Honora N. EskridgeConsultant, DJA

Director of Centennial Campus Research Services at

North Carolina State University

Leading Focus Groups

Focus Groups:

Why?

Benefits:– Group dialogue (with no

pressure for consensus) provides rich information and diversity of ideas

– Provides insight on real experiences “on the ground” from the experts

– A lot of info at low cost

Limitations:– Facilitator bias

– “Groupthink”

– Not always generalizable to the broader population

Focus Groups:

When?

• Most effective in the early/design stages of a project

• When you have time/when you can still change course

• Purpose is to get candid feedback with the opportunity for follow up

• When the research questions are appropriate for group discussion

Planning &

Designing

• Basic principles:– Homogenous groups– Small (3 – 8 persons)– Neutral moderator + note-

taker (also manages recorder)

– Script– Comfortable, neutral,

distraction-free setting– Everyone sitting so they can

see and hear each other– Food is good!– IRB?

The Script

• Start with an easy warm up question

• Structure questions from general to specific

• Write open-ended questions (hint: if you can answer yes or no to it, it’s not open ended)

• Test the script for time and flow (6 questions = 1 hour)

• The participants are the experts

– e.g., never correct them, if possible use as an opportunity to get more information

• Moderator should have some familiarity with the community

– e.g. hot button topics

• Finding a balance between a rapport and professional distance of a researcher

Facilitating Focus Groups

• Body language is very important (yours and theirs)

• Neutrality in your response (don’t defend, justify or elaborate)

• Use probes to clarify– Tell me more? Can you

elaborate? What do you mean by…?

– Don’t paraphrase, if you have to, mirror

Listening &

Responding

• Don’t interrupt

• Don’t lead (“don’t you think that…”)

• Don’t finish thoughts

• Don’t rush the participant

• Balance between silence and keeping things moving

Listening &

Responding

Managing Time

• Finding a balance between letting people talk and keeping things moving

• Structure of the script is critical in terms of length and flow of questions

• To move things along --– Watch/listen for opportunities to transition

– Acknowledge the time, and that there are some other questions you’d like to ask

• Check in on their time

• Confidentiality

• One person speaks at a time

• Avoid side conversations

• Everyone’s opinions are valued

• We want to hear all sides of an issue (+/-)

• Equal representation of ideas

• Comfort

• End on time

Start With Group Norms

Create a

Facilitation

Guide

• The script plus

– Introductory remarks

– Norms and other ground rules

– When the recorder is being turned on

– Closing remarks

– Information about follow up

• Sample

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