Darwin: "In October 1838, that is, fifteen months after I had begun my systematic enquiry, I happened to read for amusement
Malthus on Population, and being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which everywhere goes on from long-continued observation of the habits of animals and plants, it at once struck me that under these circumstances favourable variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavourable ones to be destroyed. The result of this would be the formation of new species. Here, then, I had at last got a theory by which to work..."
More like the way Thomas Kuhn describes but not exactly scientific method, strictly speaking. The idea preceded any observation.
The ideas of Relativity preceded any observations that lended any support to the theory.
The formation of the Periodic Table preceded the discovery of many of the elements that make up the table, and preceded the formation of the theory of atomic orbitals.
In Science the idea often precedes the collection of data that would falsify or support the idea.