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Our thoughts, based on research and personal experiences.

Blog post

How good is AI at design?

Today, I'm testing AI as design partners. How can they be useful in our UI design process? How do they compete with us? How reusable are their outputs? Can they help us prototype faster? Let's find out!

  • How we use AI in product discovery

    AI tools are here, LLM make that we search completely different and that we can generate text, images and sometimes even videos way faster then before. What does that mean for Product Discovery?

    By Hannes D’Hulster

  • Blog post

    What does it take to build a SaaS product?

    By Serena Yang

    What does it take to build a successful SaaS and to maintain one? Let’s first look at the differences between SaaS software vs. traditional software.

  • From Design to Impact: Our Shift to Doing Good

    This isn’t just a superficial makeover. We’re committed to aligning our projects with our values and making a real impact. And we’re inviting you—our clients, partners, and friends—to join us in this mission.

    By Hannes D’Hulster

  • Everyone benefits from accessible apps

    A typical product design process aims to ensure your product meets the needs of your users. But does it account for all users and situations? If inclusivity is important to you, incorporating accessibility into your design process is essential. In fact, adding accessibility offers additional benefits.

    By Dieter Peirs

  • Blog post

    When investing in your product team makes sense

    By Hannes D’Hulster

    Investing in your product team is crucial for the growth of your SaaS start-up. While sales may bring in immediate revenue, a strong product team is essential for understanding customer needs, onboarding users smoothly, and continuously improving your product.

  • 6th Women in Product dinner: Real Talks & Epic Food

    Discover all about our 6th Women in Product dinner—an event uniting women in tech for in-depth discussions over meals. With a focus on female founders, this gathering highlighted challenges in product innovation, early-stage pitfalls, evolving design frameworks, and the power of community collaboration. Beyond business, we hope these dinners foster personal connections, serving as catalysts for change within the tech industry.

  • Women In Product Dinner: for the love of food, people and Product

    At Smooth Sailing, we enjoy qualitative, yet informal networking. That’s why we love to organise ‘Women in Product’ dinners; small scale dinners where we welcome about 15’ish women that work in the Product scene. In the time span of a few courses, we share our experiences, future career ambitions, laughs and we broaden our network. Last Thursday we hosted the second edition, together with Amplitude.

  • Blog post

    You probably need a design system. Or do you?

    By Dieter Peirs

    Design systems are a common topic if you work in product design. Creating such a system is often sold as the fix to all of your product’s design, scaling and consistency issues. But is it really the best solution for your product?

  • Collaborative documentation: Feature passports

    Crafting digital products is an interdisciplinary process, which makes aligning visions and communicating between separate disciplines quite challenging. Feature passports help lower those barriers.

  • Design discussions can be messy

    Blog post

    Hypotheses: the design nursery

    By Hannes D’Hulster

    As good designers, we all know that everything starts with understanding our users. But sometimes we are already having discussions with clients, drawing things and checking out competitors.

  • The oak table

    I want you to imagine a large massive oak table that has been passed on to you by your grandparents. It is robust and serves its purpose well: supporting food and enabling social contact.

    By Hannes D’Hulster

  • How usability lets your users engage more

    Whether you are selling toys to new parents online through a webshop or providing your employees with a platform to manage customers’ financial data, your digital solution will sabotage your company if it is not user-friendly.

  • Blog post

    Hey Google, how do I design for Voice?

    Voice is popping up everywhere. It’s integrated in our phones, tablets, speakers, headphones and even our cars. Our designer Inti explains on how to get started with Voice Interface. It is the ideal step to start even without technical knowledge.

  • Let’s go Smooth Sailing ⛵

    It has been 5 years already since I went my own way, head-first into design research. I was a bit scared, naturally, but I was also really eager to be my own boss.

    By Hannes D’Hulster

  • Blog post

    Time for software design to grow up

    By Hannes D’Hulster

    The value of software design is greater than having good looking interfaces and frictionless flows. Good design creates an impact on the long-term behaviour of people and therefore it impacts the world we live in.

  • A designer’s guide to talking with users

    Even with good intentions, it is not easy to get the right user insights. Qualitative research is the basis of a solid digital product that people can relate to. This is why I wrote a blog post or two (in Dutch) about how important it is to involve users in your design research.

    By Hannes D’Hulster

  • Never ask a designer to build a bridge

    Have you ever worked on a project where something looks off and it’s easy to adjust, but your designer says no? If the designer would just make this simple change, but still no!

    By Hannes D’Hulster