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How to Create a Practical Crisis Management Plan [+ Templates]
Tomorrow isn't promised.
In the past few years alone, global pandemics, geopolitical tensions, and disruptive technologies have upended business as usual.
According to PwC’s 2023 Global Crisis and Resilience Survey, 96% of business leaders experienced disruption in the past two years, and 76% said it had a medium to high impact on their operations.
In an era where change can be sudden and sweeping, static forecasts and single-point projections aren’t enough. That's why more executives are embracing scenario planning—a strategic preparedness tool that helps leaders think through multiple plausible futures and build resilient strategies to navigate them.
Royal Dutch Shell famously used scenario planning to anticipate the 1973 oil crisis. While competitors scrambled, Shell was prepared, and that foresight gave them a lasting competitive edge,
That early move cemented scenario planning as a core part of their long-term strategy, and it’s just as relevant today.
So how can your company build that level of resilience and foresight?
This guide will walk you through the essential steps of scenario planning, provide real-world examples and equip you with the tools to turn uncertainty into a competitive advantage.
Let’s dive in!
Scenario planning is a strategic process that helps organizations prepare for an uncertain future by exploring multiple “what-if” situations.
Instead of trying to predict exactly what will happen, this framework examines a range of possible futures, each based on different combinations of assumptions, events and trends.
These scenarios aren't forecasts or firm predictions. They're alternative versions of how the future could unfold.
By analyzing each one, you can spot potential risks and opportunities ahead of time. This empowers your team to make smarter decisions when disruption strikes.
Scenario planning was originally developed for military use. The United States Air Force initiated the first scenarios after World War II to anticipate surprise nuclear attacks by considering alternative strategies.
Strategists like Herman Kahn later adapted the approach for the business world. And today, it’s widely used in industries facing rapid change, uncertainty or complexity.
As far back as the 1970s, scenarios played a role in most strategic company decisions for companies like Shell. Big corporations use it to stress-test strategies, evaluate the impact of key choices and stay one step ahead of disruption.
When it comes to planning for the future, institutions often rely on tools like scenario planning, forecasting and business continuity planning.
These strategies may seem similar at first glance, but each one tackles uncertainty from a different angle.
In fact, many businesses use them together to stay prepared from all sides.
Let’s take a closer look at how each approach works and how they differ.
Scenario planning is like mapping out multiple roads that the future might take. You’re not guessing which one will happen; you’re exploring what could happen.
For example, a retail company might examine scenarios like a major supply chain disruption, a sudden shift to e-commerce or an economic downturn and then prepare flexible strategies for each.
The power of this technique lies in its ability to help leaders break out of rigid mental models. As Pierre Wack, widely considered the father of modern scenario planning, once explained:
“If managers operate within defined confines, they no longer tend to see solutions outside their own view of the world. Scenarios can remove the blinkers from managers’ eyes and show them alternative windows on the world.”— Pierre Wack, the ‘Father of Scenarios’
Forecasting, on the other hand, is more straightforward. It uses current data and trends to make educated guesses about what is most likely to happen. For instance, a business might forecast next quarter’s sales based on past performance and market trends.
Still, even seasoned executives recognize the limits of forecasting in a world of rapid change. As Shell’s former Group Managing Director André Bénard pointed out:
“Experience has taught us that the scenario technique is much more conducive to forcing people to think about the future than the forecasting techniques we formerly used.” — André Bénard, former Group Managing Director, Shell
Business continuity planning (BCP) is all about survival. It focuses on how to keep your operations running during a crisis, like a cyberattack, a natural disaster or a system outage. Think of a business continuity plan as your emergency game plan when things go sideways.
Now let’s break it all down in a side-by-side comparison:
| Aspect | Scenario Planning | Forecasting | Business Continuity Planning |
| Primary Goal | Prepare for multiple possible futures | Predict the most likely future | Ensure operations can continue during disruptions |
| Approach | Exploratory and flexible | Data-driven and trend-based | Risk management and recovery-based |
| Use Cases | Strategic planning, innovation and market shifts | Sales planning, budgeting and resource allocation | Natural disasters, cyberattacks and supply chain failures |
| Time Horizon | Long-term (5–20+ years) | Short to medium-term (1–5 years) | Immediate to short-term (0–12 months) |
| Assumptions | Considers uncertainties and unknowns | Based on known variables and historical data | Assumes disruptions are temporary but critical |
A full-fledged scenario planning exercise takes time, effort and often a significant investment.
