Funmilayo Obasa

Three years into her History degree, Funmilayo pivoted into Design and Research, a move that was borne out of her preference for psychology — understanding human beings, their emotions, motivations, and behaviours and using that knowledge to create optimised interventions.

Funmilayo is a Researcher and Designer focused on purpose-led products and initiatives within and outside Africa. She is passionate about designing and improving health, education, and information systems for extreme, non-average, or ignored groups. Her work includes supporting Sonder and the Gates Foundation in the development of Pathways, a vulnerability-led framework that provides data and insights to improve women’s health and well-being. Additionally, she was part of the Research team tasked with understanding the health-seeking behaviours of women in Lagos state, Nigeria.  The insights of this work continue to inform the digital-first strategy of the Gates Foundation.

Funmilayo was drawn to Sonder due to its decentralized and flexible structure, diverse project and client base and network of experienced professionals. She describes the collective as a deep well of unending knowledge.

Outside work, Funmilayo is a photography enthusiast, writer, lover of words and narratives on an eternal journey of self-discovery, self-awareness, and enduring fulfilment. Her overarching aim is to design sustainable businesses, initiatives, products, services, or simply put, experiences and systems that aim to help underserved and vulnerable groups. She is equally interested in using storytelling and information design to solve communication, organizational, experience and systemic problems in various sectors.