On this episode of The Deep Dive Lab I talk with Andy Sitison, CTO at Share More Stories, about one core question: how do we turn human stories and emotions into useful, trustworthy data?

We cover:

• How to prompt people so they actually tell meaningful stories (the “story journey”)
• The logic of breaking a story into expressions and scoring emotions (joy, anxiety, belonging, and more)
• A real project with Virginia Tourism: hearing Black travelers’ stories changed messaging, visitor experiences, and earned recognition
• Practical risks: model accuracy, human-in-the-loop validation, cultural sensitivity, and detecting fake/generative submissions

Why listen: if you create products, run marketing, or lead research, this episode will change how you think about “voice of the customer”, from checkboxes to human truth.

Guest links:

• Andy Sitison: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-sitison/
• https://www.virginia.org/plan-your-trip/black-travel/
• https://sharemorestories.com/