introduction to ux research: conducting focus groups

Will Evans@semanticwill

Yana Kuchirko@mslogophiliac

People do not know what they want. They barely know what they need, but they definitely do not know what they want. They’re conditioned by the limited imagination of what is possible. … Most of the time, focus groups are built on the pressure of ignorance.

Massimo Vignelli

"It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them.”

- Steve Jobs

"It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them.”

- Steve Jobs

04/07/23 Will Evans & Yana Kuchirko 3

Let’s dispense with this little turd blossom right up front: Henry Ford never said, “If I'd asked customers what they wanted, they would have said "a faster horse,”

It’s not even a useful lie!


What are focus groups?


The concept of focus groups was developed in 1930’s by psychoanalyst Ernest Dichter as a social research method

Focus groups are structured interviews that quickly and inexpensively reveal a target audience’s desires, experiences, attitudes, and priorities

Focus groups can be a useful technique when a company needs a lot of insight from potential or existing customers in a short amount of time

What are focus groups?


Focus groups are good at uncovering people’s desires, motivations, values, and first hand experiences.

In a focus group, people generally feel comfortable revealing their thoughts and feelings, thereby sharing their views on issues and assumptions that are at the core of their experience of a product.

With the right question, the right group and the right moderator, focus groups can yield useful insights.

When to do Focus Groups?


In product design, focus groups are used early in the design cycle when the team is generating ideas and seeking to understand the needs of the target audience.

Early in the design cycle, focus groups can help the company understand:

User’s fundamental issues and perceptions of the productWhat users believe are the important features of the productWhat types of problems users experience with the productWhere do users feel the product fails to meet their expectations

When to do Focus Groups? (cont.)


Later in the development process focus groups can help the company identify and prioritize features to build and release in the product

Knowing why people value certain features can determine what gets developed and in what order

Focus groups also serve as a platform for generating ideas of what users wish to see in future releases


Focus Groups cannot be used to unequivocally prove or disprove a hypothesis about the user experience of a product.

When NOT to do Focus Groups?


When the objective is to acquire usability information

A group of people can’t provide specific information regarding product features without structured usability testing sessions

When seeking to understand the perspectives of the bigger population

Quantitative data that is generalizable to the bigger population requires surveys or other methodological approaches that require a large sample of participantsThere is no guarantee that proportion of responses in the group matches that of larger population of users

Although focus groups are an excellent way to gather motivations and insights from the users, it cannot be used to unequivocally prove or disprove a hypothesis about the user experience

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Exploratory Focus Groups


Typically conducted in the beginning of a design cycle

Uncover users’ general attitudes on a given topic, allowing product designs to

See how their users will understand their productWhat words users will use to speak about itWhat criteria they will use to judge it

Feature Prioritization Focus Groups


Generally held at the beginning of the product design cycle when the outlines of the product are clear.

These groups focus on features of the product that are most attractive to the users, with an emphasis on why they are appealing.

Underlying assumption of this type of focus group is that that the participants are interested in the product, with discussion focusing on what kinds of things they would like the product to do for them.

Competitive Analysis Focus Groups


Aims to uncover what attracts and repels users with respect to competitor’s sites

What associations do users have with the competitor?What aspects of the user experience they find valuable?Where does the product satisfy users’s needs and where does it not suffice?What emotions does the product evoke?How do users identify with the product?

This type of focus group is often conducted anonymously

Trend Explanations Focus Group


Generally held in either a re-design part of the development process, or in response to specific emotional or functional issues in product development

Exploring the trends of users’ behaviors, needs, and expectations within and across products.

How to conduct Focus Groups


Assemble your teamMake sure you have a good cross section of product, ux, marketing and development.

Create a scheduleA good schedule provides sufficient time for recruiting, testing, analyzing and integrating results

Define your usersRecruit participants who are your users and thus likely to provide the best feedback – usually 6-8

Define the scope of your researchWhat is the complexity of your questions? What is the depth at which you wish to explore the answers? This will determine the number of people and the number of groups that need to be conducted

How to run your Focus Groups


Choose a topics for discussionOn average, 3-5 topics per 90 minute focus group

Create a discussion guide

Consider the “core” questions you and your product team are trying to answer and prioritize them

Establish rolesWho will moderate? Who will take notes? Who will lead the discussion afterwards

Asking Good Questions


Questions should be: Carefully ordered, thus positioning participants

within a certain frame of mind, containing an intuitive flow

Non-directed: should not imply an answer. Example: “How difficult do you find this feature?”

Open-ended: general enough not to constrain answers to a specific responses (limit yes-no questions)

Focused: focused on specific topics you are investigating

Personal: people love to generalize their experience to the bigger public; create questions that concentrate on person’s current behavior and opinions without many opportunities to project their experiences onto the general public

Unambiguous: clear and concise, with few shades of meaning.

Example Discussion Guide


Warm up and introduction (approx. 15 min)Introduction of moderationIce breakers for participantsOutline of the process

Main topic discussionModerate group discussion that focuses on specific questions you and your company have regarding a product.

Wrap-UpFinal thoughts and reflections

Warm Up & Introduction Tips


Telling participants that they were chosen to be part of the group allows them to feel more comfortable with one another

Informing the group of the purpose of the session focuses their attention to the desired end goal

Clearly set out expectations and “ground rules” for discussion (no blocking, interruption, flow of discussion)

Acknowledge any potentially anxiety provoking features of the environment (camera, mirrored wall) to help people feel more comfortable

• Inform participants of their rights to participation Freedom to leave at any point, confidentiality of their thoughts

Main Discussion Tips


Probes and follow-up questions are extremely usefulThey dig deeper into any given topicThey clarify what people mean when they state their opinionsMy definition of “useful”, “clear”, and/or “good” may not mirror other people’s definitions of there terms. Probes help create a common definition of terms, and alleviate potential misunderstandings between the researcher and participant.