So is it worth committing to? Let’s break down the pros and cons to help you decide.
Below are the benefits of scenario planning:
Now let’s examine the drawbacks of scenario planning:
The scenario planning matrix is a visual framework that helps teams use to construct and visualize possible scenarios based on the interplay of two critical uncertainties.
Each axis represents one critical uncertainty and the four quadrants represent the combination of outcomes, resulting in four alternative futures.
To deepen the thinking behind each scenario, the matrix is usually supported by:
Here’s a step-by-step guide to developing your own scenario planning matrix, along with a visual illustration I created:
Begin by brainstorming a wide range of uncertainties that could affect your business, industry or environment. These uncertainties can range from regulatory shifts to consumer trends, emerging technologies, climate change, and even economic factors.
From your list, choose the two uncertainties that are both the most unpredictable and the most impactful to your strategic goals.
In the example above, I selected two critical uncertainties that are both highly impactful and unpredictable for retail businesses:
For each of these uncertainties, define two extreme but plausible future states. These will form the ends of your X and Y axes.
Use the two uncertainties as axes to create a 2x2 grid. Each quadrant now represents a unique future scenario which is a combination of how both uncertainties could play out.
Write short, vivid descriptions that capture what the world might look like in each quadrant. Include key actors, events and outcomes. These narratives should feel realistic, even if they challenge your current assumptions.
For each scenario, develop an influence diagram to visualize the causal relationships and strategic levers. Then, create a fact sheet summarizing the scenario, key metrics and potential strategic moves.
In my example, the bottom section highlights the strategic implication. This narrative basically explains how each scenario would impact investment priorities, competitive positioning, risk management and what early warning indicators to monitor.
Scenarios are a powerful way to manage uncertainty, whether you’re navigating short-term disruptions like flooding, a financial crisis or a pandemic or preparing for long-term challenges such as climate change or shifts in public health behavior.
But not all types of scenario planning work for every context. Some approaches are designed for the long term, while others are more focused on immediate operational risks.
Here’s a breakdown of the most widely used types of scenario planning.
| Type | What It’s About | Time Horizon | Best For |
| Strategic Management Scenarios | Focuses on long-term planning and positioning based on external forces, trends and internal capabilities. | Long Term (5–20+ years) | Corporate strategy, market expansion and competitive positioning. |
| Quantitative Scenarios | Uses statistical data, economic models and forecasting techniques to predict numeric outcomes. | Medium to Long Term | Financial projections, budgeting and economic scenario modeling. |
| Operational Scenarios | Focuses on short-term events and how they impact day-to-day operations and processes. | Short Term | Crisis response, supply chain interruptions and regulatory change. |
| Normative Scenarios | Starts with a desired future state and works backward to map how to get there. | Long Term | Vision planning, sustainability strategies and organizational transformation. |
In the early 1970s, Royal Dutch Shell faced the same challenge as every other oil company: how to plan for an inherently uncertain future in a volatile global energy market. Shell had started experimenting with scenario planning in 1965, but it was their work in the early 1970s that would prove transformational.
Led by Pierre Wack and his elite London-based scenario team, Shell shifted focus from traditional forecasting to changing how managers thought about the future. The aim wasn't to predict exactly what would happen but to help decision-makers think more broadly and challenge their fundamental assumptions about the oil industry.
Source: 40 Years of Shell Scenario
In 1973, Shell's scenario team developed what they called the "Rapids" scenarios, which explored different possible futures for the global oil market.
One of these scenarios considered what would happen if oil-producing countries gained significantly more control over oil prices and supply—a radical departure from the prevailing assumption that Western oil companies would continue to dominate the market. This helped to influence their future annual operating plans.
Shell's leadership mentally rehearsed a world where the traditional power dynamics of the oil industry could change completely. This prepared them for possibilities that other companies weren't even considering.
Source: 40 Years of Shell Scenario
When the Arab oil embargo struck in the winter of 1973-1974, quadrupling oil prices overnight, Shell was prepared while competitors scrambled. The Rapids scenarios had allowed Shell to foresee this price shock and position themselves advantageously.
While other oil companies were caught off guard by the sudden market disruption, Shell had already considered this possibility., They were better positioned to adapt their operations, adjust their investment strategies and navigate the dramatic geopolitical shift.
