So You want to do a Focus Group?
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Investigating focus groups as a research alternative, thinking about moderating, or looking for material to teach about focus groups, read on and copy what's valuable!
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So You want to do a Focus Group?
- 1. Updated 2011
Editor's Notes
- Let’s talk about “homogenous.” Many of my clients attempted to have us recruit at least one of each of their target audience with the aspirational goal of attempting to have representation from each segment. It’s a nice goal and indeed, you often can enrich the discussion. Just be sure to gently and frequently remind your client that the one individual in the room representing audience segment A may not represent the opinions of the majority of segment A, or B for B, etc. Recruiting for the right demographics and psychographics does not ensure that the majority of opinion is represented – that’s what quantitative research is for!
- You might be surprised at the topics that are actually permissive in focus groups. Some of my first groups were conducted on topics regarding end-of-life and palliative care. Every respondent in the room had lost a friend or relative. It was a fast-bonding group and one of the richest group discussions I would ever moderate.
- Let’s say you are in college admissions and want to understand the experiences, positive and negative, of prospective students. Chances are, you have a whole class of recent prospective students you can use to obtain that information. Short on cash? Pizza is cheap and pursued by most college entrants. It’s okay to use incentives – really. Some will tell you that to ensure feedback is consistent that you should never, I mean never, use two+ moderators on a project. Rubbish! Focus groups are not quantitative. They should not be designed up front to be representative. Yes, moderators will have different styles and probing techniques – but that really should enrich the feedback versus detract from it. I’ve been on several projects where we had three groups being moderated simultaneously covering the same topics – buy me a drink & I’ll tell you more. These are good stories as we were lodged at a vineyard hotel over the course of 2.5 weeks!
- Over-defining: This is a great temptation. It’s okay to establish quotas, but they should be “about” quotas. About half should be male/female; about 1/3 unemployed, you see the pattern. You will be tempted, no matter how many times you read this, to make your group fully representative of all the characteristics of your population. It won’t hurt your focus group. You must decide whether it will help much – over-defining with lots of quotas will make the incidence of your group go done. The lower the incidence, the harder to recruit, and the more it costs to recruit. If your looking to recruit a population with a combined incidence in the geographic area of only 10%, expect to pay big bucks as that is a lot of people to contact to find the needle and encourage the needle to come talk to you.
- Tips from the field: You want to talk with hard-core (motorcycle) bikers? They will bring their significant others into the room – they will insist on it. Let them come in! You want to talk to actively breast-feeding mothers? It’s quite likely they will need to bring their babies – be equipped to have caregivers & facilities to accommodate. Bottom line: Think about what is going on with the population your are bringing in to talk to.
- The benefit to using a focus group facility to do your recruit is that they will know the “show-up” rates in the area. Rates differ by geography and they also differ by topic. Generally, show-up rates are higher for topics that are more controversial, more self-defining (muscle cars, fashion), or generally more interesting because people want to talk/share. Another benefit to focus group facilities: they share their list of focus group attendees periodically to scan for individuals who are attempting to make a living by attending focus groups (the incentives).
- “ We’ve been using this moderator for years . . .” Problem is, when the moderator is too expert on the product/service/situation, sometimes s/he interprets the responses within his/her own blinders. One of the worst focus groups I witnessed was the moderator who finished the sentences for the respondents. Not good.
- Kitchen sink questions: the questions the client wants to add preceded by the phrase: “Since we have all these people gathered here, why don’t we ask <Insert totally unrelated research topic here>. Resist! (If there is time at the end, and there rarely is, ask those questions then – but don’t include them in the official moderator’s guide as it becomes expectation.)
- Admit that someone is watching. Most suspect it. All will forget about it – unless of course the backroom gets rowdy. I have stories on this one too.
- I have a relatively soft voice, but I am nearly 6 feet tall. Attempt to bully me or the other members of my focus group, and I simply stand up and moderate from behind you for a bit – with my hand placed on your shoulder to gently stop you from dominating the conversation. My colleague gets a drink of water while you’re talking & then stands behind you. Slightly different techniques. Both work well.
- I have found that direct quotes & video clips are most effective as supporting evidence for my conclusions. This moves the presentation from “the consultant’s report” to “our customer’s” feedback.” A great strategy when your consultant’s report is a hard one to deliver.
- Don’t think focus groups (phone-recruited) can be fast? Routinely at the advertising agency a problem with the creative or business pitch was found at 4p on Monday & we had groups to identify it on Tuesday with a summary memo on the creative director’s desk before the clock struck 1:00am on Wednesday. Yup – that was the life!
- What’s that with the chips? Ever listen to a video/audio tape trying to discern what a respondent is hearing and all you can hear is the chip bag rustling? Get the chips out of the bag at the start of the group! And oh yes, resist your temptation as a moderator (or one-on-one interviewer) to say ‘uh-huh.’ It’s not only annoying to listen to on play-back, but if you want to cut it for an audio clip, well, it’s also annoying for the client to listen to. Practice nodding your head – and stay silent.
- If you have some raucous backroom observers, you might consider a “backroom moderator” too. This person can “manage” the backroom & also provide feedback for your report. Good luck!