changes resources : www.changesuk.net
Setting up and facilitating focus groups
1
Is a focus group the right method to use?
All the engagement/consultation methods we know of....
Surveys; questionnaires; social media; citizen panels; web forums; door stopping; podcasts;
estate evaluations; traditional media; telephone surveys – primed and cold calling; mapping
issues; planning for real; focus groups; suggestion boxes; critical friend groups; 360 degree
feedback; photographic surveys; champions for specialist areas/topics; petitions; road
shows; videos; graffiti walls; task groups; prioritisation; user panels; LINk; big brother chair;
video diaries;
If the engagement requires less detailed information from a larger sample of people, then focus groups
will not be the appropriate method to use. Surveys, questionnaires, street interviews may be better
suited for this.
If the topic is sensitive or very personal in nature, focus groups may not be the best method to use as
people may not feel able to talk openly in front of others. One to one interviews may be the best
option for this situation.
Deciding whether a focus group is the best method for your engagement is the first stage of planning.
This requires some understanding of the relative advantages and disadvantages of different
engagement methods.
Giving information
Long term – short term
One off – ongoing
Qualitative – quantitative
Primary – secondary information
asking for information/opinion
Wide angle lens
Surface information
Lots of people
zoom lens
rich detailed information
small group of people
Clarity of purpose is key – refer to the Ladder of Participation
Triangulation crucial - 3 different methods/perspectives
Ethical dimension – want to be genuine
Objective – subjective – can we ever be objective?
- Are people’s opinions facts?
changes resources : www.changesuk.net
-
Fear of crime V crime statistics
What is meaningful?
A focus group is just one engagement method amongst many. A focus group is a version of group
interview when a small group of people (about 6-12) meet to share opinions and experiences around a
specific topic or issue that has been decided in advance, usually for about 90 minutes They are usually
one off events although they can be used on a regular systematic basis. The group can be mixed,
bringing together the experience, beliefs and perceptions of different groups of people – or it can be
composed of people with common characteristics, for example age, ethnicity, gender, common
experience; people who have a stake in a particular issue. They are led by an experienced facilitator
working with observers with the discussion recorded in some form.
Focus groups can be useful to:
 Explore attitudes and experiences about specific issues or topics that may otherwise remain hidden
 Generate a rich source of qualitative in depth information
 Obtain views of people who do not speak or read English, working with a facilitator with the
relevant language skills
 Identify what is important for particular communities
 Generate new ideas and solutions
 Create space for dialogue between people with opposing views
 Record changing viewpoints or to evaluate or monitor a service after changes have been made (if
they are held regularly)
Focus groups get people talking about issues and the ensuing discussion generally triggers people to
share their experiences and opinions further. The people who take part can benefit as they may
improve their understanding of a specific topic, including information about services available
The information gathered is generally qualitative (opinions, insights and personal responses) and it is
not possible to generalise from that group to a wider community. Focus groups therefore are often
used in conjunction with other research methods, either as:
 first stage of consultation planning to explore issues/concerns that are important for people
 final stage of a consultation process to confirm and consolidate findings
It is possible to run several focus groups on the same topics with different cohorts of people and this
could provide a wider range of views and opinions, dependent upon the profile of the participants.
Things to be aware of when planning to use focus groups:
They require experienced and skilled facilitation and observation for the following reasons:
 Occasionally people will agree with points made to avoid confrontation or argument and
consequently a ‘conservative’ agreement is reached – the lowest common denominator
 A few people may dominate the discussion and prevent others to share their opinions or take the
focus group down a less relevant topic
changes resources : www.changesuk.net



Difficulty in objectively recording, transcribing and analysing what people say
Difficult to ensure confidentiality in a group and this may inhibit participants
Sometimes people are reluctant to discuss personal or political issues in a group
The resources required could be more than expected:
 If an external facilitator is used this would increase costs
 Participants are often offered a honorarium for taking part and giving their time
 Room hire and refreshments
 Writing up discussions ready for analysis takes time
Who takes part and why:
 Sampling and profiling is crucial
 Mixed groups of different ages, class, ethnicity, language or gender may not work and could
require several groups to be held
What happens after the focus group is as important as what happens at the focus group:
 How will the views of people be used and taken into account?
 How will you let participants know what’s happened with their information?
Engagement journey planning
Using an engagement journey planner, at what point do you start to consider which engagement or
consultation method is the most appropriate for the purpose? Planning is all important; clarity about
purpose and outcome is crucial – what do you want to find out and why?
2
Interpretations of ‘focus groups’
There is a continuum of interpretation around focus groups.
