This document discusses focus groups, including their history, purpose, advantages, disadvantages, best practices, and costs. Focus groups originated in the 1940s to evaluate audience responses and were later adopted by businesses. They involve organized interviews of small groups to discuss select issues and yield useful information for program design and evaluation. Key advantages include obtaining diverse perspectives and ideas in a time-efficient manner. Potential limitations are non-representative findings and one group dominating. Moderators must ensure discussions remain balanced and confidential. Planning, participant selection, facilitation, and data analysis are important for high-quality focus group research.

1. Apostolos Koutropoulos
Jennifer Novak
Patricia Nugent
Siobhán Ohmart

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXhhnUU4PFw

3. What is a focus group?
Social scientists created the focus-idea concept in the 1940s to
evaluate audience response to radio programs and to analyze
the effects of army training and morale films during World
War II. It wasn't long before businesses turned to focus
groups to assist them in selling their products.
Focus groups are organized interview sessions with specific goals, structures, time-
frames, and procedures.
They are a more formal way of getting groups of people to discuss select issues with
each other.
They yield information useful for designing interventions and for monitoring their
success or failure.

4. A focus group is not a group interview as it relies on group discussion
and is successful when the participants are able to talk to each other
about the topic of interest.
It allows the participants the
opportunity to disagree or
agree with each other.
Provides insight into how a group thinks about an issue, about the range
of opinions and ideas, and the inconsistencies and variation that exist in
a particular organization.

5. Why use focus groups?
Assessing needs and assets
You can use focus groups to learn about the
needs/assets for a program, policy or organization,
by gaining perspectives of a variety of stake holders,
participants, etc.
Program planning and program design
Focus groups can help you determine why a
program is successful or is failing, and they can give
insight of barriers or motivational factors.
Designing evaluation, monitoring and
inspection systems in complex
environments
Focus groups can be used to determine what type of
evaluation you should do, or what specific thing to
evaluate.
Pilot testing intervention strategies,
policies, delivery methods and more
Focus groups can help to determine which specific
approach or strategy works best for
implementation.
Formative or process evaluation
You can use focus groups to explore how exactly a
program is functioning and to gain ongoing
feedback from participants.
Using focus groups to evaluate
organizational issues
Use them to figure out how to improve morale,
increase productivity, and more.
Summative evaluation
Focus groups can be used when a program is
complete, and you want to determine how
objectives were met and indicators for
success/failure.
Impact or outcome evaluation
Focus groups can be used when a program has been
finished for some time and you want to explore
long-term impacts/outcomes.
Using focus groups with another evaluation
strategy
They can be used to narrow and refine survey
questions, or edit/change your methodology.
Using focus groups in a participatory study
They can be used to empower an organization to do
their own focus groups, to teach others how to do
them, to build their capacity.

6. Outsourced:
$4,000 to $6,000 per session
Participants: Fees vary
Timing and Cost
Timing of the research
Timing of the session

7. Examples of use
• Product Development
• User Interface Testing
• Consulting
• Marketing Research

8. Advantages

9. • Expand existing knowledge
• Identify needs of consumers, customers and staff
of an organization.
• Avoid the intensity of individual interviews
• Can be more cost and time effective than
individual interviews.

10. • Helpful with children or groups with inadequate
literacy or language from the dominant
culture/language
• Ability to utilize different dialects that may be
difficult to read, write or translate

11. • People are able to build on one another's
responses and come up with ideas they might
not have thought of in a 1-on-1 interview·
• Participants can act as checks and balances on
one another - identifying factual errors or
extreme views
• Develop an understanding of peoples overall
perception
• Helpful in seeking a range of ideas

12. • Accomplish a great deal in a compressed
timeframe; everyone is together
• Time points for project milestones
• Keep stakeholders actively participating
throughout the project

13. Disadvantages

14. Limitations of findings
• Can be an inefficient way of gathering
information.
• Reveals attitudes of small group only
• Not a scientific sampling
• Competitive and intimate topics are unsuitable
for focus group discussion

