Best Practices to Drive Discussion in a Focus Group

The success of a focus group depends largely on how good a moderator is and his ability to drive the discussion in the desired manner. The typical duration of a focus group is 60 minutes and hence it is challenging to extract opinions and their corelated insights from the participants. Some of the best practices/methods adopted by skilled moderators are:

1. Laddering: In this technique, the line of questioning proceeds from product characteristics to user benefits and ultimately to values.
2. Context information: Experiences or issues that surround a product or a practice are usually explored.
3. Top-of-mind associations: The first thing that comes to participants’ mind when talked about a product/concept/topic/theme?
4. Querying the meaning of the obvious: Looking at the topic/concept from the participants’ angle and establishing a common definition for the overall group
5. Conditions that permit and those that inhibit: “Tell me a situation when having this aroma inhaler will be appropriate? To what kind of situation, serving this snack will not be right?”
6. Establishing conceptual maps of a product category: “How would you group these brands of tea? How is this group different from the other one?”
7. Personality Mapping: “Here are various pictures of people / situations. Which of them will go with each of these apparel brands?”
8. Pointing out contradictions: “You just told me that you want a washing machine that lasts for 8 years, and now you are telling me that you’ll go for this new one even though your present one is only 4 years old and working fine?”
9. Divide & Debate : Dividing all participants into 2 groups – for and against the motion/topic
10. The ‘ideal’ thing: “If you were to design the ideal luggage for air/train travel, how would it be? Don’t worry whether something is possible or not. Let your imagination flow”