Difference between revisions of "Focus Groups"

Latest revision as of 11:08, 3 October 2013

FOCUS GROUPS

Qualitative research tool in which a group of participants is invited to share feelings and thoughts on a specific topic (such as a product, a service, a concept, an advertisement, an idea...). Participants, who are usually alike persons, can spontaneously talk with each other, since the focus group session runs in an interactive setting.

A small group of people brought together in a discussion specifically designed to uncover and share insights and observations, suggest new ideas or make recommendations on a specific subject of interest.^[1] A moderator or interviewer usually guides the discussion without necessarily controlling it. The focus group is comprised of limited number of "homogeneous participants who discuss a predetermined topic within a permissive and non-threatening environment"^[2].

In evaluation, focus groups have been used for purposes of:

Understanding a problem, situation or programme from the perspective of a certain group. Any understanding stemming from the focus group discussion may be used to develop a programme logic model or help gain insight into various perceptions on a given topic.
Pilot testing programme ideas, services or policies

Benefits of focus groups

quick method;
helpful for collecting information on the group's attitude on a given subject, that would be difficult to obtain without interaction;
useful for eliciting information on the characteristics of conversation.

Be aware that...

Focus Groups can be effective only with a skilled moderator, who has to balance the freedom and spontaneity of the conversation against the focus on the topic.
Participants' answers are influenced by the social environment: in order to avoid conflict, their attitude is usually more polite and moderate compared to what they would show in one-to-one interviews.
It is difficult to generalize Focus Groups' output, since the number of participants is not large enough to be representative of the whole population.
Group should be composed by people who are similar, in order to limit the self-censorship. Hence, to collect data on persons with different characteristics it is necessary to run multiple focus group sessions.
Results are difficult to analyse because sessions must be audio taped and transcribed and because the issue is influenced by the moderator, who participates in the session too. ^[3]

Organizing a Focus Group

Preparing a Focus Group

Identify the main goal of the focus groups.
Select 6-10 participants (they should have strong feelings about the issue to be discussed and also have similar characteristics, such as the same age or the same status).
Avoid involving friends in the same session, since they can form cliques.
Plan your session (consider that the meeting should last 1.5 hours approximately).
Phrase five to six open and neutral questions to ask the participants (be careful to formulate them in a language the participants are familiar with).
Send the participants an invitation explaining the goal of the meeting, the proposed agenda, the main issue to be discussed and the related questions.
Set a quite room and arrange the chairs in a circle (if possible, around a table).
Plan to record the session (using audio/audio-video recorder) or ask a co-facilitator to take notes during the meeting.

Running Focus Group

Welcome the participants.
Ask the participants to introduce themselves and, eventually, to wear name tags.
Review the agenda.
Introduce the main goal of the meeting.
Ask the questions you have prepared and reflect back a summary of participants’ answers.
Ensure balanced participation: if there is somebody dominating the session, invite participants to speak in turn; respect participants’ right to be silent but give them the chance to express themselves in a one-to-one context (for instance, during a break).
Let disagreements arise, since they can lead to interesting and innovative ideas, but be careful in managing them.
Avoid sharing your personal opinion with the group.
Keep the discussion on track. ^[4]

Job Aid

Organizing a Focus Group

References

↑ United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA). Programme Manager's Planning Monitoring & Evaluation Toolkit, 2004.
↑ Krueger A. Richard in Mathison, Sandra. Encyclopaedia of Evaluation, pp 160, Ed. University of British Columbia. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2005.
↑ Wikipedia (3 June 2009), managementhelp.org (3 June 2009), www.webcredible.co.uk (3 June 2009), www.extension.iastate.edu (3 June 2009)
↑ managementhelp.org (30 July 2009); www.webcredible.co.uk (30 July 2009)

[1] United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA). Programme Manager's Planning Monitoring & Evaluation Toolkit, 2004.

[2] Krueger A. Richard in Mathison, Sandra. Encyclopaedia of Evaluation, pp 160, Ed. University of British Columbia. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2005.