Following the success of the 1973 scenarios, Shell continued to use scenario planning to navigate subsequent global shifts with remarkable consistency. The company's scenarios helped them anticipate, adapt and respond to another oil shock in 1979, as well as the decline and eventual collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
These scenarios were never absolute predictions or forecasts. Yet they also prepared Shell for the rise of environmental concerns linked to CO2 in the 1990s and helped explore the dynamics of recession and recovery in the 2000s. In the past two decades, scenarios have prepared the company for the impact of technology, terrorism and globalization in a rapidly changing world.
Key Takeaway: What makes this scenario planning example particularly valuable is that it was forged in the real world of corporate competition and validated through multiple crises. This proves that preparing for multiple possible futures beats relying on a single "official future."A notable scenario planning example featured in Forbes comes from one of the Detroit Three automakers in 1984. At the time, the company was facing deep uncertainty about two major external forces: the future of fuel prices and the evolving preferences of American consumers.
To tackle this, the scenario planning team created a 2x2 matrix. The vertical axis represented fuel prices (high vs. low), while the horizontal axis represented consumer values (neo-traditional vs. inner-directed). Each quadrant represented a possible version of the future, combining the extremes of both variables.
new: Source: Forbes
One of the four quadrants became their “official future”—a scenario with low fuel prices and neo-traditional consumer values. This was the assumption that underpinned their strategy from the outset. In that imagined future, people wanted classic cars with powerful engines, prioritizing affordability and utility.
Most of their decisions around products and marketing were based on this view. But the whole point of this exercise was to challenge that mindset.
As they explored the other three scenarios, the team started realizing the downsides of focusing on just one future. One alternative scenario imagined a world of high fuel prices and inner-directed values, where consumers became more environmentally conscious.
In that case, drivers would want fuel-efficient cars that reflected their individuality, rather than just blending in.
This mindset shift prompted the leadership to rethink their product strategy, opening up to compact cars, minivans and the early versions of SUVs that would cater to these changing tastes.
By storytelling around those four different futures, they spotted strategic blind spots and began investing in vehicle types that matched up with new trends.
Key Takeaway: The real takeaway here wasn’t figuring out exactly which scenario would come true; it was getting ready for whatever came their way. It also highlighted an important lesson: tying your entire strategy to a single, assumed future—no matter how reasonable it seems—can leave you exposed in a world that likes to throw curveballs.
Below is a step-by-step framework designed to help you develop realistic scenarios and prepare strategic responses with confidence.
Every scenario planning effort must begin with a clear focal issue.
The point is to ground your scenario planning in a specific, meaningful objective that is relevant to your company’s real needs.
Sometimes the focus could be a broad strategic consideration, such as “What will the future of our industry look like in 5 years?”
Or you could narrow it down to specific questions, such as: “Should we invest in AI-powered tools for customer support?”
The best focal issues usually hit that sweet spot of being both high-stakes and high uncertainty.
For instance, a company in the renewable energy space would be concerned with exploring the implications of various carbon pricing policies globally. A tech firm might analyze scenarios about what generative AI adoption will mean for their product pipeline and revenue streams.
For Shell, the focal point or strategic objective was to prepare the company for significant shifts in the global energy landscape, particularly around oil supply disruptions and geopolitical risks.
What makes these great focal points is that they force decision-makers to think long-term, challenge assumptions and acknowledge volatility.
So, where do you begin? Start with executive interviews, a strategy workshop or brainstorming session,
Kinnari Desai, Vice President and Head of Corporate Finance at Workday, strongly recommends aligning leaders' top priorities.
Businesses need to specify the top two or three priorities they want to focus on. “This could be top-line growth, margins, or cash flow, but it’s very important to be clear on those upfront. That's where we start. We get perspectives from our executive team and align with them on what is important. In addition we talk to the business leaders to understand what is top of mind for them.” Desai said.
Once the focal issue is defined, document it. That becomes the anchor for the rest of your process.
It’s also a good idea to set a time frame: are you thinking about the next 12 months or looking 10 years ahead? Most scenario planning efforts are most effective within a 3–10 year window. long enough to account for major shifts in the market or industry, but short enough to align with strategic planning cycles and influence real decisions.
With your focal issue defined, it’s time to explore everything that could influence it, internally and externally.
This step is often called “environmental scanning”. It’s where you list out all the forces, trends and variables that could shift the landscape in the future.
