How to Run a Focus Group: Everything You Need to Know.

A popular question I see people asking a lot is how do I run focus groups.

It makes me bloody excited to see people wanting to do consumer research because I genuinely believe businesses need this if they want to be successful, so I’ve put together this little guide as a starter.

The Basics of Running a Focus Group

To begin with, this article covers the basics, addressing the two biggest issues I see in bad research and how to overcome them. Specifically, these are the absolute must-haves that you need to do in your research to make sure you’re getting genuine, authentic feedback and not misleading results (I don’t think I need to lay out why misleading results are bad):

Who to Interview

In this next article, I discuss the different profiles of consumer that your business has and the role that each of them have. Typically, for new product development and concept development (both for new product/service ideas and concepts for communications and marketing), I would focus on the Bulls-Eye consumer, i.e. the dream target. There are other occasions when the other types are more appropriate but the most common topics for focus groups are concept and product development, so that’s your Bulls-Eye target.

Ideally, you’d also aim for some diversity in who you speak to. Your only real opportunity to get that right is by asking them to complete a survey in advance. Depending on how many focus groups you want to do, I’d try and keep similar people in one group (whether that’s age, gender or attitudes, including how often they use/buy your product or service.)

What to Ask

In research, ultimately you need to decide what key questions or KPIs (key performance indicators) you need the research to answer. Every business has a specific measure that they hang their hat on, but I’ve written this article outlining all the key questions you should be able to answer after you’ve done the research in a new product development project (from your consumer’s perspective, not yours). If you’re uncertain of the questions to ask in your focus group this will help inform what questions to ask too.

But if you’re only going to ask one thing, I believe that question is do people want what you’re offering. And secondly, do they need it (or what else are they doing for that solution in the meantime?) 

What is the Best Way to Ask Those Questions?

Now that you’ve identified what you need your research to answer, you now need to work out how to actually ask that question (and spoiler alert, you can’t just ask it – there are so many psychological reasons for this that they deserve a whole different article, but in short it’s because they can lead your participants into answering something by implying something that you believe which will affect the authenticity of their responses.)

For example, if they’ve just told you that they’re really struggling to stick to a diet, a leading question would be “wouldn’t an app with hourly prompts be useful?” as it sets them up to answer, “well, yes, probably.” (But we don’t have a clue what’s actually hard about sticking to the diet.) So, instead, we should be asking non-leading questions like “what makes it hard to stick to your diet?” “what would be useful to help you stick to a diet?” “what has helped you stick to a diet in the past?” “what have tried?” “is there anything in particular that you struggle with?” All that leading questions will give you is a positive view on something that isn’t definitely the truth.

Are Open Questions or Closed Questions Best?

Overall, the best way to ask questions is to make them as open as possible (how does this make you feel? What makes you feel that way?) rather than closed questions where the answers are yes or no or can be answered in one word. They don’t encourage natural conversation and give no reason for them to add more. Open questions, on the other hand, give us more detail and depth and naturally encourage elaboration.

But they both serve a purpose in the interview and both styles should and can be used:

Examples of Closed Questions

Closed questions can help when the participant isn’t very verbal and needs warming up;

• “When was the last time you XYZ?”

Closed questions are useful if you need very specific information;

• “Are you aware of …?”

• “How often do you…?”

Or if you need them to focus on a specific point to progress the interview;

• “Do you do XYZ?”

Examples of Open Questions

Open questions can help a participant elaborate on a particular point they have already made;

• “Tell me more about that.”

They can help gain a wider understanding of what they think;

• “What qualities do you think XYZ needs?”

Open questions can also help participants focus on their feelings;

• “How does this make you feel?”

Interviewing can be really fun – and more importantly provide a huge insight into your business, so good luck and enjoy it!

Prefer to hand things over to the experts? Get in touch, we’d be more than happy to help.