What is a focus group?

Need to plan a focus group but not sure what it is or where to start? Check out our explanation and tips for setting up yours perfectly.

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What is a focus group? 

A focus group answers queries in a moderated atmosphere. The group's activities and their answers to any questions posed to them can guide future research on customer decisions, products and services.

Focus groups are ideal for marketing, library science, social science and user research. They can offer more subtle yet natural feedback, as opposed to typical interviews. Plus, they’re easier to arrange than experiments or large-scale research.

The group can be asked to look at a range of things including; new products, feature updates or thoughts on a topic or issue. This research needs a moderator to guarantee legitimate results and decrease bias. This is often someone from the company who is compiling the study and is trained on ensuring accurate results.

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What is a focus group meeting?

During the focus group meeting, the facilitator asks participants queries about the project and participants are encouraged to honestly. 

Conducting one of these meetings is not hard, but facilitators must ensure it keeps to its goals and offers information the company needs.

Start by making a list of goals of the focus group. The objectives should define the type of information you want to share and gather at the meeting. For instance, the company may want to know people’s thoughts on a new product.

After setting the objectives of your focus group meeting, identify the people you want to attend. If you want to gather ideas about a new software program, your target invitees should be people with a good grasp of the technology-related language.

Make sure you have a proper space to hold the focus group meeting. Preferably, the venue should be at or close to your business, but don’t make it too difficult for people to get to. That will discourage participants from taking part. 

Don't forget to introduce yourself and clarify the purpose of the focus group.

Finally, don’t forget to take notes or record the meeting. You can’t make recommendations to the company if you don’t have a note of your findings.

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How do you schedule a focus group meeting?

Trying to get a good sample of your target audience together is going to be tricky. It’ll likely be impossible unless you automate the process using a tool like Doodle.

With Group Poll you simply have to select the range of times you want to hold your focus group and send it to your participants. They’ll decide when they’re available and within minutes you’ll be able to start locking in your sessions. 

Doodle Professional also lets you add your own branding to meeting invites - which is great when you’re inviting members of the public. It also lets you get rid of ads and send reminders to make sure everyone attends.

If you are holding your meeting virtually, you can add your favorite video conferencing tool and links are automatically added to the email you send when a time is selected. 

Doodle makes it easy for you to get your financial committee to get together in minutes without getting tangled in scheduling hell. Try it for free today.

Click, click, done

Set your availability and schedule meetings instantly - with nothing more than a link.

No credit card required.