s meaning. From pathing studies to eye-tracking, what might look like a heat map to some becomes a narrative to a trained eye. It's not “clicks” and “dwell time” … it's confusion, curiosity, hesitation, friction (and the story behind what that experience means for the user an their behavior).

Take one of her retail case studies: a brand wanted to validate its low-price strategy. Interviews confirmed that price mattered most to customers, but in-store behavior told a different story. Regardless of what they said they wanted, customers repeatedly chose convenience over cost. The path analysis and dwell time around signage revealed what surveys couldn’t: people weren’t lying, they just didn’t realize what they actually valued until they had to act.

Behavioral data became the translator.

Curiosity, Not Confirmation

Did you notice how the case study above said that the brand “wanted to validate” their strategy? That is a red flag in this kind of work, and why Devora explained the importance of curiosity over confirmation. She says that her favorite researchers are pattern spotters, not validators. They’re not trying to prove a point, instead they’re asking thoughtful questions like:

• “Where did people slow down?”
• “What made them backtrack?”
• “Where did they never look?”
• “What emotional need might that friction be pointing to?”
• And of course, “Why?” “Why?” “Why?”

In one case, she mentioned a brand that assumed people weren’t clicking due to poor placement. But after watching customer behavior, it turned out they were overwhelmed with choices. The solution wasn’t repositioning, it was simplifying.

The Power of Better Questions

Whether you’re using AI-powered analytics or simply observing how users interact with your website, the approach is the same: look with empathy.

Start by asking:

• What surprised me in the data?
• What doesn’t add up between what they said and what they did?
• Where’s the friction, and what might it represent emotionally?

Brainy Bite of the Week:

Next time you look at a chart or dashboard, pause. Pick your top three data points and ask: What story might this be telling me?  

You don’t need to be a novelist. Just be a curious observer. Start with one version of what might be true, and follow the breadcrumbs from there. (You can always try on another story, so don’t get too hung up on finding the “perfect” one before you begin.)

Did one of these questions inspire you? Or, do you have a favorite question you like to ask to help you uncover behavioral insights in your data? Share it in the comments! 

Thanks for reading. Until next time, BE thoughtful.

Melina Palmer