Re: setting up a focus group
JENN WOOD <jenn_at_brandx.com> WROTE:
> If anyone has experience in setting up and running a
> focus group, I would greatly appreciate it if you
> would share your best practices / things to avoid or
> any other resource that you might point me to. We
> will be testing an online product's UI & usability
> on an existing customer group.
Jenn -
Fortunately, your only screen is for current users. If
you were screening for demos and product usage profiles
your best bet is to use a research organization that
will does that kind of work. In any case, you'd
probably want a professional focus group facility with
a one way mirror and, at least an audio recorder. We've
sometimes used video if thre is budget for a
videographer. The purpose of the one way mirror is to
give interested parties the opportunity to see the
groups without sitting in with the group. I've tried it
without a real facility and it can work but your taking
a chance with spontaneity.
Whomever conducts the groups should definitely have an
agenda to follow as a guideline for meeting the
objectives of the group. The agenda doesn't have to
slavishly adhered to but it helps as a reminder of what
you want to know.
The leader should be good at encouraging the group to
speak, without speaking too much themselves, and be
sharp enough to follow-up on information that you might
not have anticipated being turned up. Also, if you
haven't been able to screen out the occasional "know it
all" who will try and dominate the group the
interviewer should have some political skills that will
quiet that person down and encourage others to speak.
Don't hesitate to pass the interviewer questions that
occur to you during the session. This is good practice.
The interviews are told someone is behind the mirror,
up front...they quickly forget about that but are not
surprised if questions come in from afar.
This is a nuance, but I also found that keeping the
tape recorder running after the session is over
(usually after about 90 minutes) you can pick up some
interesting comments as the people are standing up and
preparing to leave the room.
Focus group facilities provide food and beverages for
the respondents and for the people in the booth. Be
careful that you know how much you will be charged for
this. I had a client at a session whodrank all of the
imported beer then wondered why the cost of the food
was so high. The facilities will mark-up the food too
so...be warned. It can get out of control.
Also, do at least three groups. Not all sessions are
terrific and you should be able to get at least two
good ones out of three. I know one case where 75 groups
were done because things kept turning up that suggested
alternative strategies so all the strategies were
trialed in groups. This is very unusual but it greatly
limited the perils of this new product interaction into
a new category (bottled water).
I'm sure someone who does groups all of the time can
add more. Good luck!
Ed Grosso
Communications Consultant
edgrosso_at_mediaone.net
508 477 8559
Received on Fri Aug 25 2000 - 12:23:53 CDT
