Online Focus Groups A How-To Guide in 8 Steps Maniactive. Copyright 2001.

Online Focus Groups: Definition Definition: A professionally structured group discussion that provides in-depth insights and an understanding of motivations and perceptions.  Performed in a secure, online chat-room environment. A professional moderator guides the discussion. Focus groups are helpful for: generating evaluating refining ideas products services packaging positioning media What’s an online focus group?

Step 1: Define Objective State objectives clearly: an outside focus group specialist should understand exactly what the problem is and what information you are trying to uncover. What is your overall purpose or "to" statement? What decision(s) will you be willing to make as a result of information gathered from your online survey? What’s your “to” Statement?

Step 2: State Hypothesis A hypothesis is an educated guess, based on information about your company's business processes or products. Focus group discussion guides may be formed to prove or disprove your hypothesis, or to generate reasons why you have a problem, as well as to suggest potential solutions. What’s your best guess?

Step 3: Define the Population Typically, online focus groups have 5 to 8 participants. Additionally, 5 to 8 groups are usually formed. Who will be in your focus group? What demographic or psychographic profile are you looking for? Who do you want to talk to?

Step 4: Invite Participants An online focus group firm has a database of potential participants. These are people who have agreed to participate in a focus group, usually in exchange for some reward (a small monetary stipend, gift certificate, etc.) Participants are screened before they are sent an acceptance email. The email contains instructions on how to log into the chat area. The focus group specialist informs selected participants of the time and date of the actual focus group. Where can you find your population?

Step 5: Develop a Discussion Guide The focus group specialist starts with a baseline discussion guide that meets the objective and hypothesis needs. Of course, during the discussion, other questions may arise that go beyond the discussion guide. Use a guide.

Step 6: Pre-Test The actual questioning process will need to have a "reality check". Questions that look great "on paper" or on the screen can sometimes yield unexpected or unintended results. Are the questions appropriate? Are the directions easily understood? Perform a reality check.

Step 7: Conduct Focus Groups After performing a roll call, the discussion will begin. Often, the moderator will have participants look at something online and ask for their qualitative responses to the item. Remember, look for qualitative information.

Step 8: Analyze Results A key feature of focus groups is that an on-line transcript is instantly available. The focus group specialist will look for consistencies among the groups of respondents and prepare a report or presentation. Act on your findings!