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Focus groups

 

            Focus groups are informal techniques that can help you assess users" feelings and needs towards products both before and after implementation. A focus group consists of six to nine people who discuss the positive and negative aspects of a particular product. The moderator allots a time slot of approximately two hours for the discussion of problematic features in the company's product that can be altered in order to better suit the consumers" needs. These reactions and ideas are generated from the focus group meetings where dynamics and organizational issues are discussed. They can only assess what customers say in the focus groups; however, they do not really know if what they are saying corresponds to what they actually do. In other words, since there is a difference between what people say and what they actually do, this can pose a potential problem in regards to asking questions in a focus group that generates a simple, yet uninformative answer. .
             Before selecting members to participate in a focus group, a free-flowing structured plan is necessary to gather important information extracted from the participants. This can be achieved by preparing a pre-planned script of specific issues and goals to focus on. All group members should also contribute to the seminar and avoid letting one participant's opinion dominate over the rest. In addition, some group members are extremely reluctant to participate because he or she may feel uncomfortable sharing his or her personal opinion with the group members themselves. Data analysis can be as simple as having the moderator write up a short report summarizing the groups" mood, information collected about the problem, and the groups" personal opinions on how the problem can be resolved. These results are then sent to the head office of the company to be reviewed and implemented on their next campaign, which will be then put into practice to improve the company's product.


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