[3] Wikipedia (3 June 2009), managementhelp.org (3 June 2009), www.webcredible.co.uk (3 June 2009), www.extension.iastate.edu (3 June 2009)

[4] thelp.org (30 July 2009); www.webcredible.co.uk (30 July 2009)

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{Term|FOCUS GROUPS|A qualitative research tool in which a group of participants is invited to share their attitude, feelings and thoughts on a specific topic (such as a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea...). Participants, who are usually alike persons,
+{{Term|FOCUS GROUPS|Qualitative research tool in which a group of participants is invited to share feelings and thoughts on a specific topic (such as a product, a service, a concept, an advertisement, an idea...). Participants, who are usually alike persons, can spontaneously talk with each other, since the focus group session runs in an interactive setting.
- can spontaneously talk with each other, since the focus group session runs in an interactive setting.
-Focus group methodology is often used as well in marketing as in social science, because it is an important tool for getting information about the potential market acceptance of a new product or the group's reaction to the topic the session is focused on.
-Some benefits of focus groups:
+A small group of people brought together in a discussion specifically designed to uncover and share insights and observations, suggest new ideas or make recommendations on a specific subject of interest.<ref>[http://www.unfpa.org/monitoring/toolkit/tool1_glossary.pdf United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA). Programme Manager's Planning Monitoring & Evaluation Toolkit, 2004.]</ref> A moderator or interviewer usually guides the discussion without necessarily controlling it. The focus group is comprised of limited number of "homogeneous participants who discuss a predetermined topic within a permissive and non-threatening environment"<ref>Krueger A. Richard in Mathison, Sandra. Encyclopaedia of Evaluation, pp 160, Ed. University of British Columbia. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2005.</ref>.
-#they are a quick and cheap method;
+In evaluation, focus groups have been used for purposes of:
-#they are helpful for collecting informations on the group's attitude on a given subject, that would be less accessible without interaction;
-#thay are useful for eliciting informations on the features of conversation.
-Some limits of focus groups are:
+# Understanding a problem, situation or programme from the perspective of a certain group. Any understanding stemming from the focus group discussion may be used to develop a programme logic model or help gain insight into various perceptions on a given topic.
+#Pilot testing programme ideas, services or policies
-#to be effective, they need a skilled moderator to conduct them, who has to balance the freedom and spontaneity of the conversation against the focus on the topic;
-#they don't provide informations on individual opinions, since the social environment influences the answers of participants: in order to avoid conflict, their attitude is usually more polite and moderate compared to what they show in one-to-one interviews;
-#they aren't meant to generalize, since the number of participants is not large enough to be representative of the whole population.
-#to limit the self-censorship, the group should be composed by people with similar features. Hence, to collect data on persons with different characteristics, it is necessary to run multiple focus group sessions;
-#resluts are not easy to analyse (sessions are usually audio taped and trascribed).
+==Benefits of focus groups==
-'''Problems and criticism'''
+*quick method;
-However, focus groups also have disadvantages: The researcher has less control over a group than a one-on-one interview, and thus time can be lost on issues irrelevant to the topic; the data are tough to analyze because the talking is in reaction to the comments of other group members; observers/ moderators need to be highly trained, and groups are quite variable and can be tough to get together. (Ibid.) Moreover, the number of members of a focus group is not large enough to be a representative sample of a population; thus, the data obtained from the groups is not necessarily representative of the whole population, unlike in opinion polls.
+*helpful for collecting information on the group's attitude on a given subject, that would be difficult to obtain without interaction;
+*useful for eliciting information on the characteristics of conversation.
-A fundamental difficulty with focus groups (and other forms of qualitative research) is the issue of observer dependency: the results obtained are influenced by the researcher, raising questions of validity. The issue evokes associations with Heisenberg’s famous Uncertainty Principle. As Heisenberg said, "What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning." Indeed, the design of the focus group study (e.g. respondent selection, the questions asked, how they are phrased, how they are posed, in what setting, by whom, and so on) affects the answers obtained from respondents. In focus groups, researchers are not detached observers but always participants. Researchers must take this into account when making their analysis (Based on: Tjaco H. Walvis (2003), “Avoiding advertising research disaster: Advertising and the uncertainty principle”, Journal of Brand Management, Vol. 10, No. 6, pp. 403-409).
