Didier Hilhorst

I like designing and building stuff. A road cycling, car (but carless) and track enthusiast. 🇱🇺🇳🇱 (yes those flags are different)... 👨‍👩‍👧‍👧

[Didier Hilhorst @didierh]

Life update: after 15 years in San Francisco 🇺🇸, we moved to Paris 🇫🇷! And… after 6 years, today is my last day @Uber — thank you for the ride 🚗. As for what’s next? Some time off first, and I’ll see next year what new adventures await! Here’s to a new chapter in life 🍾🥂.

[Didier Hilhorst @didierh]

Nothing beats launching! You don't get a second chance to make a first impression. @louislecat and team know this, and their product looks ace! Go check it out!

[Louis Lecat @louislecat]

Excited to launch Upstream and announce our $3M pre-seed round

AN INBOX DESIGNED FOR HUMANS AND AGENTS

Upstream's agents sort the noise, draft replies in your exact voice, follow up at the right time, and do what you ask, like finding receipts, scheduling meetings, or writing personalized messages

Thousands of people used it in our closed beta to handle their email. Now available to everyone

How it works: 🧵

[Didier Hilhorst @didierh]

@joshpuckett Amen!

[Didier Hilhorst @didierh]

@joshpuckett @asallen Pull-to-refresh (Loren Brichter)

[Didier Hilhorst @didierh]

@rafahari @retrodotapp Dope! Congrats! Go @retrodotapp

[Zephyr @zephyr_z9]

Crazy diss from Anthropic aimed at OpenAI for introducing ads in ChatGPT
Who is running the Ads department at Anthropic??

[Didier Hilhorst @didierh]

@raphaelschaad This is next level. Remember the Trolloverse at Flipboard?!

[Didier Hilhorst @didierh]

@ChrisTauziet @joshpuckett Also, we’re getting old, I do find myself referencing designs from the 2010s. Golden age for mobile, really ✨

[Didier Hilhorst @didierh]

@ChrisTauziet @joshpuckett Classic!

[Karri Saarinen @karrisaarinen]

https://t.co/RU33K24RsJ

[Didier Hilhorst @didierh]

@benblumenrose If you want more housing, don’t kill heritage, be smart. If anything replace this area (also not simple, but at least more reasonable…)

[Didier Hilhorst @didierh]

Winter arrived in Paris… and in crypto I guess? 😅🤷🏻‍♂️

[Didier Hilhorst @didierh]

@artman @praveenTweets Memories ❤️

[Didier Hilhorst @didierh]

@benblumenrose @EnriqueAllen 🙏❤️

[Didier Hilhorst @didierh]

@raphaelschaad Better to be West Coast?

[Didier Hilhorst @didierh]

@camworboys @hatchconference So great to share the stage with you, inspiring talk!

[Didier Hilhorst @didierh]

What a day! Congrats to @zoink, @yuhkiyam and many others! What a journey 🙌. And yes, “Design is everyone’s business.”

[Figma @figma]

Shipping something big today

[Didier Hilhorst @didierh]

@soleio Same, except it was called Mega Drive in Europe.

[Didier Hilhorst @didierh]

Sharing a proud moment 🥹: we’ve just evolved our brand @AskQonto! It’s such a pleasure to design and build on top of strong foundations with the team ⭐️. We aim to evolve at the same pace as our amazing customers — in business and beyond 😎.

[Nikita Bier @nikitabier]

After advising 50+ consumer companies over the last year, the one thing that separates those who can execute and those who can't:

Having a full-time designer in the room at all times

I've met with countless companies that have raised millions—and even one that has raised billions—that do not even have a designer on payroll.

This makes product development broken:

1/ You simply cannot have constructive conversations about ideas without visualizing them in real-time
2/ Your experiments will frequently have inconclusive results because users cannot discover features or they misunderstand how they work
3/ There is no one who can galvanize the team with a vision of what the product could look and feel like

And to be abundantly clear: I'm not referring to visual UI or graphics. I'm talking about someone who can think through the fundamental building blocks of product comprehension—like navigation, interaction and copywriting—and is technically savvy enough to visualize those components in high resolution.

There can certainly be exceptions to not having a designer, like where the CEO is an exceptional visual thinker, but that does not scale beyond a small team.

At the end of day, products live and die in the pixels: it's what the users see and tap. And without someone shepherding that process, you are effectively wandering the desert blind.

[Didier Hilhorst @didierh]

Universal truth: limitations (or restrictions) breed creativity. Simple.