These could range from new regulations and technologies to demographic shifts, cultural attitudes or geopolitical tension.
At the heart of this process is a key insight: the future isn’t just something that happens to us; it’s something we get to influence and create.
As Jeremy Bentham, Head of Scenarios, Strategy and Business Development at Royal Dutch Shell, puts it:
“Scenarios are grounded in an understanding that choices shape alternative future pathways just as much as the uncertainties in economic, political and social systems drive change. “
Start by building a list of internal key drivers, including current assets, organizational strengths, customer behavior patterns and operational limitations.
Then broaden your lens to the external environment. You’re not just looking for the obvious—go beyond direct competitors and look at parallel industries, fringe trends and even weak signals that haven’t hit the mainstream yet.
Emerging tech, climate change effects, changing consumer values and economic shifts all belong here.
Use tools like root cause analysis, PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental), DESTEP (Demographic, Economic, Social/Cultural, Technological, Ecological and Political/Legal).
Even a good old-fashioned SWOT analysis can help you uncover the forces at play both inside and outside your firm.
Another helpful method is horizon scanning. This involves reading reports, news, research papers and even startup activity to pick up on where the industry might be heading.
I recommend tackling this phase with a cross-functional team. Host a half-day working session to brainstorm and cluster drivers.
Encourage big thinking, but make sure the drivers you collect are plausible. Don’t fall down the rabbit hole of sci-fi futures unless they’re grounded in observable trends or early signals.
Aim to identify 50–70 drivers at this point. Some will clearly impact your focal issue; others may only play a minor role. That’s okay. The point is to open up the aperture before narrowing things down in the next steps.
Now that you’ve got a long list of key drivers and forces, it’s time to prioritize.
You’re looking to isolate two high-impact, high-uncertainty factors that will serve as the foundation for your scenarios.
I like to think of these factors as wildcards—variables that could significantly swing your strategic direction in different ways depending on how they unfold.
To get there, plot your drivers on a 2x2 matrix: one axis is “Level of Impact on the Focal Issue,” The other is “Level of Uncertainty.”
Drivers that score high on both become your critical uncertainties. You might end up with five or six candidates that fit the criteria. But eventually, you’ll need to choose just two for your scenario matrix.
Remember, the entire quality of your scenario work hinges on selecting the right uncertainties.
For example, if you’re a retail business, your two axes might be “Speed of e-commerce growth” and “Strength of consumer spending.”
If you’re in software, it could be “Adoption of AI tools by enterprise clients” and “Regulatory responses to data privacy.”
Avoid the trap of picking uncertainties that are predictable trends. You want true forks in the road— points where the future could plausibly break in opposite directions.
Vet these through collaborative discussion, expert judgment and even customer or market feedback if needed.
Also note that in some cases, organizations go further by creating scenario trees or influence diagrams that show how multiple uncertainties interact. But even with just two axes, your final matrix will unlock four distinct futures and that’s where the real value lies.
Once you’ve selected your two critical uncertainties, plot them on a 2x2 matrix — one on the horizontal axis, the other on the vertical.
This gives you four quadrants, each representing a plausible but distinct version of the future based on how those uncertainties play out.
Remember: these are not best-case/worst-case projections—they’re alternative, equally valid narratives that stress-test your assumptions.
For example, if your uncertainties are “AI adoption rate” and “Level of government regulation,” you might end up with scenario logics like:
Made with Visme Infographic Maker
Most teams have what’s known as an “official future”: a default mental model of how things are likely to play out.
In our example, it may be “AI Everywhere,” which translates to widespread adoption under close oversight.
But what if you’re wrong? Scenario planning lets you challenge that default, test your strategy under radically different futures and avoid putting all your eggs in a single forecast basket.
And how do you make sure you’re looking at the right scenarios?
In a webinar by Association for Financial Professionals, Jack Alexander, CFO turned Advisor, Author and Coach, Jack Alexander & Associates LLC, shared this insight:
“For each of the scenarios, we estimate the probabilities and the most probable outcomes should be your primary or base case. For each of the possible events or forks in the road, what is the event, what is the probability of that event, and what are some leading indicators that can be monitored? What are the lagging indicators that are not helpful because it’s happened by the time we see those. And very importantly, what is that event that is going to trigger us to take action in response to that scenario developing?”
