I’m Elaine Zhou, a Senior Product Designer at Udemy with a robust background in UX design, leadership, and AI entrepreneurship.

My career spans designing user-centered solutions that optimize conversion & monetization, enhance payment experiences, and drive measurable business growth. At Udemy, I’ve contributed to high-impact projects like the Udemy homepage redesign, checkout optimization, and enterprise product Team Plan 2.0.

As an AI product entrepreneur at MockAI, I merge product design, strategy, and fundraising to bring innovative ideas to life.

I also share my expertise as a mentor at ADPList and UXGO, helping aspiring designers grow their skills and navigate the field.

Work Experience

Udemy

July 2022 - Present
Seattle, Washington

Senior Product Designer

Redesigned Udemy’s homepage for 14 regions, driving a 2.41% increase in GMV and 7.7% user growth. Led the "Team Plan" overhaul, boosting Trial to Paid conversions by 102%. Improved subscription growth by 13.8% through the "Personal Plan" flow, informed by user research. Enhanced design system consistency and mentored an intern to optimize the checkout process, significantly increasing conversion rates.

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MockAI

May 2024 - Present
Seattle, Washington

Chief Product Officer

Directed product strategy and design for MockAI, focusing on mock interviews for engineers. 
Led the landing page creation and overall UX, ensuring a smooth user experience. 
Refined the product through user research and secured funding by engaging investors, fueling the startup’s growth.

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Microsoft

Jan 2022 - July 2022
Redmond, Washington

Product Designer II (Contract)

Led the design of M365 Organization Messages from concept to Public Preview, including messaging features, dashboard management, and data visualization. Developed illustration components to enhance design system consistency and usability. Created impactful marketing visuals for the Windows 11 launch, supporting a successful release.

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ViaSat

Jun 2021 - Sep 2021
Carlsbad, California

Product Design (Intern)

Iterated account management features for web and mobile apps that responded to 85% positive response rate in usability tests. Improved design culture by creating presentation templates and facilitating bi-weekly design jams for a 40-member team.

iTalkBB

Sep 2019 - Sep 2020
McLean, Virginia

Associate Product Designer

Drove growth and engagement by designing and launching 6 new features, including video feeds and comments, leading to 270k+ new users in 12 months.Revamped the user registration process, cutting sign-up time by 31 seconds and sign-in time by 16 seconds, and reduced app abandonment rates by 14% through improved onboarding.Boosted user retention by 19% in 6 months through data-driven design decisions based on Google Analytics insights.

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ByteDance

Sep 2018 - Jan 2019
Beijing, China

Content & User Insight Analyst

Drove growth and engagement by analyzing website performance and user insights, updating the product manager persona to guide strategy.Developed growth plans for TopBuzz creators, enhancing engagement through user research and feedback, and optimizing the user experience.

Academic Background

University of Washington, Seattle

Sep 2020 - Jun 2022
Seattle, Washington

Master of Science in
Human-centered Design and Engineering

University of California, San Diego

Sep 2016 - Jun 2019
San Diego, California

Bachelor of Arts in
Visual Art - Interdisciplinary Computing Art

Working with me

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!
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Pilar Strutin-Belinoff

Senior Design Director
‍Udemy

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.

Aaron Woo

Principal Product Design Director
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.

Carrie Cosgrove

Senior Product Designer
‍Microsoft

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.



Elaine Wei

Senior Manager
‍iTalkBB

Get in touch

elainezhou1996@gmail.com  •  571-435-2347