Additional guidance for preparing your Proposed Solution Memo

<aside> 🤔 In your career, there will be many instances where you will need to present or ‘pitch’ your work, your ideas, and even yourself.

In these situations, time is always the most important limiting factor – meaning you cannot take an infinite amount of time (or written/multimedia materials that take time to read) to present every piece of information collected and knowledge you have gained.

You will find it invaluable in your career to develop the ability to prioritise what is most important for your audience to understand, and the skill to succinctly present those points and leave an impactful impression. Your Proposed Solution Memo provides an opportunity to develop that ability and skill.

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<aside> 🗺️ Tips on being succinct and effective in your Proposed Solution Memo

“I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” – Mark Twain

This is an important quote to keep in mind as you prepare your Proposed Solution Memo. Writing something – including scripting a video – that is clear and succinct takes more time than writing something that is longer but ultimately less effective at conveying your message. That being said, there is also a fine line between being succinct and leaving out critical information.

Your goal is to create something that is as engaging and comprehensive as possible within the time and space that you have. Whether in comedy or in presentations, the best punchline falls flat if it is delivered too late. In the case of your Proposed Solution Memo, too late means after your audience – in this Bootcamp, the Judges – have stopped watching!

This means that you need to be thoughtful in the word choice and the material that you choose to include in your video and text. Well referenced background and context is certainly needed to support your key points – but starting with your key messages and then later providing the justification and supporting data for those messages is much better than lots of background at the start and burying your key messages where they might be overlooked.

For your video, writing (and sticking to) a script will help you stay on track, and focus on ensuring your key messages and most important supporting information come across loud and clear. In your script: limit transition words; avoid frilly explanations; be direct.

<aside> 👀 For example:

To get to that point with your script, you can start by writing – or even recording – a first draft of what you want to say, and then cutting words as much as possible.
Record a first draft, then cut words without losing meaning.

The ten words in the second bullet contain the most important information from the more than thirty in the first bullet! You can take the same approach with the written parts of your Proposed Solution Memo. Write a first draft, then remove words without cutting meaning.

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It definitely takes more time to iterate your writing in this way; but it also has a big payoff. Being succinct in the points you make means you can add (a lot) more information to back your key points up!

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<aside> 🗺️ Develop your narrative

There is always value to creating a narrative, or story, that explains how real people are negative impacted by the problem you’re looking at.

In the context of yourTEMPLATE → Team X-Y Proposed Solution Memo you might want your video to start by telling the story of a local stakeholder that has a problem. That can be a powerful way of explaining the most important elements of the problem to any viewer.

As examples of what a strong “narrative” approach can look like, below here are two good examples of Proposed Solution videos (one to two minutes) that come from one of How to Change the World’s Bootcamps:

Team 3-C – Reinventing Environmental Education on Villiers Island. February 2021. How to Change the World | February 2021.

Team 6-C – Inuvik Artisans Online. How to Change the World | February 2021.

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