<aside> ℹ️ If well developed, your own Design Criteria should already provide detailed, problem-specific metrics for most, if not all, of the four dimensions outlined in this page.

That being said, it is important to ensure your proposed solution against these four dimensions, because those evaluating your final Proposed Solution Report will certainly be looking for all four! (You will also find that all four of these elements are explicit areas being evaluated within the Analytic Grading Rubric for your Proposed Solution Report.)

• Technical Feasibility
• Financial Viability
• Social Acceptability
• Sustainability Pillars (Environmental, Social & Economic)

Below is further guidance on how you can approach each of these four dimensions.

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<aside> ⚙️ Technical Feasibility

While we encourage you to be innovative with your solution, it also needs to have a realistic timeline and implementation plan. This means your solution cannot realistically require new technologies that do not exist currently! There has to be an incorporation of existing technologies in order for your solution to feasibly be implemented today. For example, if your solution involves Elon Musk's unreleased brain-cap technology, or futuristic zero gravity technology, you may be stretching the technical components of your solution just a wee bit too far.

Instead, consider the following if you are still trying to be innovative:

• Is there another location that shares similar geography to your context that is using existing technology that is not yet implemented in your location to address a similar problem?
• Is there a way to promote the efficiency of technical systems within your location by combining the technology to make one larger more streamlined system?

Think back on your research of the problem. Try to identify any systems or sub-systems that already exist, but have not been (completely) effective at addressing the problem you are focused on. Alternatively, you research where there are existing solutions to the problem you have identified anywhere else in the world, and then consider what it could look like to adapt it to the context you are focused on.

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<aside> 🏦 Financial Viability

It should go without saying that, in order to be implementable, any proposed solution has to within the financial means of stakeholders involved with the solution. Of course, there are many different ways that costs can be covered. In this bootcamp we strongly encourage entrepreneurial solutions that have solid business models underpinning them; however many highly entrepreneurial solutions – especially ones with significant social and environmental benefit – do rely on government subsidies to get started.

As you are considering the financial model for your proposed solution, here are a few key factors to consider are:

• Do you have a business model that identifies likely customers within your key stakeholders who are likely to be able to – and want to – pay for your solution?
• Are there stakeholders already implementing a similar project that could be partnered with?

• Are there government or philanthropic funds available for supporting this type of solution already available within the area? If so, how would you access them?
• Do you – and perhaps the local community – already have access to skills or resources which would reduce the costs of implementation?

These are just some of the questions you will want to consider. You will need to do some of your own research – for example, looking at municipal, regional and federal programs to see if the problem you are focusing on has any dedicated funds available.

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<aside> 🤝 Social Acceptability

This may at first be hard for you to gain a complete understanding of this dimension, given that you likely have not resided within your local (exchange) community for very long. You will also not have time in this bootcamp for comprehensive academic interviews with hundreds of broad and diverse groups of local stakeholders.

That said, you do have the opportunity to identify and speak with a good number of local Community Representatives and Experts. Through your analysis of key stakeholder needs and wants, you should also have developed an initial understanding of the cultural and societal context. Within your solution, you want to do your best to consider how it will be perceived by stakeholders within the area. Considering the following can help you better understand how your proposed solution may be perceived locally:

• Does the proposed solution interfere with any local cultural practices? Does it take up land used for something else? Does it replace tradition?
• Does the proposed solution incorporate involvement of the community that lives there? Does it provide direct benefit to the local residents in the community?
• Does your proposed solution outsource work or require external expertise or technologies to be brought in? How might that make the community feel?

Make sure you reflect on the “what matters most” column of your stakeholder analysis table in your Design Brief. Ensure that is fleshed out, and that you are testing proposed solutions against the information you have there to see if any stakeholders might be put out. Reflect on and try to address what you have heard and talked about with the local stakeholders already, and consider what else you might need to ask during or following the fourth workshop.

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<aside> 🏛️ Sustainability Pillars

You may recall that resource guides you through crafting sustainability goals for each pillar and, ideally, integrating those goals into your Design Criteria. In your Proposed Solution Report, you need to address how your proposed solution addresses these sustainability pillars.

If you have already integrated the most important sustainability considerations into your Design Criteria, then simply showing how your proposed solution meets those criteria should be enough!

As you evaluate your potential solutions you may decide to go back and tweak and change your Design Criteria as you continue to develop a deeper understanding of your context. This is more than acceptable; it is highly encouraged!

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