Humea

Most product work asks what users do. Good ones ask how they feel. We work underneath both, with what's actually moving the people on the other side of the screen. Humea is a product practice grounded in anthropology and contemporary research on human motivation, Self-Determination Theory, eudaimonic well-being, and Eudaimonic HCI. We treat users as people with intrinsic needs (autonomy, competence, relatedness, purpose, growth) and build products that meet those needs rather than work around them. The hard problems in product today aren't design and code. They're strategy, communication, product-market fit, and understanding what people actually need. That's where we focus, and where most teams get stuck. Our groundwork phase runs four weeks. It starts with an in-depth workshop and ends with a strategy and concrete applications of it. Some go to market as growth initiatives within weeks. Others lay foundations for deeper work. You leave with a clear picture of who your users are, what's moving them, and what to build next. Design and engineering follow from that. With the right understanding in place, execution is the straightforward part. We have senior designers and engineers from across the globe, from design systems to protocol-level code, working as one team rather than a hand-off. We're about 35 people. Past collaborators include Johnson & Johnson, Revolut, DoorDash, HBO, Carta, Polygon, Avalanche, Alpha Sense, and Tele2. The work has catalyzed roughly one billion in measured revenue, with outcomes like $300M for DoorDash. We work on products that serve the people who use them: financial health, physical and mental health, education, civic and public-interest tools, climate, and other work that helps people live, work, and decide better. We've started the no-harm foundation to make that commitment institutional rather than just stated. We'd like to be helpful. If you have questions, or something we could think through with you, please write.