4 Key Elements of a Successful Focus Group

Focus groups can successfully guide your company's exploration of new areas. For example, a focus group might help if you're entering a new business category or trying to understand how consumers view and interact with your brand.

Surveys tend to be better for more quantitative research, offering yes/no questions on objective issues like pricing. But for harder-to-quantify areas like ideas and opinions, a focus group can help you listen to your target market tell stories and share ideas.

What is a Focus Group?

A focus group is a type of qualitative market research in which a moderator leads a structured conversation with a small group of carefully selected people. The purpose of a focus group is to collect feedback, opinions, experiences and reactions regarding a specific subject.

Reasons to hold a focus group: Focus groups can help explore a variety of different issues, such as: 

• Gauge customer perceptions of a brand, product, or service before you develop a product.
• Help a business understand who their customers are, how they behave, and what marketing strategies influence their purchasing decisions.
• Identifying and attracting your high-value customers.
• Collect intelligence from end-users about a product's features before they're developed.
• Assessing novel product concepts or testing a product.
• Investigate people's viewpoints of a problem and develop potential solutions. 

Focus groups can stimulate interaction between focus group participants. A typical focus group in the U.S. comprises between eight and 10 participants. Generally, the duration of a focus group is 45 to 90 minutes. A longer time could be burdensome for participants and make them less productive. 

Focus groups are held either in person or online. Participants of virtual focus groups can be located anywhere in the world and connect via video conferencing.

"For harder-to-quantify areas like ideas and opinions, a focus group can help you listen to your target market tell stories and share ideas."  

Types of Focus Groups

The research needs often dictate which focus group type will be used. 

1. One-way or single focus group: This is the classic focus group format with a single moderator leading a discussion about a specific topic with a group of participants.
2. Two-way focus group: Here, one group watches a second group's discussion, taking note of their opinions and outcomes. This type of focus helps to gain a better grasp of the subject.
3. Dual-moderator focus group: This type of focus group uses two moderators working with a single focus group. One moderator ensures the discussion proceeds efficiently and productively, while the second moderator ensures every angle is covered.  
   
4. Dueling-moderator focus groups: As the name implies, this focus group also uses two moderators but with opposing views. This can open the discussion to broader perspectives, addressing a lot more points.
5. Respondent-moderator focus group: In this group, participants serve as temporary moderators. One or several participants are asked to take turns to volunteer for the moderator role. This can help avoid any unintentional bias from a sole moderator. Switching moderators also can result in more varied views and perspectives.  
6. Mini-focus group: Unlike other focus groups, mini-focus groups are smaller, more intimate gatherings. They typically include four to six people. This type of focus meeting can be best suited for exploring sensitive topics such as workplace bullying, the gender wage gap, or employee theft.
7. Client involvement: This is a focus group where a client attends as a participant. It allows the client to intervene in the discussion and lead it in different directions. Take, as an example, a client who oversees multiple businesses. A focus group can help the client guide the discussion to address the specifics of each business.
8. Expert focus groups: These are highly specialized focus groups where participants are experts in a specific field. These focus groups help gather insights from the participants' specialized knowledge or personal experience. A simple example is a focus group regarding a video game console that might use avid gamers. 

Elements of a Focus Group

Focus groups can benefit from careful planning. There are four key elements to consider for planning a focus group.

Location  

A location for your focus group can be carefully selected to create a comfortable and safe environment where people can express their views and opinions.  

Things to Consider When Choosing a Location: 

1. If you don't have access to a dedicated focus group space, consider using a community center or school conference room. You can use a soundproofed room to avoid distracting participants from the discussion.
2. Using a professional, neutral space is important for "blinded" studies in which the participants don't know what brand they're evaluating.
3.  If possible, you can use the classic two-way mirror that allows company representatives to watch the proceedings unfold.
4. Good audio and video technology can help capture the discussion for later viewing; observing body language can be critical to interpreting the results.
5. Although in-person focus groups are still the dominant method for qualitative research, virtual focus groups have become increasingly popular. This was brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and aided by technological advancements. Webcams and other live-feed options can let participants anywhere attend remotely and can be a cost-effective option. 

Moderator

A skilled moderator will usually meet with clients first to discuss the business problems, challenges, or opportunities the focus group should explore, then build an agenda for the discussion.