Context Is King (not content)


Comfortable environment is key to a lively discussionLimited interruptions

After the session begins, no new person should join the session so that the dynamic isn’t altered by another person’s presence

Food is encouragedEating is an informal activity that often breaks tension in any groupNo noisy snacks that disturb the conversation

Seating orderHave a 10-15 minute social time before the focus group starts so the moderator can identify introverts, extroverts, and alpha-jerks

Videotaping advisedHuman interaction is incredible complex. Since the moderator is part of the group dynamic, it is helpful to videotape the sessions in order to capture gestures, and other subtle interactions


John McLaughlin is a perfect example of a bad moderator and a douchebag: highly opinionated, clearly biased, with a tendency for dominating the discussion

What about the moderator?


Group moderation is a skill

Basic skills any moderator should embody are: Respect for the participantsAbility to listen closely to other’s perspectivesAbility to think fast on multiple levels simultaneously.

The moderator must be able to predict the direction of the conversation and drive it toward a desired direction, without the participants realizing that they are being moderated.

This can be accomplished via moderator’s subtle cues, tone, and/or body language

Effective Moderation


ControlModerator should always be in control of leading discussion towards answers to questions, and deterring tangents

Good time managementThe flow should be monitored so that introduction of topics is at appropriate times, transitions are intuitive and natural.

Participant-focused A moderator should mediate the discussion, rather than expressing opinions

RespectAll participants should feel comfortable and have a voice, alpha-jerks managed

PreparationModerator should have sufficient knowledge of product space

Effective Moderation Tips


Spend time with participants beforehand to get a sense of who is quiet and might need more attention

Stick to the guide but be flexible enough to stray away from the script when necessary

Engage ALL participants in the discussion Avoid introducing new terminology and concepts Be mindful of body language Clarify any comments & restate ideas and opinions to

ensure everyone is on the same page Probe for alternative opinions on any given topic Don’t dominate the discussion, allow the group to

lead Provide the group with time to think & give a break

when necessary Use humor when appropriate and keep the energy

level high


An electronics company was testing a new boombox they hoped to start selling. Their research included focus groups where they showed the two colour options: yellow and black. The participants were in agreement that yellow was the best colour because it is vibrant and energetic. At the end of the focus group they were each allowed to take a boombox home and could choose yellow or black. They all chose black.– Steve Mulder, “The User is Always Right”

Common Obstacles


The moderator is not an objective observer Moderator affects the group dynamics and discussion

Focus groups reveal the way people think and not the way they actually behaveOpinions from focus groups may be limited to the participants in the sessions

The sample may be biased for more reasons than just small size and therefore cannot be adequately extrapolated to represent the bigger population

Reticent individuals are often silenced by outspoken ones

Data may be biased toward those who speak up

“Vividness effect”People often provide examples of situations that are most emotionally vivid to them.

Common Obstacles


Overly talkative participantsWhen people are clearly talking without a purpose, ask them kindly to wrap up and move on: Moderate the extroverts, probe the introverts.

Group dominance (The Alpha-Jerk Effect)A single dominant/bullying participant can ruin the focus group

Unqualified participantsAt times people misunderstand what the participation criteria are, or misrepresent their experience

TangentsThey can be useful for discussion of values and ideas, but should be wrapped up quickly and redirected to main discussion point

Hostility & Offensive IdeasVehement disagreement or offensive ideas can lead people in the group to feel uncomfortable. The moderator should redirect conversation to the focusing on the ideas behind any given perspective: Go Meta!


Researchers must continually be careful to avoid the trap of selective perception- Richard A. Krueger

What data to collect?


Focus groups produce a ton of potentially useful information which can be extracted by means of:

TranscriptsQuotationsObserver opinionsModels Videotapes

What information should be prioritized depends upon how what form of data answers your question, and how quickly you need to synthesize the results.

Analysis Steps


Capture the initial hypothesisDuring the debriefing (occurring with little time lapse from focus group to retain memory), discuss with other observers thoughts regarding the groups' opinions and feedback

Transcribe and codeVideo interaction should be transcribed and themes/trends of opinions should be extracted via coding

Coding is a method of extrapolating ideas from the transcripts and categorizing the responses (thus generating quantitative data).

Your codes (general categories) should be short, concise, descriptive in nature, and accurately depicting a users’ single idea.

Coding Framework


Top-downA hypothesis of what types of themes the participants’ transcripts will generate already exists and is confirmed using the dataA pre-existing model is applied to the data.

Bottom-upThe data is explored without pre-existing framework in mind, generating themes based on the responses in the transcript.The model is generated using the data.This methodological approach to extracting themes from focus group interviews is recommended since it is less biased and more true to the data.

Extracting Trends in Data


Mental modelsMental representations of how your users understand the way the world or a product works

ValuesWhat do people like and dislike and what criteria do they use to establish their opinions

StoriesStories are a powerful way that people capture their unique, subjective experiences, and provide details about their assumptions, order of doing things and ways of solving problems

Product pitfallsBrainstorms during focus groups can produce a list of problems that users experience using the product

Getting the most out of the data


Questions to read for What are reasons behind people’s opinions? What terminology do people use and do

products speak their users’ language? Where do people contradict themselves? When do people change their minds and how

does that reveal their actual values and perspectives on a given product?

What do people consider to be important and is the product that is popular actually important to them?

Thanks!

Will Evans@semanticwill

Yana Kuchirko@mslogophiliac

introduction to ux research: conducting focus groups

Technology