How to Tell Data-Driven Stories

Author

Sally Grisedale
September 11, 2025

Design (subjective) vs. Data (objective)  

If you're a product designer, you're used to focusing on the craft of what you create. But sometimes, it can be a challenge to translate your work into the metric-based language that's valued by colleagues in business-driven roles.

Turning your work into a data-backed narrative takes time, and it's especially tough when you're working ahead of a product launch and don't have all the information you need. If you've ever struggled to get your voice heard by people who are focused on data and the bottom line, these frameworks are two ways to structure your work and present results in a language they'll understand.

Whether you're presenting to the board, giving product updates, or interviewing for a job, your ability to translate your work into business outcomes is critical for three key reasons:

  1. It Builds Credibility: Business leaders speak in metrics. Data helps you prove that you understand the big picture. By grounding your design decisions in evidence, you earn the trust and respect, allowing you to advocate for design as a strategic, analytical discipline.

  2. It Aligns and Motivates Your Teams: Data provides a common language you can use to frame problems and measure success, giving your designers clear, measurable goals. This shows them the direct, tangible impact of their work.

  3. It advocates for the User Strategically: Data-driven stories are your most powerful tool for advocating for user needs. You can tell a compelling narrative that connects user problems (backed by quantitative and qualitative data) to a clear business opportunity. This elevates design from a tactical role to a strategic partner in key business decisions.

How to Quantify Your Impact 💥

Two of the most effective methods are the SOAR and STAR frameworks. Although similar, each serves a distinct purpose. These frameworks provide a clear, easy-to-follow structure that turns raw data into a compelling story. Instead of merely presenting numbers and charts, they guide you in framing data around a specific event, making the information more relatable and memorable.

SOAR Method 🚀

The SOAR method (Situation, Obstacle, Action, Result) is a powerful technique for highlighting your problem-solving and critical thinking skills. It's especially effective when you need to showcase how you've successfully overcome significant challenges.

  • Situation: You start by providing the context and setting the scene. For example, "We wanted to launch a new product feature to attract a younger demographic."

  • Obstacle: You explicitly identify the obstacle or challenge that made the situation difficult. This highlights your ability to foresee and navigate problems. For example, "However, our existing user data showed that our current customer base was primarily older, and we had no information on the preferences of the younger target market."

  • Action: Describes the specific, data-driven actions you took to overcome the obstacle, showing your resourcefulness and analytical skills. For example, "I conducted a comprehensive market analysis using social media sentiment data and competitor benchmarks. I then launched a small-scale survey of a sample of younger users to gather qualitative and quantitative feedback, which provided the insights we needed."

  • Result: Concludes with the measurable outcomes and lessons learned. The results should directly tie back to how you successfully navigated the obstacle. For example, "The data-driven insights allowed us to tailor the feature specifically for the target audience. The feature launch was a success, leading to a 30% increase in new user sign-ups from the younger demographic and a positive return on our marketing investment."

STAR Method ⭐

The STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) is a structured approach used in behavioral interviews to provide detailed examples of past experiences. It helps you articulate how you've handled specific situations, completed tasks, and achieved results, making your answers clear and compelling.

  • Situation: Begin by setting the scene. Describe the context or a specific challenge the organization faced. This is where you introduce the problem that the data will help solve. For example, "Our Q2 customer churn rate increased by 15%."

  • Task: Clearly state the objective or goal. What did you need to accomplish? This is the specific mission related to the situation. For example, "My task was to identify the root cause of the increased churn and propose a solution."

  • Action: Detail the steps you took to address the problem, emphasizing your use of data. This is the core of the narrative, where you highlight your analytical process. For example, "I analyzed customer feedback data, support ticket logs, and user engagement metrics. The data revealed a clear pattern: customers who didn't use our new feature within the first 30 days were 2x more likely to churn."

  • Result: Conclude with the tangible outcomes of your actions. This is where you quantify the impact of your data-driven solution. For example, "As a result, we created an automated onboarding campaign for new users, which led to a 10% decrease in the churn rate for that cohort and a $50,000 increase in quarterly recurring revenue."

The Benefits💥 

These frameworks can help you:

  • Provide context and move beyond just showing data points to explaining the "why" behind them.

  • Highlight impact by forcing you to connect your actions to concrete, quantifiable results, demonstrating the value of your work.

  • Make it memorable by structuring your information as a story, making it easier for your audience to understand and act upon your insights.

If this is a challenge you face, you may be interested in my book, Leading by Design: The Insider's Playbook for Tech Leadership, which comes out on September 23, 2025. I've dedicated Chapter 6 to showing you how to take common business metrics and translate user-centered design principles into attention-grabbing business results with impact. It will be available as a free download with purchase.

If you struggle with leveling up your communication for business outcomes, I’d be happy to help. Just send me an email to [email protected].

That's it for this week!

With ❤️ from Sally

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