Qualities to consider when choosing a moderator: 

• Strong communication skills: An effective moderator of a group discussion should have strong communication skills and experience in facilitating discussions. The moderator should be able to maintain a sharp business focus while also managing an unbiased, wide-ranging, and open group discussion. Your internal team may not be ideal for a moderator role as they may not be neutral about your issue.
• Skilled at setting clear goals: How can a moderator set clear goals in a discussion? A moderator can clearly state the goal at the start of the session, help people understand what is expected of them, and ensure the conversation stays on track. It also can help to distribute the goals ahead of the meeting to help prepare the participants and answer any questions.
• Experienced with relevant tools: Moderators can use tools to facilitate discussions. For example, a skilled and experienced moderator may break out arts and crafts materials, collages, or even tarot cards during the focus group discussion.
• Patient: Patience can be vital to coax participants to share their stories, which can sometimes be frustrating for company observers, anxious to get to the point.  
• Empathetic: A key characteristic of a competent moderator can be empathy to understand participants' feelings and potential concerns. Empathy also can help moderators listen deeply to the participants' responses and underlying emotions.
• Sharp observational skills: An effective moderator can use good observational skills to take notice of participants' body language, attitude, and group dynamics.  
• Knowledgeable with humility: Knowledge about the topic being discussed can be vital, but so is having some humility. Humility can mean showing a little "naïveté" to coax participant responses and help build rapport, plus knowing when to stay silent and step back to allow a flowing discussion.
• Credibility: A good moderator has credibility and comes across as trustworthy, so participants can feel comfortable sharing their honest thoughts.
• Technically adept: A moderator may need to be adept at conducting a focus group that includes a mix of in-person and remote employees participating. 

Participants

For best results, focus group participants should typically be as homogeneous as possible. For example, a focus group for a product or service whose primary audience is female should have female participants who line up with the target demographic.

For a product or service with multiple target audiences, you can create a balanced group with varied representation. However, you can keep in mind putting people together who are more likely to have a natural, open conversation. For example, a focus group to explore company culture should probably not mix senior executives with lower-level staff as this may hamper the flow of genuine conversation.

Good participation is typically critical to the success of a focus group. It can be essential to start right and make a good impression. You can do this by taking the time to prepare focus group participants.

Let them know as much detail as possible. For example: 

• The invitation to participate can identify the following: 
• The sponsor
• The research goal
• Expectations for participants
• The format of the focus group interview
• Logistics such as location, length of time, and parking availability  
• You can anticipate participants' potential questions and address them in your initial contact. For example, you can let them know how many co-participants to expect.
• It also can help to let participants know how they were selected.
• ·If there is a requirement for some pre-reading, such as a study they need to access, you can provide these materials in advance.
• You can ask participants if they are comfortable with being recorded, whether by audio or video.
• As a courtesy, it also can help to contact them two or three days before the meeting to remind them of the date, ask them if they have any questions, and ensure that they're attending. 

Results

A crucial part of focus groups can be how to analyze the group discussion so you fully benefit from the research.

Here are some things to consider to help: 

• Format of report: The focus group report you will receive will likely not be full of charts and graphs like a traditional report. It can be hard to fit qualitative data into a conventional presentation. The report you receive can be narratives, quotes, pictures, and even videos from the discussion.
• Organize your evaluation: You can transcribe audio and video recordings and review the data. You can look for recurring ideas and patterns among the responses and use a spreadsheet to organize your insights. Finally, you can consolidate the results into a coherent report for dissemination. This can also help you prepare a presentation on the focus group results for your senior executives or stakeholders.  
• Patience in analyzing results: Even if you observe one of the focus group discussions, you can resist the temptation to immediately put your observations and insights to work. It can be helpful to take your time to forecast what to do based on the results by giving your analysts time to comb through the discussion notes and video to identify themes. 

How Can a Focus Group be Helpful to a Company?

Is a focus group right for your company? You can calculate ROI by evaluating how much a wrong decision could cost. For example, a grocery store investing in new shopping carts for 200 locations probably would want customer feedback. But that same grocer debating designating a few "candy-free" checkout lanes likely has a much lower potential loss riding on that decision. With qualitative research, sometimes it can work to go with your gut and see if your idea works.

The Takeaway

Focus groups can be a relatively inexpensive way to quickly obtain real-time, in-depth insights and rich qualitative data. It can be important to consider the key elements of successful focus groups: location, moderator, participants, and results. Ultimately, the analysis of the results can be paramount to ensuring the success of your focus group.

A version of this article was originally published on March 30, 2015.  

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