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How to Conduct a Focus Group

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Submitted By arsyed
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Guidelines for Conducting a Focus Group
Surveys assume that people know how they feel. But sometimes they really don’t. Sometimes it takes listening to the opinions of others in a small and safe group setting before they form thoughts and opinions. Focus groups are well suited for those situations. Focus groups can reveal a wealth of detailed information and deep insight. When well executed, a focus group creates an accepting environment that puts participants at ease allowing then to thoughtfully answer questions in their own words and add meaning to their answers. Surveys are good for collecting information about people’s attributes and attitudes but if you need to understand things at a deeper level then use a focus group. If you’ve ever participated in a well-run focus group you’d probably say it felt very natural and comfortable to be talking with a group of strangers. What you didn’t know perhaps were the many hidden structures behind it all. A good focus group requires planning – a lot more planning than merely inviting a few key people to casually share their opinions about a topic. Outlined here are the details for conducting a high quality focus group. Also included are stepby-step instructions for making sense of all the information you collect in the groups.

In this Guide you will find checklists for:
Defining a focus group Designing focus group questions Recruiting and preparing for participants Conducting the focus group Analyzing the data

You will also find samples of the following items:
Focus group questions Recruitment flyer Invitee tracking form Introductory remarks Sample consent from Data analysis format Synthesized report format

Defining a focus group
A focus group is a small group of six to ten people led through an open discussion by a skilled moderator. The group needs to be large enough to generate rich discussion but not so

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