Formal
Informal
The classic formal focus group is a highly structured and rigorous research method with clearly defined
roles, boundaries and characteristics. Dialogue is recorded and transcribed and the verbatim
transcription is the basis for analysis.
The Consultation Institute1 talks of the growth of ‘not quite focus groups’ which are more informal
facilitated group conversations. A very informal focus group could take the shape of a community
workshop where people work in small groups on tasks and share the results of their discussions in a
larger group.
1
Tuesday Topic 183
changes resources : www.changesuk.net
Any particular interpretation of ‘focus group’ has to be meaningful to the context and the purpose in
hand. Whatever type of focus group is used, experienced facilitation is the key.
This continuum can lead to confusion – one implication is that ‘informal’ has a lack of structure and
focus. Does this also imply a linear model of subjective – objective? Not necessarily...a formal process
will elicit subjective information of it the focus is opinions and experiences.
Preferred option is a more formal structure and approach to focus groups:
 Clear aims and objectives
 Neutral with clear roles – facilitator is a neutral role
 Outcomes validated by the process
 Credible evidence
 Evaluation built in – structured into process
 Time limited
Implications around using a formal approach:
 Inclusive approach – layout of room, how chairs are arranged, informal processes
 Inclusive approach – can include different sections of ‘community’
 More effective way of influencing decisions and policy
 Need trained facilitators – treat all opinions with equal weight; challenge racism and other
prejudices
 Keeps on track
 Reduces pitfalls
 Able to feedback to participants
 More preparation required
Formal boundaries
Informal
processes
and
facilitation
To encourage... discussion,
debate, conversation and
dialogue
Clear questions
changes resources : www.changesuk.net
3
Empowering engagement – empowering focus groups
Empowering for whom...
 For participants
 For facilitators
Community engagement is not always about
empowering people as such – but it is about
carrying it out in ways which are empowering
rather than disempowering
We use the five Community Empowerment
Dimensions to help us deliver empowering focus
groups.
Community empowerment
…working in ways which….
Increases skills, knowledge, confidence
and belief that people can make a difference – this leads to ‘confident’ communities
recognises that discrimination exists, promotes
equality of opportunity and good relations between groups and challenges inequality
and exclusion – this leads to ‘inclusive’ communities
brings people together around common issues
and concerns in organisations and groups that are open, democratic and accountable
– this leads to ‘organised’ communities
builds positive relationships across groups,
identifies common messages, develops and maintains links to national bodies and
promotes partnership working – this leads to ‘cooperative’ communities
encourages and equips communities to take
part and influence decisions, services and activities – this leads to ‘influential’ communities
4
Planning a focus group
“...when planning the questions, consider the pitfalls they might contain. It became apparent that
choosing and wording the questions was key to the whole focus group. We changed ours a number of
times but in hindsight we could have definitely improved on them.”
changes resources : www.changesuk.net
The following table pulls together the different aspects to planning a focus group; what needs to be
thought about, decided and done in advance.
Aspect
Ideas and guidance
Rationale
and wider
context
Understand the wider engagement context that information from the focus group will
feed into.
Be clear about the reason for holding the group and the hoped for outcomes as
Focus/topic/
theme
‘politics’ (a
small p)
Question
themes – the
guide for the
discussion
participants will need to know why they are being asked to contribute their
experiences and opinions and give up their time
Be clear about the range and scope of the focus group as participants will need to
know what they are being asked about in order to be able to contribute their
experiences and opinions and give up their time
It can be difficult to get the ‘buy in’ for a focus group and to garner good will from key
people. Plan in enough time to do this if you can foresee difficulties ahead in this
respect.
Think in terms of the broad issues around what you want to know:
 Comparing between the past and now
 What works best?
 What is the worst aspect?
 What would people do about it?
The idea is to create a conversation not just ask a list of questions
Sequence the questions to structure the focus group in order to lead from
generalisations to specifics.
People’s emotions aren’t logical so it’s good to have an offload question at the start
Be creative and make it enjoyable
Avoid biased, loaded or dichotomous type questions
Avoid emotive questions like 'how do you feel..' versus something more neutral like
'what is your opinion on...'
Ask about benefits/drawbacks to probe issues in different ways.
Ask some questions that are closed which lead to yes/no answers – such as ‘do you...’
or ‘have you...’
Ask some open questions which lead onto further discussions – such as ‘why do you...’
and’ how do you...’
