A “New” View of Proof-of-Concept Practices Through the Lenses of Activity Theory and Hermeneutics

Abstract

In this study, the authors acknowledge Proof-of-Concept (PoC) as an activity with a set of practices performed by its practitioners and consumed by organizations that aim to explore new products or technologies and achieve knowledge production and consumption. PoC practices are poorly explored and characterized in the scientific literature. The motivation of this research is the clarification of an approach to PoC. This article introduces a “new” and different view of PoC practices using Activity Theory and Hermeneutics. The authors debate that it is not possible to understand the whole PoC until its constituent parts and context have been understood. Therefore, the process of appropriation of knowledge in PoC occurs in social interaction between one practitioner and another, through an activity that is mediated in the relations between those practitioners, and an activity between the triad—subject (practitioner), object of learning (outcome), and mediating artifacts—with the aim of improving PoC practices.