Products People Actually Want
A practical guide to choosing the right problem, making better design decisions, and bringing the rest of the team with you.
Nineteen chapters on research, scope, systems, stakeholder conversations, and the daily work between a promising idea and a product people keep using.
Buy the bookProducts People Actually Want
The book follows a design process shaped by real projects, with deadlines, competing opinions, and the occasional spreadsheet. It covers research, scope, and the parts of the job that receive less attention, including how to bring in perspectives beyond your own and explain a design decision to someone who prefers the other option because it looks more modern.
“This book captures what most product design resources miss.”
This book captures what most product design resources miss: the human relationships that make or break building great products.
Anton's practical approach to everything from user research to internal communication reads like advice from a trusted mentor. I wish I'd had this book earlier in my career.
Kevin Twohy
Principal Designer, Twohy Design Works
“If you're tired of design books that talk in circles, this one addresses the work as it is.”
The rare design book that cuts through the noise and gets to the heart of what matters: designing for real people.
Anton is direct about the realities of product design—the messy trade-offs, the pressure to ship, the challenge of balancing business goals with actual user needs.
Fedor Shkliarau
Author of Product Design Portfolio Final Final
Everything in the book
Part 1
Understanding product design
What design actually means in a team where everyone makes design decisions.
1. What product design actually means
2. Why everyone makes design decisions
3. Product design as a problem solver
4. Beyond the screen
Part 2
Building your practice
The day-to-day reality of design work: leading teams, doing research, building strategy.
5. The reality of product design work
6. Being the only designer
7. Leading without losing your craft
8. User research and stakeholder interviews
9. Creating a UX strategy
Part 3
The craft
Process, principles, and design systems that actually hold up.
10. The product design process
11. Design principles
12. Creating meaningful design systems
Part 4
Communication & influence
How to write, speak, and sell design to people who think in spreadsheets.
13. Why designers need to write
14. Using writing to think through problems
15. How to sell design
16. Why designers need to speak business
Part 5
Designing for humans
Building products people care about: emotional design, accessibility, and going beyond good enough.
17. Building emotional relationships with users
18. Designing for anyone
19. Going beyond good enough
“This is the guide every Product Designer wishes they had.”
Anton's nailed it.
It's practical, super relevant for 2025 and honestly the stuff UX schools should have been teaching us all along!
Buzz Usborne
Principal Designer & Coach
“Truly a design mentor in book-form.”
What I like about this book is that it's an easy read that talks about design in a holistic way.
It's a book I wish I read at the beginning of my career, because it really shows the many facets that make up design and underlines it with personal stories, concrete examples and practical tips.
Now reading this book further into my career it still is insightful - but also just very relatable and reassuring.
Maureen Herben
Senior designer, Typeform
Ready to build products people actually want?
The book is $29, delivered instantly as PDF and ePub, and comes with access to the subscriber Slack for questions and feedback.
Regional parity pricing available for e-book: use code REGIONAL at checkout to get the book for $10.
“Sharp, grounded, and unflinching.”
Most design books are written from the sidelines. This one is written from the arena.
Anton's Products People Actually Want doesn't dress design up in theory—it lays bare the real, messy work of building products people care about.
Sharp, grounded, and unflinching. A reminder that success isn't about features, it's about outcomes that matter.
Sharif Matar
Design Leader
Start with two free chapters
They should tell you whether the other seventeen are worth $29.
About me
I've spent the past 29 years designing and consulting for companies like IKEA, Herman Miller, Loom, Google, and Spotify. I recently spent three and a half years as Head of Design at Summer Health, and now work with a small number of teams as their fractional design lead.
Along the way, my writing has found its way into the design community, and I've had the chance to speak at conferences and design schools around the world.
I'm based in Sweden, where I split my time between building products that matter, writing about design, and taking long walks with my wife and our dog, Taylor.