The Agile Artifact - an Antifragile Approach to Design and Innovation
Jan Eckert · Universal Journal of Management · 2017
In this paper, two hypotheses introduce into the question whether incompleteness as an approach to designing artefacts might lead to a better involvement of the artefact's future users and act as a trigger for future innovation. The first hypothesis introduces the concept of Handlungsspielraum which focuses the definition and incompleteness of an artefact in its context. The second picks up Nassim Nicholas Taleb's concept of Antifragility, which embraces uncertainty as an integral part of any (innovation) process. The two hypotheses are illustrated by the comparison of two motorcycle manufacturers, both providing their products with a different attitude towards openness. As a conclusion, the concept of the Agile artefact is introduced. The Agile Artefact fosters an artefact's continuous mutation and improvement by embracing both hypotheses: incompleteness as trigger for innovation and the Antifragile as strategy to embrace the uncertain and overcome crises.