The Art of Sandboxing

Abstract

In this autoethnographic article, I reflect on my entrepreneurial journey to illustrate the potentials and perils of innovation sandboxing. I highlight how access to sandboxes is a privilege that can both support learning and increase the risks of disconnectedness simultaneously. Through a discussion of my early failures and later successes I attempt to show how sandboxing also enabled my identity exploration, while at the same time, supporting innovation theater and delaying engagement with real-world complexities. I call attention to this simultaneous dichotomy to make the point that sandboxing is neither inherently useful or harmful, and instead context dependent, and thus warrants selecting the right type of sandbox for the task and fostering an ideal organizational culture for innovation. I conclude by proposing a framework for assessing sandbox types to guide selection of sandboxes to maximize learning while avoiding the risks of excessive isolation.

PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY

Sandboxing, a metaphoric play on a child’s containerized play sand pit, refers to purposely insulating processes, services, products, people, and organizations for experimentation and innovation in an environment that purports to limit unintended consequences for the innovators’ benefit. In this article I reflect on my entrepreneurial journey to illustrate the potentials and perils of innovation sandboxing. I highlight how access to sandboxes in the practice of anthropology is a privilege that can both support learning and increase the risks of disconnectedness

Keywords:

• innovation sandboxing
• entrepreneurship
• autoethnography

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Matt Artz

Matt Artz is an anthropologist specializing in user experience, product development, and consumer insights. He is the founder of Azimuth Labs, host of the Anthropology in Business and Anthro to UX podcasts, and an adjunct professor at the Gabelli School of Business at Fordham University. His product design work has attracted attention from Apple’s Planet of the Apps and the South by Southwest (SXSW) Pitch Competition. His talks and articles have been showcased on TED, UNESCO, SXSW, UserZoom, UX Planet, Towards Data Science, and Product Coalition. He is a co-editor of the forthcoming volume, EmTech Anthropology: Careers at the Frontier.