Plus, from my example, you can see that there’s no conventional naming rule for scenarios. That’s intentional.
The general rule of thumb is to give each scenario a name that matches the core idea—something memorable, easy to reference and useful during strategic discussions. You can go metaphorical, playful, serious or pop culture-inspired or whatever name should “click” with your team.
We’ve already shared a visual guide on how to build your own matrix. But this example shows just how powerful and practical this tool can be when you anchor it to your most uncertain variables.
This step is about creating a detailed narrative of how things could unfold under various conditions.
You’ll want to shape what life, business and operations might look like in each scenario, focusing on consumer behavior, regulations, tech adoption and supply chain changes.
Each scenario should answer some important questions:
Aim for around 1–2 pages per scenario, filled with details like headlines, economic trends, fictional customer interviews or competitive moves.
Creating the stories for these scenarios requires different skills. While a good story often comes from a single author, scenario planning requires blending the creativity of multiple people into one clear narrative.
One effective way to do this is through workshops where participants jot down newspaper headlines on post-it notes. This brainstorming session can spark tons of ideas for the narrative.
You can kick off this process in a workshop setting, but once the scenario team has gathered a ton of plot elements and headlines, it might take several weeks or even months for a small core group to refine and draft the narratives based on those initial ideas.
Don’t forget to involve cross-functional teams: marketing, operations, HR and finance. These experts might see the future in unique ways that add depth and help avoid blind spots.
To help with this, consider using tools like Visme’s whiteboard tool for collaborative brainstorming and Google Docs or Notion for drafting and sharing the scenarios.
The headlines exercise, where team members write imagined future headlines, can also be a great way to capture key developments in each story.
Now it’s time to get practical. What do these scenarios mean for your strategy today? What bets are safe to make no matter what? What contingencies should you prepare?
Start by mapping the implications of each scenario across key areas:
Then, extract strategic options from those implications. Which moves are “no-brainers” that show up in every scenario? These are often robust strategies or safe bets that will help you thrive regardless of how the future unfolds.
Next, focus on contingent strategies: actions you’d only take if a specific scenario starts to materialize. For example:
This is where you build a nimble response strategy. One that doesn’t rely on locking in a rigid 5-year plan, but instead gives your teams strategic options to pull off the shelf when early indicators emerge.
Collaborative workshops work well here as well. Bring in senior leaders and department heads and have them "roleplay" what decisions they’d make in each scenario. Use a facilitator to document strategic moves across all four futures.
Create a strategic plan document that lists all your possible moves and shows which ones apply to each scenario.
Don’t forget the resource side. What skills, tech, data or partnerships would you need to act quickly? Build that into your readiness plan.
The last step in the scenario planning framework is identifying early indicators. These are real-world signs that one of your scenarios is starting to become reality.
Think of these like "weak signals" on the radar:
You don’t want to wait until the new world is fully formed. By then, your options could be limited. Instead, set up a monitoring system that tracks key indicators tied to each scenario. A few ways to do this:
You can even run quarterly or bi-annual "scenario check-ins" during planning sessions.
Bonus Tip: Combine this step with competitive intelligence and market research teams since they’re already scanning the environment. Adding scenario tracking can enhance their toolkit.
Scenario planning is a collaborative, exploratory process. With this infinite matrix whiteboard, your team has a visual canvas to collaboratively think, map out uncertainties and challenge assumptions in real-time. You can invite scenario team members into your workspace to brainstorm, rearrange elements, group similar ideas or draw connections.
Visme’s collaboration feature makes it easy for people can leave comments, add post-it notes, annotate or vote. And as new ideas pop up, it’s super easy to adjust your axes, reframe scenarios or reposition inputs without having to redo the entire document.
Running a scenario planning exercise can get pretty busy, crammed with loads of activities packed into a short amount of time.
Without an agenda, conversations can get messy, some voices may get lost and you might wrap up the session without any solid outcomes.
Using this customizable agenda template can help keep your workshop on track and focused. It helps participants understand what to expect, what’s expected of them and when decisions need to be made.
Plus, it has a fun mix of colors, icons and fonts that make it visually appealing. Feel free to mix and match the text, images and design elements to suit your style.
Create a comprehensive scenario planning strategy with this elegant template.
This template design is top-notch with high-quality images, well-laid-out text blocks and design elements that are sure to keep stakeholders engaged from start to finish. It’s perfect for getting your company ready for whatever disruptions might come down the road.
