1. FOCUS GROUPS
I214 March 31, 2010

2. What are they NOT group interviews
Focused discussions, small group, physically co-present
Used a lot in market research

3. What are they most useful for
in-depth understanding – WHY
Speculation (what you would like?)
reaction to proposals, ideas, prototypes
Can show them designs, have them try out prototypes
group synergy

5. Participants Number: 5 to 9 Qualities of participants
Outspoken enough (but not dominating)
Homogeneous group, but heterogeneous views
Beware of power relations
For multiple types of participants need multiple groups

6. Recruitment
People who have some tie to the service/system/product, producer, user – participants, users, members of an organization, people you know...
Commercial focus group companies recruit for you
From a general-purpose pool
Craigslist
Who ARE these people who are recruiting?
Who are the respondents?

7. Logistics
1- to 1 1/2 hours (ask people to be there for 2 hours – need some slack before/after)
Round table, chairs in circle
Comfortable room, good sightlines, acoustics
Food and drink (with care – they have to be able to talk)
Videotape and/or note-taker (audio: too hard to figure out who’s talking)

8. Moderator – who? Someone not connected with the topic/organization
BUT need to understand the topic well enough to orchestrate the discussion
Good interpersonal skills: good at listening and synthesizing, at neutral questioning
Non-threatening to participants
Use 2 people if possible – one to guide, one to take notes and listen
3 people: one behind a video camera

9. Moderator’s role Content: Group process Introduce topics, questions
Encourage discussion
Move them on to new topics/responses, so they don’t dwell on something to exclusion of all else
E.g. paraphrase discussion so far and then encourage new topics
Bring out a variety of viewpoints
Group process
Encourage them to talk with one another not you
Ensure safety
Bring in people who aren’t speaking
Reduce influence of people who dominate
Keep discussion on track w/o stifling
Allow silence
Avoid premature closure

10. Caveats Be clear on whether you want:
Opinions, reactions?
Reports on actual actiity?
Conjectures, forecasts of what they would do?
They can address only what they can and will articulate
Theirs may be the response in the moment – which may change over time
Strong personalities are a hazard
Groupthink

11. “Focus groups were used to draw out anecdotes and stories from villagers about how the telephone has brought improvements to their lives. Most often, these groups consisted of female Grameen Bank borrowers. Meetings were facilitated by a female interviewer in order to encourage more input from the women. Focus group facilitators kept track of the most interesting stories, and the team would take individual focus group members aside to have them tell their stories on videotape.”

12. Guiding the discussion
Know your objectives
Don’t try to do too much – 2-4 major topics
Have an outline of how you want to proceed
BUT be flexible if need be – or rein in the discussion
Stick to the time limit – 1 to 1 ½ hours

13. Challenges Need skilled facilitator Costly to schedule groups
Hard to do!
Anything you say has effect; vs methods where all you have to do is be quiet
Costly to schedule groups
Can be a logistical nightmare
Sometimes people feel like they have to say something – talk about features haven’t tried, things they don’t really have an opinion about
Groupthink

14. Criticisms of focus groups
Participants not representative
Dominated by few people or topics
Participants influence one another
Limited to what people can talk about
May not represent people’s true opinions

15. On-line focus groups: technology
Most often: web-based conferencing software
Special-purpose technology

17. On-line focus groups - Synchronous
Methods
Real time, synchronous conferencing – appprox. 90 minutes
Asynchronous conferencing over several days (or weeks)
Benefits:
Distant participants or otherwise hard to reach (e.g., ill, disabled, housebound)
Convenient for participants
Immediate transcript
Easy to monitor (by anyone)
Works for people for whom f2f is difficult:
English as a 2nd language
Hearing impaired
Slower to think and articulate thoughts
Difficulties
Easy for people to not participate, multi-task, not take it seriously
Typing vs talking
The usual chat room problem of lag in responses, losing the thread
Cannot easily include people without computer and literacy skills
Lack of nonverbal signals

18. On-line focus groups - Asynchronous
Online focus groups as a tool to collect data in hard-to-include populations: examples from paediatric oncology.
Purpose: to describe and evaluate the methodology of online focus group discussions within the setting of paediatric oncology.
METHODS: separate moderated asynchronous online discussion groups with 7 paediatric cancer patients (aged 8-17), 11 parents, and 18 survivors of childhood cancer (aged 8-17 at diagnosis).
RESULTS: All three participant groups could be actively engaged over a one-week period. Respondents highly valued the flexibility and convenience of logging in at their own time and place to join the discussion. Adolescent patients and survivors emphasized that the anonymity experienced made them feel comfortable to express their views in detail. The findings indicate a strong preference for online group discussions across all participant groups.
CONCLUSION…may offer new opportunities to collect data in other hard-to-include populations…an opportunity to articulate their experiences and views in a way they might not have done in a traditional group discussion.