Show up where life happens
Interviews, diary studies, ride-alongs and plain old hanging out. Context beats opinion every time.
Anthropologist · UX Researcher
I walk in other people's shoes for a living.
I'm Maya Okonkwo. I study how people actually live, choose and muddle through, then turn what I learn into products and decisions that fit real life. Ethnography in one hand, usability test in the other.
How I work
No personas invented at a desk. I start from real people in real situations, stay curious longer than is comfortable, and only generalise once the evidence earns it.
Make sense of the mess
Thematic analysis, journey mapping and a healthy suspicion of tidy narratives. The outliers usually matter most.
Hand over something usable
Findings teams can act on: opportunity maps, principles and prototypes, not a 90-page PDF nobody opens.
Where the work happens
Good research starts on someone else's feet. A look at the worlds I've been studying lately, and the people who let me tag along.
What connects these?
Got a question that needs a human answer?
I take on research projects, advisory work and the occasional good argument.
maya@example.com