This plan covers important areas, including your strategic purpose, key drivers, uncertainties and various scenarios that could unfold. There’s even a table that breaks down how the company will assess products across all four scenarios. I love how the recommendation page plays out some solid actions and backup plans for any of those scenarios.
Imagine being able to see what's coming next in your business. Whether you're on the hunt for growth opportunities or gearing up for unexpected changes, this scenario planning template keeps your ideas sharp and your plans on track.
It's a powerful resource for team leads, consultants and decision-makers looking to figure out their strategic purpose and design an effective scenario planning process.
As you flip through the pages, you’ll find dedicated sections for identifying key driving forces and highlighting critical uncertainties. These elements help you determine what's changing and what remains a mystery.
Everything comes together in the strategic implications section, where you can consider potential risks and opportunities for various future scenarios. Visually, the template pops with a sharp combo of blue and red on a mostly white background, which keeps things clean, modern and easy on the eyes.
If you need to do a live presentation of your scenario to stakeholders or clients, you’ll need a professional slide deck that delivers your message with clarity. This blue and gray-themed slide deck template is a perfect fit. It features a clean, executive-style layout that guides your audience through each scenario with ease.
Content-wise, it covers all the key pieces you'd need for a scenario planning presentation, from the drivers of change to the scenario stories and strategic responses.
A standout feature is the financial summary section, which visually compares the impact of each scenario using key metrics and easy-to-read charts.
The recommendation slides are also well-structured, with key takeaways and proposed actions so your stakeholders know exactly what’s next. Visually, it hits the mark too, with a smart use of radials, widgets, tables and icons that make your data and insights pop without overwhelming the viewer.
This scenario planning slide deck template is also an amazing pick for strategy workshops, leadership briefings or board presentations where you need to communicate different future possibilities with precision.
Just like our earlier example, it covers all the essentials and focuses on up to three scenarios that can help guide decision-making. It outlines the key drivers and uncertainties across four primary areas: consumer behavior, the economic climate, the competitive landscape and operational costs.
Another feature that sets this scenario planning template apart is its muted color palette, balanced with a lot of white to create strong visual contrast. And instead of listing next steps in plain text, the strategic recommendations are presented in a grid layout, each paired with sleek, modern icons that make your ideas stand out.
Scenario planning is a team sport. It takes a good strategic planning session to bring together different viewpoints, uncover any hidden assumptions and build a sense of shared ownership for what's to come.
Here’s how to run an effective scenario planning session with your team from start to finish:
Made with Visme Infographic Maker
The right tools can transform how your company approaches scenario planning.
Here are four of the leading tools that can help your business model different scenarios, analyze potential outcomes and make data-driven strategic decisions.
*Disclaimer: The comparisons and competitor ratings presented in this article are based on features available as of July 8, 2025. We conduct thorough research and draw on both first-hand experience and reputable sources to provide reliable insights. However, as tools and technologies evolve, we recommend readers verify details and consider additional research to ensure the information meets their specific needs.
| Software | Key Features | Pricing | Best for | Core Uses | G2 Rating |
| Workday Adaptive Planning | Financial modeling, workforce planning, what-if scenario planning, dashboards, integrations with ERP/CRM systems, real-time collaboration | Custom pricing (based on company size and needs) | Large enterprises, finance teams | Enterprise budgeting, forecasting, workforce planning, financial reporting | 4.3/5 |
| Visme | Advanced data visualization, customizable templates, AI tools, drag-and-drop editor, interactive elements, collaboration, analytics, animations | Free; Paid plans from $12.25/month | Businesses, startups, teams | Interactive presentations, infographics, reports, dashboards, marketing materials, social media content | 4.5/5 |
| Limelight | Budgeting, forecasting, financial consolidation, Excel-like interface, automated reporting, real-time dashboards, audit trails | Custom pricing | Mid-sized to large companies | Financial planning, reporting automation, budgeting and forecasting | 4.7/5 |
| Synario | Financial modeling, scenario planning, rolling forecasts, drag-and-drop interface, customizable dashboards, integration with Excel & ERP systems | Custom pricing | CFOs, finance leaders, higher education, and municipalities | Scenario planning, multi-year forecasting, financial modeling, board-ready reporting | 5.0/5 |
G2 Rating: 4.3/5 (Based on 270+ reviews)
Workday Adaptive Planning is a cloud-based planning platform built to help finance teams model “what-if” scenarios, forecast more accurately and adjust plans on the fly, all from a single, unified system.