You might find it useful to use semantic differential2 question at some point to explore
attitudes with a mind to later analysis – these could be done in pairs or individually
2
Semantic differential questions measure people's attitude toward stimulus words, objects, and concepts. This question
type consists of a series of contrasting adjective pairs (e.g., good-bad, beneficial-harmful) listed on opposite ends of a
bipolar scale – often with a scale of 1-5 between them.
changes resources : www.changesuk.net
Who to
invite?
Members of focus groups should have had direct experience of the topic or issue for
discussion, or share particular relevant characteristics:
 Use local public transport
 Experienced being given the same diagnosis or treatment
 Live in a particular locality or area
In this way all the members of the focus group will have something in common. They
are also likely to have differences between them, such as gender, socio- economic
class, age, sexuality and disabilities.
You will need to decide how much the group needs to have in common and in what
ways they are likely to be different from each other, in order to provide a rich and
detailed discussion with a range of views and opinions.
Is one focus group enough?
People are generally offered travel and childcare costs and sometimes they are also
paid a small amount of money in recognition of their time (if they attend in their own
time).
How to invite Personal invitation
people?
Local press article
Local community networks, groups and VCS organisations
Fliers in shops, GP surgeries, housing offices
Door knocking
Social media – twitter, facebook, linkedin
Local activists to act as recruiters
Is there
anything to
send out in
advance?
Where to
hold a focus
group
Roles and
responsibiliti
es
Can be time consuming
 Explanation of how the focus group will run
 Items for people to think about beforehand and so be well prepared
The venue should be:
 Local to where people live or work
 Accessible to people with different needs
 Warm and comfortable with refreshments provided
 Able to offer flexible seating – seats in a circle preferably
 Not associated with organisations that have authority over people’s lives. E.g.
Police, GP surgeries, DHSS.
It is useful to have 3 people at a focus group – notes, questions, observation
It is important for everyone involved in delivering the focus group to be clear on who
does what. It is a good idea to agree roles and ground rules beforehand.
changes resources : www.changesuk.net
Who will be facilitating? External person or not?
Who will be acting as observers?
Who will write up the notes /recording?
Facilitator role
 Encourage people to contribute with prompts such as ‘what do others think?’ ’ Why
do you think that?’ ‘Does anyone disagree with this comment?
 Not offer judgements about anyone’s contribution
 Explain groundrules and ask for agreement from the group
 Manage group dynamics - be assertive and stop some people from talking too
much, and at the same time ask direct questions to those who have said very little
and wait for them to reply
 Be flexible - if interesting relevant points arise take time to follow them up
 Seek clarification and explanations from participants
 Be clear about what is relevant and what isn’t
 Be sensitive to people’s feelings; if someone is upset, acknowledge it and ask what
they want to do – use the observer to help
 End the group on a positive note
Skills to facilitate focus groups
The Focus Group Company believes that a good focus group
facilitator should be able to...
 Cope with silence but not let it go on for ever
 Interrupt people and move conversations on in a friendly way
 Deflect questions effectively and not get sidelined
 Keep calm and non judgemental at all times
 Deal with difficult people and situations
 Be flexible to ‘go with the flow’ and not be too hung up with the
exact order of questions
 Ensure all areas are covered in the end
 Keep to time
 Have (and keep) a sense of humour
Observer role
 Help welcome people and set them at ease
 Be responsible for the recording equipment, if any
 Assist the facilitator if a group member become upset or angry – it can help to have
2 observers as one can continue to note the discussion
 Provide additional feedback to taped discussions and, where there is no taping, to
provide the main narrative of the discussion
changes resources : www.changesuk.net
Recording
information
Feedback
Skills to observe focus groups:
 Listen and hear what is being said
 Be able to focus for a lengthy period of time
 Recognise and understand non verbal communication
 Recognise important and reoccurring themes in a discussion
 Write neutral and objective notes as the discussion proceeds
More formal focus groups will record the dialogue and get it transcribed. This is very
time consuming, can be costly as well as tricky to set up in a way to capture everything
that is said. Outside of formal academic research it is more common to have one, or
preferably two, observers whose role it is to note dialogue and non verbal
communication. This can be word processed ready for analysis. It is important to:
 Observe and make notes about important points, areas of conflict and tension,
topics which provoke humour and other reactions
 Take down quotes that seem particularly important or central to the discussion
 Be objective and neutral when noting discussions
Flipcharts and graphics can also be used to record discussion
Participants will need to be advised at the start of the focus group about how their
experiences and information is going to be used.
