Focus-Group Interviews

One of the most common methods for user and consumer studies is focus groups. This is probably because this method is both cheap and easy to conduct/understand. There are, however, a lot of possible ways to conduct a focus group and it is quite easily to combine this approach with many of the other methods described in this paper. A focus group, for instance, could be a frame for interviewing lead users or it could be enriched by use of personas or probing etc.

The standard setup for a focus group is 8 to 12 participants, e.g. current or potential consumers, who are led through a qualitative group interview by a trained discussion leader. The focus of the study is normally a product concept and the discussion is often recorded and observed by other researchers from behind a one-way mirror in order to ensure the best processing of the data.

Focus groups have one obvious methodological distinction namely the social interaction between participants. This can both be and good and bad. In user research it is common that the opinions and attitudes of interviewees tend to be somewhat instable. As opinions and attitudes are often formed through social interaction the possibility for observing such interaction (collective sense-making) can give researchers a better foundation for identifying important stable opinions or predicting their behavioural strength (Grunert, 1990). Others raise it as a problem that the opinions raised in focus groups are distorted by socially aggressive or dominant participants (Mello, 2002).

Under all circumstances there seem to be a consensus that focus groups have some value for obtaining feedback on existing and well known products, but little value when for investigating deeper customer needs on which to base product innovation.