How to conduct a meaningful focus group

So you’re launching a new program or service… One of the first steps you will need to consider is conducting a focus group to gauge your customers opinions and feelings about this potential initiative. There are a few questions that you need to get answers to:

• Do our customers want this new product?
• How much are they willing to pay for it?
• Out of all the names you are considering calling it, which one do they like the best?

If you are unfamiliar of what a focus group is, it Is a session where several of your customers are commissioned by you to provide feedback. Their honest opinions about your potential endeavor can help point you in the right direction and avoid some pitfalls.

There are a myriad of ways this valuable research tool can be used. Let us take a look at one of our preferred ways.

The Planning

It’s best to have the stakeholders and project leads come up with a list of all the questions they want to pose to customers and all the topics they want to discuss. These questions will be the preface for your discussion guide. With any brainstorming session, there is no such thing as a bad question. The aforementioned discussion guide is a document that lists an outline for the conversation that will be had with your customer. A good discussion guide should include:

• Topics to be discussed
• Questions that need to be asked
• Ads that need to be tested

The Setup

To remove potential bias from customer’s feedback, it is best to have an independent research firm conduct this activity on your behalf. There are research facilities that you can rent for this purpose along with having a moderator lead the discussion with customers.