Arguably we can’t just say something is the most important–this is my pick.
Do not commit to doing the experiment until you have in your mind a vision of what the outcome could look like. Is your experiment going to create a graph? Draw an example of how you think it will look, and write down what it means. Have an alternate scenario, a different way of drawing what the draft could look like, and explain how that proves what you were thinking is not the answer.
What we are trying to avoid here, is the horrifying situation where you get the results and you stare at the results and your first thought is “I have no idea what that means”.
Yes, you could get results that you hadn’t anticipated even if you do what we say above, but we hope that this reduces the chance of that happening.
Don’t be afraid of Falsification– people in your field will appreciate that you were candid and honest about it and that gives you credibility and let’s plan on you having a success at some point in the near future. Also, sometimes people who were wrong on the first guess, but they figure out what the answer is, end up with something better than what they had originally imagined.
Rob Sterling 