Esther Nam — Resume

Jul 2026 — Present

Dance Coach

Independent project

Product Designer & AI-directed builder

Designed and built an AI practice app for Latin dance teams (student app, instructor dashboard, pose-analysis backend) by directing Claude Code, following the Open Vector curriculum, to test whether pose analysis could give students reliable technique feedback.
Interviewed dance instructors and students, and turned the findings into jobs to be done that set the product's scope.
Ran five rounds of accuracy testing on real footage, identified where MediaPipe can't judge dance technique, and decided to stop development rather than release unreliable feedback to students.

Mar 2024 — May 2026

Pearson

Remote · Higher Ed

Senior Product Designer

Led a cross-product UX audit of Pearson's “Generate” AI assessment portfolio (Writing Solutions + Freehand Grader); its findings set the direction of both products' v1 redesigns and ongoing roadmap.
Led the v1 redesigns of Writing Solutions (assignment creation) and Freehand Grader (student experience).
Ran three rounds of focus groups, each with about a dozen higher-ed instructors, on how instructors view AI in assignment creation.
Won Best Solution for User Impact at Pearson's 48-hour AI-first hackathon (2025) for Focus Gym.

Apr 2021 — Mar 2024

Pearson

Remote · Higher Ed

Interaction Designer

Redesigned Pearson Collections; the launch was followed by an 85% YoY increase in total subscriptions and a 15% lift in digital conversions.
Shaped Pearson+ Job Match from a closed POC, open to a 10% pilot, to a public MVP open to all users — shipped the public home, Careers section, and Work Style Lens™ assessment, validated through moderated user testing.
Contributed to a scalable design system, aligning typography, color, and components across UX teams.

Nov 2017 — Apr 2021

Pearson

Boston, MA

Associate Interaction Designer

Produced wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity mockups for instructor- and student-facing products.

2017

Earlier

Boston, MA

UX Teaching Assistant, General Assembly: mentored UXDI bootcamp students.
Product Designer, Voatz: designed mobile-first flows for a secure mobile voting platform.