How to prepare for a focus group

How to prepare for a focus group
By Angela Sinickas

You're considering staging a series of focus groups. Your organization is in the early phase of an environmental assessment that will have it polling employees for their opinion on a variety of performance-critical topics. The focus groups will start the ball rolling. What do you do to prepare?

Focus groups can serve a host of purposes, of course. Like panels filled with consumers asked to give advance feedback on some new product, employee focus groups can be a remarkably effective way to test-market key messages or communication strategies. They can be an effective way for communicators to put their ears to the ground and listen for what employees will say when asked open-ended questions. They can also be effective lead-ins for surveys in the early stages of development. For organizations facing serious performance issues, focus sessions are a useful means to lay the groundwork for asking the right questions in a way calculated to produce the best data.

1. Where to start
Start where any good consultant starts - with the client. Is there a principal figure (or group) in the organization asking for the data? If so, find out as much as you can about what has prompted the request. Educate yourself about the problem lying behind the request. You may find yourself talking with the CEO, or with the director of a division. Schedulean appointment and be clear about its purpose. Before you go, prepare a checklist for yourself detailing the ground you want to cover.

2. What you need to know
Remember that you may not always get the information you need on the first try. Consider the questions to ask again from another perspective. Above all, listen. What are the specific goals the client has in mind? Does the client have a pre-determined view of the outcome? Probe for the trouble spots, if there are any. What are you likely to hear about?

3. Find out who else you should speak to
Who else in the company, or division (or whatever the organizational unit that's to be the focus of the research) will have useful information to help you prepare? It may be a senior manager, or someone who's a long-time veteran of the organization. You may find yourself conducting several one-on-one interviews to help round out the picture. If you're a recent arrival in the company, consider whether anything else in the organization's history might be useful to know. Has the problem or issue occurred before? Has the program been tried earlier?

4. And now for the sessions..
Now that you've developed the background and sounded out the client, think ahead to the session (or sessions, if there's to be a series). Who should be there? How large should the sessions be? How long should they last? Where will they take place: off-site or in-house? Will they be open to volunteers? How many do you want to convene? How important is geographic or organizational coverage? How might the lack of cross-functional - or cross-sectional - diversity affect the outcome? What's a useful sampling? Where is the point of diminishing returns? Who will facilitate the sessions: a member of the communication team, an in-house trained facilitator, or a neutral outsider?

5. Widen your scope
The answers to many of these questions will partly be determined by the scope of the research. The larger the scope of the issues you're polling for, the larger the panel of groups you'll need to convene. At the same time, remember to ask yourself what you intend to do with the results. Will the sessions be taped, videotaped or otherwise recorded? What kind of qualitative data do you expect to get? Make sure to provide for the resources to analyze the results adequately.

6. Tear up the script, but not the agenda.
You'll likely not want to script the sessions. It's important that participants feel free to express themselves without being hemmed in by too much structure. On the other hand, an agenda is essential to make sure you cover the points you need to explore before thanking the group for coming. What are the goals of you and your client? What do you need to ask the group to make sure your survey is as effective as possible? Again, don't forget to listen well, and ask helpful follow-up questions.

Measurement tip
Focus groups provide a valuable opportunity for participants to talk to you. As they speak, be sure to listen to the language they use, and the way in which they respond to the language in the questions you ask. Think ahead to your survey questions. Are participants using words or terms that you can incorporate into a later survey and that would be more meaningful to them?

This article was taken from Strategic Communication Management.