Content

• Steps
• Tips
• Warnings
• What do you need

Have you ever wondered how you can quickly find out the point of view, thoughts and feelings of society on a question of interest to you. Here's how to do it ...

Steps

1. 1 Decide which groups in society you will target. Do you want to know what the teenagers in your area think about it? How do your classmates feel about exercise? Are you trying to get feedback from customers?
2. 2 Specify target groups. If you don’t have sufficient funding, you will not be able to get a representative sample of how all UK adolescents feel about condom use. And if you want to represent a group of this particular age, you must conduct a survey for this.
3. 3 Advertise the focus group in a way that best suits your target group. You can:
4. 4 send invitations to group events using social networks such as Facebook.
5. 5 Talk to community workers that serve the community you are interested in and explain to them the importance of your focus group.
6. 6 Ask them to send out focus group announcements by mail or email that include time, date, and topic information.
7. 7 If you are going to ask them to mail everything, you must give them enough stamped envelopes to do so.
8. 8 If they are going to email everything, you must email them well in advance with the correct information.
9. 9 Give them posters to hang in their offices and brochures to distribute to clients.
10. 10 Send messages or mails to your customers inviting them to a focus group if your target group is your customers.
11. 11 Hang up posters promoting the group in your office if your target group is your customers.
12. 12 Personally invite members of the target audience you want to join the focus group and tell them to bring their friends. If possible, get cell phone numbers and send them an SMS reminder on the day of the group meeting.
13. 13 Display posters promoting the focus group in your neighborhood, churches, mosques, temples, and schools.
14. 14 Set up a meeting place that everyone can come to and that is large, accessible, and reasonably quiet.
15. 15 If possible, arrange for refreshing drinks.
16. 16 Make sure the meeting point is prepared well before the group arrives. Better to place the chairs in a circle.
17. 17 Prepare an introduction that concisely explains the reason for creating the group.
18. 18 Don't assume people are very familiar with this topic. Give a preface that will explain everything for itself.
19. 19 Prepare leading questions for the group.
20. 20 Now take these same questions and rewrite them to make them easier. Keep doing this until you make the questions easy to understand. Avoid jargon or terms that require further explanation.
21. 21If you must use a term that needs definition, make sure you explain it correctly.
22. 22 Find someone who doesn't know anything about the topic at all, let him look at your introduction, listen to the questions, and tell me if they are clear to everyone. If not, make them even easier.
23. 23 You can ask the focus group members to express their point of view about the photo or video that you have shown. For example, if you want to know what teens think about underage drinking, show pictures of teens drinking at parties, in groups, and alone. The trick is to convince the photos show exactly how teens actually drink!
24. 24 Prepare add-ons or a back-up plan of action if your tech fails and your video or PowerPoint doesn't work.
25. 25 On the day of the meeting, check the meeting point well in advance to make sure everything is set up correctly.
26. 26 Check all your hardware, i.e. PowerPoint, to make sure it works.
27. 27 Set up signs indicating the direction of the focus group if the meeting location is difficult to find.
28. 28 Place a sign on the door to identify the focus group.
29. 29 Place a table at the entrance to the venue with blank participant badges to fill out and dress, as if registering with your name and email address.
30. 30 Ask someone to sit at the table and greet the participants as they enter and offer to put on their badges and check in.
31. 31 Start your presentation with a formal introduction.
32. 32 Ask participants to introduce themselves.
33. 33 Play icebreaker to make the participants feel comfortable interacting with each other.
34. 34Explain that there are no wrong answers, as these are brainstorming questions.
35. 35 Tell us how the day is planned.
36. 36 Ask your leading questions about the topic.
37. 37 Encourage people to expand their answers by asking questions such as: "What do you think is causing this?", "Who do you think will feel differently?", "What do others think?", "Can you explain what you mean ...?" , "What else?", "Can you say something else?" etc.
38. 38 If one person dominates the conversation, bring the question up for public discussion and ask the other. Then turn the floor over to the next person.
39. 39 If the topic is too sensitive, the group is very large, or people do not answer the questions posed, divide people into smaller groups so that they can discuss one issue at a time.
40. 40 Record all answers on a flip chart.
41. 41 Do not change the words spoken by the participants, as this may incorrectly write down what they said.
42. 42 Reject any unnecessary topics that people bring up for discussion.
43. 43 Explain what actions you will take in the future, i.e.e. send them the received data by e-mail and schedule the next meetings.
44. 44Thank the participants and explain why their contributions are so important.

Tips

• Always check all of your equipment.
• Always have a backup plan in case of a technical failure.
• Start with the easiest and simplest topic and continue to complicate things with it.
• Don't ask people "why" they said exactly that, because they may take it as if you are criticizing their point of view.

Warnings

• Focus groups are best organized with qualified facilitators, as the last thing you would like to see is 50 blank faces looking at you trying to get them to answer questions they clearly don't understand.
• Group members may give you false information or express offensive opinions. You will need to carefully correct the situation without directly engaging in confrontation with that person.

What do you need

• meeting place
• chairs
• signs indicating the direction to the meeting place
• flip charts with paper and markers to jot down ideas
• blank badges with markers to fill in
• optional: projector, laptop and extension cords
• optional: photo and video for discussion