+==Be aware that...==
-Douglas Rushkoff[6] argues that focus groups are often useless, and frequently cause more trouble than they are intended to solve, with focus groups often aiming to please rather than offering their own opinions or evaluations, and with data often cherry picked to support a foregone conclusion. Rushkoff cites the disastrous introduction of New Coke in the 1980s as a vivid example of focus group analysis gone bad. In addition there is anecdotal evidence of focus groups rebelling, for instance the name for the Ford Focus, was created by a focus group which had grown bored and impatient and the irony of this was not picked up by the marketing team. <ref> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focus_group Wikipedia] (3 June 2009), [http://managementhelp.org/evaluatn/focusgrp.htm managementhelp.org] (3 June 2009), [http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/web-usability/focus-groups.shtml www.webcredible.co.uk] (3 June 2009), [http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/PM1969B.pdf www.extension.iastate.edu] (3 June 2009) </ref>}}
+*Focus Groups can be effective only with a skilled moderator, who has to balance the freedom and spontaneity of the conversation against the focus on the topic.
+*Participants' answers are influenced by the social environment: in order to avoid conflict, their attitude is usually more polite and moderate compared to what they would show in one-to-one interviews.
+*It is difficult to generalize Focus Groups' output, since the number of participants is not large enough to be representative of the whole population.
+*Group should be composed by people who are similar, in order to limit the self-censorship. Hence, to collect data on persons with different characteristics it is necessary to run multiple focus group sessions.
+*Results are difficult to analyse because sessions must be audio taped and transcribed and because the issue is influenced by the moderator, who participates in the session too. <ref> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focus_group Wikipedia] (3 June 2009), [http://managementhelp.org/evaluatn/focusgrp.htm managementhelp.org] (3 June 2009), [http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/web-usability/focus-groups.shtml www.webcredible.co.uk] (3 June 2009), [http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/PM1969B.pdf www.extension.iastate.edu] (3 June 2009) </ref>
-{{Addlink |
+See also: [[Needs Assessment]]; [[Audience Analysis]]; [[Stakeholder Analysis]]; [[Problem Tree Analysis]]}}
-Below you have a list of selected websites where you can find further information on Focus Groups:}}
-{|border=1; width= 100%
-|-
-!Link
-!Content
-|-
-|[http://managementhelp.org/evaluatn/focusgrp.htm managementhelp.org]
-|Guideline to conduct a Focus Group.
-|-
-|[http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/web-usability/focus-groups.shtml www.webcredible.co.uk]
-|Advice about how to plan and run focus groups.
-|}
+{{Tool|Organizing a Focus Group|
+__NOTOC__
+=='''Preparing a Focus Group'''==
+#Identify the main goal of the focus groups.
+#Select 6-10 participants (they should have strong feelings about the issue to be discussed and also have similar characteristics, such as the same age or the same status).
+#Avoid involving friends in the same session, since they can form cliques.
+#Plan your session (consider that the meeting should last 1.5 hours approximately).
+#Phrase five to six open and neutral questions to ask the participants (be careful to formulate them in a language the participants are familiar with).
+#Send the participants an invitation explaining the goal of the meeting, the proposed agenda, the main issue to be discussed and the related questions.
+#Set a quite room and arrange the chairs in a circle (if possible, around a table).
+#Plan to record the session (using audio/audio-video recorder) or ask a co-facilitator to take notes during the meeting.
+=='''Running Focus Group'''==
+#Welcome the participants.
+#Ask the participants to introduce themselves and, eventually, to wear name tags.
+#Review the agenda.
+#Introduce the main goal of the meeting.
+#Ask the questions you have prepared and reflect back a summary of participants’ answers.
+#Ensure balanced participation: if there is somebody dominating the session, invite participants to speak in turn; respect participants’ right to be silent but give them the chance to express themselves in a one-to-one context (for instance, during a break).
+#Let disagreements arise, since they can lead to interesting and innovative ideas, but be careful in managing them.
+#Avoid sharing your personal opinion with the group.
+#Keep the discussion on track. <ref>[http://managementhelp.org/evaluatn/focusgrp.htm managementhelp.org] (30 July 2009);
+[http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/web-usability/focus-groups.shtml www.webcredible.co.uk] (30 July 2009)</ref>}}
+=='''Job Aid'''==
+[[Image:pdf.png]] [[Media:Toolkit_Template_Focus_Group.pdf‎|Organizing a Focus Group]]

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