Focus Group Discussion Guide for
Cellular Handsets
Process
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Pre-Amble (5 mins)
Intros & Warm-Up (3 mins)
Cellular Environment (5 mins)
Cellular Usage (10 mins)
Past Handset Purchase (20 mins)
Usage of Handset Features (10 mins)
Desire Feature (3 mins)
Motivations for Replacement (10 mins)
Triggers to Past Upgrade (10 mins)
Barriers to Past Upgrade (5 mins)
Triggers & Barriers to Future Upgrade (20 mins)
Closing Exercise (10 mins)
Pre-Amble (5 mins)
• Thanks and welcome
• Nature of focus group (informal, multiway, expansive, all views,
disagree)
• May ask obvious questions-humor me (sometimes actually obvious,
sometimes not )
• There are no right or wrong answers-all about finding out what
people think
• Audio & video recording
• Colleagues viewing
• Help self to refreshment
• Going to be talking about cellular phone handsets
Intros & Warm-Up (3 mins)
Like to go round the room and have
you introduce yourselves…
• First name
• Best thing about having a celular phone
• Worst thing about having a cellular phone
Cellular Environment (5 mins)
• When you’re out and about, what do you take with you ?
• Let’s start with the things you always take with you ?
FLIPCHART
• And what are the things you often take with you?
FLIPCHART
Cellular Usage (10 mins)
• I’d like to understand a bit about you typically use your
cellular phone…
• Hoe many calls do you typically make or receive a week ?
• What are some of the most common types of outgoing
calls you make ?
Briefly explore
• What are the most common types of incoming calls you
receive ?
• If we were to take away your cellular phone from you,
what difference would that make to your life ?
Briefly explore
Past Handset Purchase (20 mins)
• Thinking now about your handset. I’d like to talk about two different
things…
• First, how you actually went about the process of choosing the
handset and, second, any criteria you had for the handset itself…
Past Handset Selection Process
• So thinking first only about how you went about choosing your
handset, not any features you wanted, how did you go about choosing
one?
EXPLORE PROCESS
Past Handset Criteria
• OK, so now tell me what you actually looked for in a handset?
Usage of Handset Features (10 mins)
• Thinking now about handset features. I‘d like to start
by making a list of all the handset features you can
think of-anything the handset can do, any settings you
can change, etc.
• We’ll talk in a minute about which features you actually
use, but I want to start with a list of everything your
handset could do.
FLIPCHART
• Which features have you ever used, even if only once ?
FLIPCHART
• Are there any settings you only changed once, but are
really glad could change ?
• Why?
EXPLORE
Desire Feature (3 mins)
• Are there any features your handset
doesn’t have but you wish that it did ?
EXPLORE
Motivations for Replacement (10 mins)
• You’ve all been invited here because you’ve
replaced your handset at least once…
• What motivated you to replace your hand set ?
EXPLORE
• Was the hand set replacement tied to your
switching or renewing your operator contract,
i.e., contract with your wireless service
provider ?
• What do you think are some of the reasons
that people would replace their handsets ?
EXPLORE
Triggers to Past Upgrade (10 mins)
• You’ve all been invited here because you’ve
upgrade your handset at least once…
• What was it that made you want yo upgrade to
a better handset?
UNPROMPTED FIRST
• What were ALL the factors involved in that
decision ?
• What was the single biggest reason ?
EXPLORE
Barriers to Past Upgrade (5 mins)
• How long was it from the first time you
ever considered upgrading, however
briefly, until the time you actually went
ahead and bought the new handset ?
• What were all the reasons you didn’t do
it immediately ?
EXPLORE
• What was the main reason for leaving
it a while ?
EXPLORE
Triggers & Barriers to Future Upgrade (20
mins)
• What about the future—when do you think you will next
upgrade your handset ?
EXPLORE
• What would spur you to do that ?
• Is there a killer feature that would have you upgrade
immediately?
EXPLORE
How would you go about choosing your next handset?
EXPLORE
Closing Exercise (10 mins)
• Finally, I’d like your creativity for a few minutes—to
come up with ideas…
• Don’t worry about whether it’s good idea or a bad idea.
• The only word I’m going to ban is “free” !
• Supposing a handset manufacturer wanted to encourage
you to upgrade tomorrow…
• What would you do ?
• Just call out anything at all that occurs to you—obvious,
profound, serious, silly, whatever…
EXPLORE & REFINE
• Thank the respondent and close the session.