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Focus groups

Discussion articles

• 10 tips for running successful focus groups
  How often do we researchers take time to reflect on our work and identify the key lessons that might be useful to others in the profession or considering entering it? A set of tips from Thomas L. Greenbaum on improving focus group methodology.

• Beneath the surface in focus groups
  Some people still believe that any moderator who can put participants at ease will get them to talk "openly," creating the "right atmosphere" where the truth will come pouring out. This attitude has all too often led to findings which are clear-cut, simple, unambiguous and wrong.

• Focus groups
  Focus groups are under-used in social research, although they have a long history in market research and more recently in medical research. This article examines the value of focus groups as a tool for social researchers and considers their potential and their limitations.

• Focus groups to study work practice
  Meghan Ede has an interesting perspective on focus groups: as a way to get users to talk about long-term issues that would take too long to study directly. Here is a short note she wrote about her approach.

• Focus pocus
  Because innovation is more important in today's economy than ever before, the guidance from focus groups can be downright dangerous. Most focus groups simply confirm to companies that what they are doing is right--give or take a tweak--and discourage them from striking off in a new direction.

• Focus groups - a how not to
  Unfortunately, focus groups are often used as a quantitative research method rather than as a qualitative one. Instead of using focus groups to generate hypotheses, the researcher treats them as a survey and uses them to test hypotheses which have already been formulated. That is a bad idea for a number of reasons.

• Groups Plus FAQ
  Twelve frequently asked questions about focus group research.

• Internet focus groups: an oxymoron
  If organisations want to provide qualitative research services using the Internet, there is no reason why this cannot become a part of the research arsenal. But this type of research must not be called focus groups because on-line chat sessions lack some of the most important elements of focus group research.

• Is consumer research losing its focus?
  Focus groups continually fail to tell us what customers want. The fundamental problem is that, in spite of what conventional wisdom tells us, it is not the voice of the consumer that matters. What matters is the mind of the consumer. The big mistake is in believing that what the mind thinks, the voice speaks. It is time to start embracing methods that can deliver stronger predictive value.

• Mind the gap
  Kath Straub looks at the value of focus groups and when not to use them. For usability, testing is key.

• Putting perfect participants in every session
  "Recruiting the wrong participant can have dramatic effects. It can slow down the research process, increase costs, and, in the worst-case scenario, create faulty results which waste valuable developer resources as they chase down the wrong issues. We recommend to our clients that they closely review their recruitment process to ensure they are executing best practices."
  (Jared M Spool - OK/Cancel)

• The focus group bill of rights
  A bill of rights for participants, moderators, clients and facilities to help you run better focus groups.

• The use and misuse of focus groups
  Focus groups often bring out users' spontaneous reactions and ideas and let you observe some group dynamics and organisational issues. You can also ask people to discuss how they perform activities that span many days or weeks: something that is expensive to observe directly. However, they can only assess what customers say they do and not the way customers actually operate the product. Since there are often major differences between what people say and what they do, direct observation of one user at a time always needs to be done to supplement focus groups.

Resource collections

• Focus groups
  An extensive list of links to articles about research using focus groups.

• Focus groups
  A list of books and articles on focus groups from the STC Usability SIG.