Focus Group

Like always we will keep this simple...

This requirement gathering technique was originally called ‘focused interviews’ or ‘group depth interviews’

Focus group is basically bringing together a group of individuals that have some common interest or characteristics by a moderator or facilitator, who uses the group and its interactions as a way to gain information about a specific or focused issue.

A focus group is typically 6-12 people who are unfamiliar with each other. These participants are selected because they have certain characteristics in common that relate to the topic of the focus group.

A couple of things to consider when selecting the participants:

·       Purpose of the interview should guide who to invite (I won’t invite a construction engineer when the purpose is to gain in-sight into what functionality should exist in a portal to be used by market associations)

·        Participants should be characterized by homogeneity (homogeneous group), but with sufficient variation to allow for contrasting opinions. Homogeneity is most often sought in terms of occupation, social class, educational level, age, education, or family characteristics, and gender (unless interaction across these groups is what is driving the study (heterogeneous group)).

·        Participants should not be familiar with each other (those who know each other tend to form small group discussions).

Preparing for a focus group session

·        Identify the major objective of the meeting

·        Set agenda

·        Develop the questions o   Questions should be carefully planned but appear spontaneous during the interview o   Use open-ended questions and avoid "yes" or "no" questions. o   "Why" questions are rarely asked in a focus group. Why questions tend to imply a rational answer. o   Questions should be systematically prepared but has a natural flow to them.  o   Arrange questions in logical sequence. o   Allow for unanticipated questions.

·        Determine Participants – homogeneous or heterogeneous

·        Plan venue and refreshment

·        Determine method of recording responses (will you use notes or use a tape recorder, which ever method you decide to use, you need an assistant that will take the note or operate the tape recorder)

Conducting the session:

·        Do the introductions

·        Review the agenda

·        Explain the method of recording the session (if it is in a work place and you are using a tape recorder, you need to reassure the participants that they are safe and that whatever is recorded is just for the purpose of the interview)

·        Ask the questions (please don’t at any point become bias)

·        Remain neutral

·        Ensure even participation (you must encourage everybody to participate)

Produce report

The moderator objectively analyzes and documents the participants’ agreements and disagreements and synthesizes them into themes.

As a general rule, numbers and percentages are not appropriate for focus group research and should not be included in report. Reporting should be descriptive and present the meaning of the data as opposed to a summary of data.

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