After the focus group it is important the participants receive information about what
emerged from the focus group analysis and how it informed developments – whatever
these happens to be. This needs to be considered at the planning stage
5
Running/facilitating a focus group
“What else did I learn from carrying out the focus group? Well, before the formal start of the discussion
there was a lot of conversation taking place that was relevant to the topic and rich in data. I only
caught on to about half of this. In future I would be ready for this from the start.”
The following table pulls together the different aspects to running and facilitating a focus group.
Aspect
Ideas and guidance
Putting
people at
ease
Welcome people, offer refreshments and give name labels
Give people something to do on arrival - ask them to complete a short demographic
questionnaire or post its about why they have come along and put on wall
Informing
people



Explain the purpose and what they are expected to do in the focus group and how it
fits into the wider engagement context and what will happen to the information
they give today
Explain about recording and the role of the observer
Explain grounds rules to the meeting, especially about chatting to neighbours and
changes resources : www.changesuk.net



Facilitating
participation










leaving the focus group before the end
Emphasise the confidential nature of the focus group, what this means in practice
i.e. in any report names will not be associated with opinions and experiences
Explain the role of the facilitator
Clarify when it will end and any housekeeping arrangements such as toilets, breaks
and fire exits
Ask people to say their names and give some opinion about the topic under
discussion – do this as a round with everyone saying something about themselves
Work through your trigger questions and probe for more details, depth or
differences
Encourage people to contribute with prompts such as ‘what do others think?’ ’ Why
do you think that?’ ‘Does anyone disagree with this comment?
Not offer judgements about anyone’s contribution
Explain groundrules and ask for agreement from the group
Manage group dynamics - be assertive and stop some members from talking too
much, and at the same time ask direct questions to those who have said very little
and wait for them to reply
Seek clarification and explanations from participants
Be flexible - if interesting points arise take time to follow them up
Be sensitive to member’s feelings; if someone is upset then acknowledge it and ask
what they want to do – use the observer to help them
End the group on a positive note
The aim of the focus group is to encourage ‘focussed’ discussion and the more times
the facilitator speaks the more disjointed the discussion is likely to become. The
interaction between the focus group members is all-important as this will generate the
rich detail and range of information. Hence the role of the facilitator is to guide the
discussion as discreetly as possible:
 Start off with a general and fairly straightforward question to get people talking
 Use open questions that encourage sharing of experiences, ideas and opinions
 Move from the general to the specific
 Move from what has happened to how it felt and then to suggestions for
improvements
Keeping a
focus
Making it an
enjoyable
Peer pressure – instead of asking people about what they want, ask them to imagine
they are another person and put themselves in their shoes and try to speak from this
angle. This can free up discussion.
Stop the discussion going off on a tangent – unless it is productive; remind people of
the focus of the session. Knowing how to deflect questions, summarise and move on
and not get sidetracked is very useful. You may need to think about updating your
facilitation skills.
It’s as well to have back up activities to do if energy levels drop or if people talk
themselves into a downward spiral of gloom. For example...
changes resources : www.changesuk.net
experience

Valuing
people’s
input
Towards the end ask people how they have found the focus group – do this as a round
with everyone having a chance to speak
Recording
what is said
Brightly coloured footprint shapes and pens can be used to focus on what next, your
next step, what can we do...etc
 Ask people to change seats after calling for a comfort break
 Get people to talk to the person next to them for 3-4 minutes and then do a round
robin
 Ask people to use metaphors to describe something relevant to the discussions
If things get a bit stale could maybe do an activity
- Idea of continuum and placing self along – asking why placed self there?
Thank people for their time and their opinions and explain what will happen next with
information they have given you
 Check that any equipment is working, and that the seating arrangements will enable
all group members voices to be heard
 Use flipcharts throughout to note down responses and issues that are important to
the group
 Observe and make notes about important points, areas of conflict and tension,
topics which provoke humour and other reactions
 Take down quotes that seem particularly important or central to the discussion
 Guard against interpreting meaning – write what is said, not what you think is
meant
 Provide additional feedback to taped discussions and, where there is no taping, to
provide the main narrative of the discussion
 When people have left, debrief as soon as possible and write down your own
thoughts and feelings about the focus group
 Write up the recording/notes ready for analysis immediately afterwards
Example in practice: what would you differently?
 slightly larger room so could do introductory activity on arrival; we would have liked to do an
introduction at the beginning as we quickly realised people probably didn’t read stuff in advance
 re-arrange questions
 use a recording machine
 have a 3rd person as you miss non verbal cues/group dynamics when taking notes
 written up notes: realise when you read them – that when you make the notes, you have to think
about what that means – what you write is different from what they say as we make subjective
assumptions when we write it down
 people chunk conversations and what people often miss out is subordination between clauses so
miss out cause and effect in the actual dialogue. The conversation loops around between people
and ideas and it’s hard to keep track of.
changes resources : www.changesuk.net
6
Analysing and interpreting focus group information
On the whole, information derived from focus groups is in depth and rich qualitative information and is
not likely to lend itself to statistical or numerical interpretation.
