Apostolos Koutropoulos

Jennifer Novak

Patricia Nugent

Siobhán Ohmart

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXhhnUU4PFw

What is a focus group?

Social scientists created the focus-idea concept in the 1940s to evaluate audience response to radio programs and to analyze the effects of army training and morale films during World War II. It wasn't long before businesses turned to focus groups to assist them in selling their products.

Focus groups are organized interview sessions with specific goals, structures, time-frames, and procedures.

They are a more formal way of getting groups of people to discuss select issues with each other.

They yield information useful for designing interventions and for monitoring their success or failure.

A focus group is not a group interview as it relies on group discussion and is successful when the participants are able to talk to each other about the topic of interest.

It allows the participants the opportunity to disagree or agree with each other.

Provides insight into how a group thinks about an issue, about the range of opinions and ideas, and the inconsistencies and variation that exist in a particular organization.

Why use focus groups?

Assessing needs and assetsYou can use focus groups to learn about the needs/assets for a program, policy or organization, by gaining perspectives of a variety of stake holders, participants, etc.

Program planning and program designFocus groups can help you determine why a program is successful or is failing, and they can give insight of barriers or motivational factors.

Designing evaluation, monitoring and inspection systems in complex environmentsFocus groups can be used to determine what type of evaluation you should do, or what specific thing to evaluate.

Pilot testing intervention strategies, policies, delivery methods and moreFocus groups can help to determine which specific approach or strategy works best for implementation.

Formative or process evaluationYou can use focus groups to explore how exactly a program is functioning and to gain ongoing feedback from participants.

Using focus groups to evaluate organizational issuesUse them to figure out how to improve morale, increase productivity, and more.

Summative evaluationFocus groups can be used when a program is complete, and you want to determine how objectives were met and indicators for success/failure.

Impact or outcome evaluationFocus groups can be used when a program has been finished for some time and you want to explore long-term impacts/outcomes.

Using focus groups with another evaluation strategyThey can be used to narrow and refine survey questions, or edit/change your methodology.

Using focus groups in a participatory studyThey can be used to empower an organization to do their own focus groups, to teach others how to do them, to build their capacity.

Outsourced: $4,000 to $6,000 per session

Participants: Fees vary

Timing and Cost

Timing of the research

Timing of the session

Examples of use

•Product Development •User Interface Testing •Consulting •Marketing Research

Advantages

•Expand existing knowledge

•Identify needs of consumers, customers and staff of an organization.

•Avoid the intensity of individual interviews

•Can be more cost and time effective than individual interviews.

•Helpful with children or groups with inadequate literacy or language from the dominant culture/language

•Ability to utilize different dialects that may be difficult to read, write or translate

•People are able to build on one another's responses and come up with ideas they might not have thought of in a 1-on-1 interview·

•Participants can act as checks and balances on one another - identifying factual errors or extreme views

•Develop an understanding of peoples overall perception

•Helpful in seeking a range of ideas

•Accomplish a great deal in a compressed timeframe; everyone is together

•Time points for project milestones

•Keep stakeholders actively participating throughout the project

Disadvantages

Limitations of findings

•Can be an inefficient way of gathering information.

•Reveals attitudes of small group only

•Not a scientific sampling

•Competitive and intimate topics are unsuitable for focus group discussion

Limitations of findings

•The data which results from a focus group requires skills and experience to analyze

•Data may seem nonsensical when analyzed because if it’s just transcribed it loses context

•Findings may not be easily generalized

•Some theorists argue that focus groups are like the “fast food” of research because they only lead to a superficial understanding of the data that they produce

The Moderator

• Needs to have a skilled moderator at the helm

• Needs to ensure that a Focus Group does not become a Group Interview

• Must be careful not to allow minority of group members to dominate the discussion

• Must be aware of contextual issues, recent history, and organizational norms that might inhibit open communication or sanction those who express alternative views

• Must not sway the group in one way or another

The Focus Group• Recruitment can be difficult without a strong

incentive

• Pre-existing dynamics: must use caution when using groups of people who know and work closely with each other

• Existence of power relationships within the group may inhibit some to be open and honest.

• Fear of confidentiality

• Participants may feel pressure to go along with the overall thoughts of the group

Costs

•“focus group interviews are labor intensive, with costs that are sometimes underestimated, such as the cost of training researchers or hiring skilled moderators, contacting participants, room hire, transcribing recordings, and time to analyze data” (Hofmeyer & Scott, 2007)

Best Practices and Tips

Planning

• Hold a kickoff meeting with the project team to plan the focus group

• Need to consider:

Goals (what information will be gathered)

Deadlines for gathering information

Logistics

Budget

Participants

Selecting Participants

• Typical of audience

• Not experts; less experienced with focus group techniques

• Similar demographics

• Need at least two groups of each audience

▫ Two groups of men▫ Two groups of women

• Use a screening questionnaire to make sure participants are a good match

• Make sure to recruit more people than necessary

Location

•Commercial set-ups

•Teleconference

•Transportation if off-site

•Food/beverages

•Child care

•Typical conference room or office

Session Set-up

•Schedule at a convenient time for participants

•More than one facilitator so that the lead facilitator does not need to take notes and lead the discussion simultaneously

•Create a leader’s guide so that the discussion stays on track and the relevant points are covered

Session Agenda•Facilitator welcomes group, explains

agenda for the day

•Starts with “Icebreaker” questions

•Using the leader’s guide continues with discussion, ▫Covers all topics▫probes participants for deeper understanding

•Before end of session, consults with other team members to discuss additional questions

Analysis of the Data

•Refer back to notes taken during session; help remind facilitators of non-verbal behavior

•Recordings, if any, should be transcribed

•Because the notes are likely comments from group participants, it may help to categorize them into relevant themes

BibliographyFreeman, T. (2006). "Best Practice" in focus group research: Making sense of different views. Methodological

issues in nursing research , 491-497.

Hofmeyer, A. T., & Scott, C. M. (2007). Moral Geography of Focus Groups with Participant Who Have Preexisting Relationships in the Workplace. International Journal of Qualitative Methods , 6 (2).

Reed, J., & Roskell Payton, V. (1997). Focus Groups: issues of analysis and interpretation. Journal of advanced nursing , 765-771

Barbour R & Kitzinger J (eds) (1999) Developing Focus Group Research. Sage, London

Gibbs A (1997) Focus groups. Social Research Update, Vol.19.University of Surrey, Surrey, England

Krueger RA & Casey MA (2000) Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research, 3rd edn. Sage Publications Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA. 

 Morgan, David (1996) Focus Groups. Annual Review of Sociology, 126-152.

Shackelford, Bill (2002) A Clear Picture of Focus Groups, Learning Circuits (ASTD).

Parker, A. and Tritter, J. (2006) Focus group method and methodology: current practice and recent debate. International Journal of Research and Method in Education, 23-37.

Kruger, R. and Casey, M. Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2008.