Tag 8E is the card's policy; tag 9F34 is what actually happened. Three bytes: the method performed, the condition it matched, and the outcome. Paste the hex and read all three at once.
9F34 is fixed at three bytes and each answers a different question. Byte 1 is the CVM that was performed, coded exactly like the method byte of a CVM List rule — bits 6–1 are the method, b7 carries the same “apply the next rule on failure” flag the rule had. Byte 2 is the condition that rule was scoped to. Byte 3 is the outcome: 00 unknown, 01 failed, 02 successful.
Because bytes 1 and 2 are copied from the rule that fired, 9F34 tells you which entry in the CVM List the terminal landed on. That is why the two tags are read together: 8E is the policy, 9F34 is the line of it that executed.
Take the first two bytes of 9F34 and find the matching two-byte rule in tag 8E. If it is the third rule, the first two were skipped — their conditions were not met, or the terminal did not support the method. That is the answer to “why did it ask for a signature instead of a PIN”, and you can walk it in the CVM List decoder.
The summary of the same event lands in TVR byte 3 — decode it here. TVR says a verification problem occurred; 9F34 says which method and which outcome. A TVR cardholder-verification bit set with a 9F34 result of 02 is worth a second look: something failed earlier in the walk even though the final method succeeded.
410302 — plaintext PIN verified by the card, on a terminal that supports it, successful. The 40 bit says the rule would have fallen through to the next method had the PIN failed.
020001 — online enciphered PIN, always applicable, failed. If the transaction was still approved, the issuer approved it despite a failed PIN; that is a decision worth checking against your own rules.
1F0002 — no CVM required, always, successful: the small-amount path. Nothing was asked of the cardholder and that is the intended outcome, not a gap.
3F0000 — no CVM performed, outcome unknown. Common on contactless and on declines that never reached verification.