Q. How do you decide what kind of people you want in a Focus Group?

A. There is only a very short window of time for Focus Group participants to become comfortable enough with one another to talk together easily. So, Focus Groups work best if the participants begin with something in common, almost always something related to the subject of the session.

The “common ground” chosen depends on the type of product/service being tested and the target audience. Respondents may be customers, former customers, users of a competitive product, potential purchasers, etc. They may all be from a specific demographic group (for example, all mothers of toddlers with $50,000 plus household income for Focus Groups on a relatively expensive childcare product) or even all from a specific part of town, if location is an issue.

Sometimes I’m asked to do a single group with, for example, “2 heavy users, 2 light users, 2 former users and 2 non-users.” This approach may sound efficient on paper, but what will we find out? What will be the common ground for the respondents? Will they be able to discuss the product/service completely and comfortably coming from all these different levels of experience?

You could liken it to getting 2 fans each of basketball, baseball, golf and hockey in a room and asking them to discuss sports. Everyone is coming from a different direction and they have little common ground. It is usually better to keep each group homogenous to some degree or you can wind up with an inexplicable jumble of ideas and opinions.

Next time — Now that you know who you want, how do you get those people to come to the group?

Do you have a comment or research-related question? Send it to me for future FAQs!