Source: Workday Adaptive Planning
From what I’ve found in different resources on their website, Workday’s strength lies in its ability to handle complex, driver-based models while still making collaboration across teams seamless. If you're looking to future-proof your planning process and respond fast to change, this platform has a lot to offer.
Pricing: Free trial, custom enterprise pricing
G2 Rating: 4.5/5 (Based on 440+ reviews)
Visme isn’t a traditional scenario planning software.
But you’ll soon find out why it has earned a place on this list.
It’s one of the most valuable tools for bringing scenario planning to life, especially when it comes to communicating outcomes clearly across departments or to the board.
Visme helps teams transform complex models, insights and assumptions into compelling visual formats, such as 2x2 scenario matrices, decision trees, roadmaps and one-pagers, that are easy for stakeholders to grasp and act upon.
Whether you're presenting a set of future scenarios, building a high-level strategy deck or summarizing risk factors, Visme comes packed with millions of visual assets, templates and advanced features to support your scenario planning process.
For example, you can create branded slide decks, documents and charts that walk leadership through scenario implications. Or embed links, video or audio to enrich context for each scenario and design interactive infographics to display triggers, timelines and key assumptions.
Pricing: Free plan available; Starter at $12.25/month; Pro at $24.75/month
G2 Rating: 4.7/5 (Based on 10+ reviews)
Limelight is a modern, cloud-based scenario planning platform built for finance teams that want to ditch clunky spreadsheets and start modeling faster, smarter and more collaboratively. I didn't have the opportunity to test Limelight myself, but I reviewed the resources on their site to see how it works.
Source: Limelight
Essentially, the tool brings together real-time data, interactive dashboards and built-in planning models to help businesses stress-test assumptions and make better decisions under uncertainty. It's especially powerful for finance teams managing multiple scenarios across departments, products or geographies.
Pricing: Custom pricing (free personalized demo available)
G2 Rating: 5.0/5 (Based on 3 reviews)
Based on my review of Synario's platform documentation, Synario is a specialized financial modeling solution that transforms scenario planning from a daunting spreadsheet-based task into what they call an "exciting exploratory approach."
The platform is built specifically for scenario planning (hence the name) and features their proprietary Multiverse Modeling solution that enables queryable scenarios with real-time answers, unlimited scenario combinations and the ability to see every possible outcome of financial choices with confidence.
Pricing: Custom pricing for enterprise
Scenario planning is only as good as the assumptions you base it on. But it’s also easy to get it wrong if you miss the fundamentals.
Here are some of the common mistakes that trip up some of the most experienced teams
Three to four well-defined scenarios are usually enough. A good mix includes one “base case” (your best guess), one optimistic and one pessimistic view. Avoid overcomplicating it. More than four scenarios can dilute focus and make it harder to act on insights.
While approaches vary slightly, a solid scenario planning framework usually includes:
Optional but powerful: Add early indicators to track how the future unfolds.
Scenario planning works best when led by someone with strategic oversight, typically a strategy lead, senior planner or even a cross-functional facilitator.
They should be skilled at guiding open-ended discussions, balancing creative thinking with business logic and aligning diverse stakeholders.
That depends on the depth. A light, workshop-style version can be done in a day or two. But a comprehensive process with research, interviews and multiple workshops typically takes 6–12 weeks. Most full-blown scenario projects unfold over 2–3 months, especially in enterprise settings.
Here are a few strong signals that your company needs scenario planning:
One of the biggest lessons the COVID era taught us is that the future is anything but predictable.
That’s why it’s more important than ever for organizations (big or small) to make scenario planning a core part of their strategic toolkit.
So, where do you begin? Visme offers a powerful suite of tools that helps you manage the entire scenario planning process, from early brainstorming to final presentation.
Start by mapping out possible futures with your team using our infinite whiteboard and real-time collaboration tools.
Once your scenarios take shape, you can turn them into beautiful documents, flowcharts and presentations for stakeholders using customizable templates, visual elements and AI tools.
Want to model the impact of each scenario? Visme lets you create interactive financial and operational dashboards with charts, graphs and data widgets to track metrics and visualize outcomes.
Book a demo to see how Visme can help your team stay ahead no matter what the future holds.
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