There are a lot of people with great ideas, but hardly anyone invests in their concept and brings them to reality. A journey from the idea to the actual step is a huge transition. As Seth Godin says, “an excellent design should have a commitment of 100 steps to implementation.”

Every research starts with an idea, and researchers produce hundreds of hypothetical scenarios. They test, eliminate, refine, reiterate their problem questions as many times as possible until it becomes the 100% right question.

Even the scientific genius, Albert Einstein, said: “If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask… for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.”

Unless we pass this journey of creating hypothetical scenarios and test them, we are nowhere near having a great idea. All successful businesses did not succeed overnight; it is the result of many concepts put to trial combined with hard work that resulted in the smartest outcome.

No evaluation can be achieved without going through the process and your investment of effort. The point can be found in shreds of evidence everywhere, from natural processes to man-made products. In fact, scenario planning has dual benefits. One, it helps you eliminate lousy ideas faster before further investment of precious resources. More importantly, it can save you from the frustration of undesirable final results.