There is a difference between the data itself, and the interpretation of the data. It may well mean
different things to different people, depending on their particular perspective. It is likely that you will
disagree about what something might mean. The important thing is to remain true to the evidence,
rather than to any previously held understandings.
One problem about research is that it doesn't always give you the answers that you wanted!
If those of you involved don't agree at the end, you can always present a minority report.
Life is ambiguous and so is research about aspects of life. Be prepared to accept lots of discussion that
will include a range of interpretations.
“I thought I was aware of group processes and dynamics but from looking at observations from our
focus group it strikes me that this may be more subtle than I thought. E.g. we had a classroom assistant
sitting opposite a retired head teacher and chair of governors. Have been considering our data from a
pragmatic perspective and was reminded how much context shapes meaning (and possible pitfalls of
mis-interpreting).”
What makes qualitative data analysis difficult?
Making sense of the complex nature of reality is difficult and many layered
Data overload - too much data to deal with in the time you have available
Coming to conclusions before you have really considered all the data
Discounting, or not giving adequate consideration to data that is difficult to understand, or is
exceptional
Taking more notice of data that confirms your original views and less of that which conflicts with
or contradicts them
Analysing qualitative data
Analysis is a process of studying data, making judgements and pulling out patterns and themes. As
Strauss put it: “guidelines and rules of thumb, not rules” are most helpful. It is important to have an
open mind, yet this does not mean a blank mind; recognise your own experience and knowledge and
bring this to the analysis. You are looking for ‘meaning’, the way people understand things or patterns
of behaviour.
You will need to work with the data and organise it. The following is a route through the process,
bearing in mind that this might necessitate looping back between stages to re-interrogate data and
interpretations.
Group and code the information in such a way that it can be more easily analysed or interpreted. Open
coding:
 A first read through and categorisation of data
changes resources : www.changesuk.net



Look for significant words, ideas, and events
Separate responses from different groups of people
A subjective judgment based on experience, hunches, existing theories
Pull out any emerging themes. Reflect on initial coding:
 Go through what you have done and add more thoughts, categories and ideas
 Additional, new or alternative interpretations can emerge and these should be recorded as
memos – theoretical memos
Search for connections and patterns – integration:
 Draw integrative diagrams and theoretical sorting
 When looking at your data, you may want to look for some of the following patterns emerging:
 categories
 relationships
 themes
 links
 contradictions
 exceptions
 language
 interests
 These could be considered within the context of:
the effects of race, gender, class, sexuality, age, disability
where the data was collected
who collected it
how well informed were the providers of the data
what might be their particular interests
the dynamics and relationships between people in the focus group
Make generalisations and check these out:
 With ‘the field’ to check validity against reality
 If you have used triangulation you will have a means of comparing and checking validity
Using quotes that are really well put?
Copy them out on to index cards or post its categorised under themes/questions, so that you can find
them easily when you need them.
Using focus group information
How you use the findings very much depends on the original purpose for holding a focus group. You
may have uncovered issues and ideas that you had not previously thought of and may want to think
about how you progress these in addition to the original aims.
changes resources : www.changesuk.net
Your focus group could be part of a larger piece of community research or engagement and the
findings will need to be considered in relation to this. Alternatively, this could be a single event which
provides useful information to carry forward a specific idea.
Whatever the context for the focus group, the first item on the action list is to feedback findings to
people who took part and ask for comments. This could be seen as an extension of the research
process as well as using focus group information as a trigger for further development and involvement.
Boundaries can be blurred at this point. This is not an exact science and is shaped by motivation and
context.
Sharing and presenting findings
How and where you share the findings is dependent on the audience.
There are many options around formats: written report; summary report; leaflet; poster; video;
exhibition; website/blog; newsletter; oral report; word-clouds; social media
Findings can be shared at launches, networking events, or online using social media resources
Resources for online sharing and presentation
There are so many new programmes...
Blog sites:
https://www.tumblr.com/
https://posterous.com/
http://wordpress.org/
Sound recording and storage
http://audioboo.fm/
Word clouds:
http://www.wordle.net/
Pinboard:
http://pinterest.com/
Magazine format:
http://www.scoop.it/
Distribution:
http://twitter.com/