Ethan Ardolino 6.1040

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Response to Henry Asa's Blog Post ​

I would like to start by saying that Henry gives an EXCELLENT outline of the underlying reasons to create and benefits recieved from an Impact Case. I highly suggest reading his blog post prior to continue reading the following critique. Critique may even be the wrong word. The content Henry speaks of is excellent, I just feel that there are external benefits not highlighted in Henry's post that occur before and after creating an Impact case.

Before an Impact Case? Research and Discovery! ​

One particularly important detail not mentioned in Henry's post that we did in class was research. As 6.031 would say, this prelimary research is a benevolent side-effect of creating an Impact Case. This exploration of the problem space can benefit your ideation and formulation of your solution in a few different facets:

  1. identify relevant stakeholders
  2. relate to solutions of similar problems
  3. discover either (a) previous solution attempts (were they successful? why or why not?) or (b) lack there of (why haven't others attempted to solve this problem?)

Henry's post may have implicitly included this under the notion of creating an Impact case. However, I wanted to explicitly state the importance of this research step. Your Research and Discovery will not only give great insight when creating an Impact Case, but also grant you a deeper and more thorough understanding of your problem space.

After an Impact Case? Concept Articulation! ​

Another critical outcome of your Impact Case is the ability to comminucate your vision to others. I am a member of the GEL program, and creating a powerful vision statement is a crucial task when embarking on solving a technical problem. Articulating said vision spans across multiple audiences and reasons:

  1. recruiting talent
  2. gather funding from investors
  3. kickstart ideas towards a marketing campaign for potential users

Although (most likely) outside of the scope of this class, in a real-world setting these conversations will be make-or-break interactions towards your venture's future.