The construction industry is ripe for disruption through innovative solutions that provide added productivity. Equipment manufacturers are attempting to disrupt their industry with investments in autonomy, electrification and product-service system business models. Designing solutions that will operate in completely new systems or modify an existing complex system require new approaches to address the uncertainty of system impacts. An iterative approach can help tackle ambiguity through cyclical validation of design decisions. Data mining in each cycle adds a quantitative dimension to the rationale of decision making, but data is sparse and difficult to collect in parallel with design of theoretical product-service systems operating in future scenarios. This can be combated using experiential prototyping techniques to design flexible infrastructure that supports contextualized data gathering in a variety of focused design sprints using Design, Build and Test approach. The intricacy of designing innovative solutions to increase productivity in the construction industry can be untangled by framing aspects of the problem in small sprints and testing them in a contextualized setting built to generate functional data to drive design.

Using a case study methodology to exploring an ambitious experimental combination of a construction equipment manufacturer’s products tailored to provide exponential increases in efficiency and reductions in CO2. The products and system represent a relevant example of new technology being the foundation upon which a functional offering IPSS can be designed. The researcher constructed a scaled down functional experiential prototype reflecting a full scale experimental all electric quarry site in under operation outside of Goteborg, Sweden. The prototype site represented the primary equipment and system functionality, to act as a boundary object around which relevant stakeholders both internal and external could share the vision of an electric autonomous future. This was confirmed via observation at an event where the scale site was used for this purpose and verified with follow up interviews to dig deeper into the impact this tangible representation could have in increasing the perceived viability of the full scale technology’s potential on display thousands of miles from the event.