15. Limitations of findings
• The data which results from a focus group
requires skills and experience to analyze
• Data may seem nonsensical when analyzed
because if it’s just transcribed it loses context
• Findings may not be easily generalized
• Some theorists argue that focus groups are like
the “fast food” of research because they only lead
to a superficial understanding of the data that
they produce

16. The Moderator
• Needs to have a skilled moderator at the helm
• Needs to ensure that a Focus Group does not become a Group Interview
• Must be careful not to allow minority of group members to dominate the
discussion
• Must be aware of contextual issues, recent history, and organizational
norms that might inhibit open communication or sanction those who
express alternative views
• Must not sway the group in one way or another

17. The Focus Group
• Recruitment can be difficult without a strong incentive
• Pre-existing dynamics: must use caution when using
groups of people who know and work closely with each
other
• Existence of power relationships within the group may
inhibit some to be open and honest.
• Fear of confidentiality
• Participants may feel pressure to go along with the
overall thoughts of the group

18. Costs
• “focus group interviews are labor intensive, with
costs that are sometimes underestimated, such
as the cost of training researchers or hiring
skilled moderators, contacting participants,
room hire, transcribing recordings, and time to
analyze data” (Hofmeyer & Scott, 2007)

19. Best Practices and Tips

20. Planning
• Hold a kickoff meeting with the project team to plan the
focus group
• Need to consider:
 Goals (what information will be gathered)
 Deadlines for gathering information
 Logistics
 Budget
 Participants

21. Selecting Participants
• Typical of audience
• Not experts; less experienced with focus group techniques
• Similar demographics
• Need at least two groups of each audience
▫ Two groups of men
▫ Two groups of women
• Use a screening questionnaire to make sure participants are a good
match
• Make sure to recruit more people than necessary

22. Location
• Commercial set-ups
• Teleconference
• Transportation if off-site
• Food/beverages
• Child care
• Typical conference room or office

23. Session Set-up
• Schedule at a convenient time for participants
• More than one facilitator so that the lead
facilitator does not need to take notes and lead
the discussion simultaneously
• Create a leader’s guide so that the discussion
stays on track and the relevant points are
covered

24. Session Agenda
• Facilitator welcomes group, explains agenda for
the day
• Starts with “Icebreaker” questions
• Using the leader’s guide continues with
discussion,
▫ Covers all topics
▫ probes participants for deeper understanding
• Before end of session, consults with other team
members to discuss additional questions

25. Analysis of the Data
• Refer back to notes taken during session; help
remind facilitators of non-verbal behavior
• Recordings, if any, should be transcribed
• Because the notes are likely comments from
group participants, it may help to categorize
them into relevant themes

26. Bibliography
Freeman, T. (2006). "Best Practice" in focus group research: Making sense of different views. Methodological issues in nursing
research , 491-497.
Hofmeyer, A. T., & Scott, C. M. (2007). Moral Geography of Focus Groups with Participant Who Have Preexisting Relationships
in the Workplace. International Journal of Qualitative Methods , 6 (2).
Reed, J., & Roskell Payton, V. (1997). Focus Groups: issues of analysis and interpretation. Journal of advanced nursing , 765-
771
Barbour R & Kitzinger J (eds) (1999) Developing Focus Group Research. Sage, London
Gibbs A (1997) Focus groups. Social Research Update, Vol.19.University of Surrey, Surrey, England
Krueger RA & Casey MA (2000) Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research, 3rd edn. Sage Publications Inc.,
Thousand Oaks, CA.
Morgan, David (1996) Focus Groups. Annual Review of Sociology, 126-152.
Shackelford, Bill (2002) A Clear Picture of Focus Groups, Learning Circuits (ASTD).
Parker, A. and Tritter, J. (2006) Focus group method and methodology: current practice and recent debate. International
Journal of Research and Method in Education, 23-37.
Kruger, R. and Casey, M. Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2008.