This PDW examines the central role of artifacts in processes of development and change across fields and practices including entrepreneurship, innovation, project management, strategy, and future-making. In these and other areas, managerial work often amounts to artifact-centered processes in which final outcomes emerge via various “intermediate artifacts” such as conceptual models, material prototypes, digital simulations, and operational plans. Such artifacts serve diverse functions: as focusing devices that produce shared visions and guide concrete actions, as boundary objects that enable feedback and collaboration across domains, and as unfolding artifacts that are left intentionally incomplete to invite creative engagement. While scholars in different fields are theorizing and investigating artifact-centered practices, there is little discussion across fields. This PDW aims to encourage such dialogue.
