portrait of woman

I’m Yuanyi (Elaine) Zhou, a Senior Product Designer with 5+ years of experience in enterprise, AI, and growth design.

At Microsoft Places, I led the design of AI-powered workflows for space management, enabling intelligent automation at scale. Previously at Udemy, I drove high-impact projects across homepage, checkout, and enterprise flows to boost conversion and growth.

I’m also the co-founder and design lead of MockAI, where I bring AI-driven interview prep tools to market. Outside work, I mentor emerging designers through ADPList and UXGO.

Right now I am...

Daily:

Psychology book lover, passionate painter, and a dreamer building my way as an entrepreneur.

Dream:

Building thoughtful AI tools that empower people in their everyday decisions, and I dream of creating products that blend intelligence, trust, and human-centered design at scale.

Recently:

Curious about design in AI, and finding my north star.

Working with me

Some kudos I received from my past managers and collegues

Pilar Strutin-Belinoff

Senior Design Director @Udemy

What an honor and pleasure to have Elaine on our team. She is been a key contributor for many hugely impactful projects. She is curious, a deep thinker and an active contributor to our work and as a core member of our team.

Her collaborative spirit is invaluable, and her well-explored and thoughtful design solutions and approaches demonstrates that she is a keen advocate for our users. She is a fantastic designer, team member and mentor - truly a pillar on our team!

Aaron Woo

Principal Product Design Director @Microsoft

Elaine worked with me at Microsoft helping to design new experiences for IT admins. She worked closely with PMs and devs to translate their requirements into high quality designs. She was inclusive, listening to their POV and feedback, and incorporating it into her work.

While doing this she was very mindful of our design system and applied it with a detailed eye. Additionally, she contributed frequently in our team crits and was always down to help others. Overall, Elaine delivered thoughtful, detailed designs and was great to have on our team.

Carrie Cosgrove

Senior Product Designer @Microsoft

Elaine (Yuanyi) is a great designer and a natural self-starter. Not only does she work hard; she works smart. She has experience in wrangling nebulous projects and keeping them on-track. Partners appreciate her ability to communicate about designs in ways that they understand and can interact with.

Not only does she excel at design, she also strengthens team dynamics by creating and hosting team activities. I haven't laughed harder with our team than during her team-building exercises. Elaine is such an asset to any design team and I strongly recommend her.

Elaine Wei

Senior Manager @iTalkBB

Yuanyi is a fantastic designer and team member. She is creative not only in her design sense, but also in her ability to generate ideas and take initiatives to implement them.

During her time at iTalk, she has helped us redesign the UI for web and app experience, and worked cross-functionally with product and engineering team on development. Her experience and understanding of design is a great asset and I would recommend for any team to have her.

When I’m not working

I painted to practice focus and clear my head

© Elaine Zhou 2025

I’m Yuanyi (Elaine) Zhou, a Senior Product Designer with 5+ years of experience in enterprise, AI, and growth design.

At Microsoft Places, I led the design of AI-powered workflows for space management, enabling intelligent automation at scale. Previously at Udemy, I drove high-impact projects across homepage, checkout, and enterprise flows to boost conversion and growth.

I’m also the co-founder and design lead of MockAI, where I bring AI-driven interview prep tools to market. Outside work, I mentor emerging designers through ADPList and UXGO.

Right now I am...

Daily:

Psychology book lover, passionate painter, and a dreamer building my way as an entrepreneur.

Dream:

Building thoughtful AI tools that empower people in their everyday decisions, and I dream of creating products that blend intelligence, trust, and human-centered design at scale.

Recently:

Curious about design in AI, and finding my north star.

Working with me

Some kudos I received from my past managers and collegues

Pilar Strutin-Belinoff

Senior Design Director @Udemy

What an honor and pleasure to have Elaine on our team. She is been a key contributor for many hugely impactful projects. She is curious, a deep thinker and an active contributor to our work and as a core member of our team.

Her collaborative spirit is invaluable, and her well-explored and thoughtful design solutions and approaches demonstrates that she is a keen advocate for our users. She is a fantastic designer, team member and mentor - truly a pillar on our team!

Aaron Woo

Principal Product Design Director @Microsoft

Elaine worked with me at Microsoft helping to design new experiences for IT admins. She worked closely with PMs and devs to translate their requirements into high quality designs. She was inclusive, listening to their POV and feedback, and incorporating it into her work.

While doing this she was very mindful of our design system and applied it with a detailed eye. Additionally, she contributed frequently in our team crits and was always down to help others. Overall, Elaine delivered thoughtful, detailed designs and was great to have on our team.

Carrie Cosgrove

Senior Product Designer @Microsoft

Elaine (Yuanyi) is a great designer and a natural self-starter. Not only does she work hard; she works smart. She has experience in wrangling nebulous projects and keeping them on-track. Partners appreciate her ability to communicate about designs in ways that they understand and can interact with.

Not only does she excel at design, she also strengthens team dynamics by creating and hosting team activities. I haven't laughed harder with our team than during her team-building exercises. Elaine is such an asset to any design team and I strongly recommend her.

Elaine Wei

Senior Manager @iTalkBB

Yuanyi is a fantastic designer and team member. She is creative not only in her design sense, but also in her ability to generate ideas and take initiatives to implement them.

During her time at iTalk, she has helped us redesign the UI for web and app experience, and worked cross-functionally with product and engineering team on development. Her experience and understanding of design is a great asset and I would recommend for any team to have her.



When I’m not working

I painted to practice focus and clear my head

© Elaine Zhou 2025

I’m Yuanyi (Elaine) Zhou, a Senior Product Designer with 5+ years of experience in enterprise, AI, and growth design.

At Microsoft Places, I led the design of AI-powered workflows for space management, enabling intelligent automation at scale. Previously at Udemy, I drove high-impact projects across homepage, checkout, and enterprise flows to boost conversion and growth.

I’m also the co-founder and design lead of MockAI, where I bring AI-driven interview prep tools to market. Outside work, I mentor emerging designers through ADPList and UXGO.

Right now I am...

Daily:

Psychology book lover, passionate painter, and a dreamer building my way as an entrepreneur.

Dream:

Building thoughtful AI tools that empower people in their everyday decisions, and I dream of creating products that blend intelligence, trust, and human-centered design at scale.

Recently:

Curious about design in AI, and finding my north star.

Working with me

Some kudos I received from my past managers and collegues

Pilar Strutin-Belinoff

Senior Design Director @Udemy

What an honor and pleasure to have Elaine on our team. She is been a key contributor for many hugely impactful projects. She is curious, a deep thinker and an active contributor to our work and as a core member of our team.

Her collaborative spirit is invaluable, and her well-explored and thoughtful design solutions and approaches demonstrates that she is a keen advocate for our users. She is a fantastic designer, team member and mentor - truly a pillar on our team!

Aaron Woo

Principal Product Design Director @Microsoft

Elaine worked with me at Microsoft helping to design new experiences for IT admins. She worked closely with PMs and devs to translate their requirements into high quality designs. She was inclusive, listening to their POV and feedback, and incorporating it into her work.

While doing this she was very mindful of our design system and applied it with a detailed eye. Additionally, she contributed frequently in our team crits and was always down to help others. Overall, Elaine delivered thoughtful, detailed designs and was great to have on our team.

Carrie Cosgrove

Senior Product Designer @Microsoft

Elaine (Yuanyi) is a great designer and a natural self-starter. Not only does she work hard; she works smart. She has experience in wrangling nebulous projects and keeping them on-track. Partners appreciate her ability to communicate about designs in ways that they understand and can interact with.

Not only does she excel at design, she also strengthens team dynamics by creating and hosting team activities. I haven't laughed harder with our team than during her team-building exercises. Elaine is such an asset to any design team and I strongly recommend her.

Elaine Wei

Senior Manager @iTalkBB

Yuanyi is a fantastic designer and team member. She is creative not only in her design sense, but also in her ability to generate ideas and take initiatives to implement them.

During her time at iTalk, she has helped us redesign the UI for web and app experience, and worked cross-functionally with product and engineering team on development. Her experience and understanding of design is a great asset and I would recommend for any team to have her.



When I’m not working

I painted to practice focus and clear my head

© Elaine Zhou 2025

portrait of woman

YUANYI ZHOU

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