Based on an evaluation of your objectives, focus groups may be the best way for you to get answers to the questions you have. We’ve typically completed focus groups with 7-8 people or set up dyads & triads within a particular segmented group. Having covered detailed topics with healthcare professionals, auto shoppers, packaged goods consumers, fashion enthusiasts, mobile phone users and travelers, there’s a good chance we understand your target audience. Our experienced team of male & female moderators can also conduct groups in Spanish.

We’ve also done some variations on focus groups such as:

• Online Focus Groups – Ideal for exploring new ideas & testing product or visual design concepts from participants across a broad geographic area.
   
• Bulletin Board Focus Groups – Offers a methodology allowing for online responses to be gathered over a few days thereby capturing detailed participant feedback.
   
• Card Sorting Exercises – Great for early user interface development when you want to review specific navigation terms and nomenclature for an interface.
   
• Contextual Interviews – Perfect for allowing an objective resource to evaluate internal company feedback and generate ideas before starting the development of an interface or marketing effort.
   
• Phone Based Interviews – When larger sample sizes are needed to provide ideas or when a group setting is not feasible.
   

Common Questions

1. When is the best time to conduct focus groups?

We find that focus groups produce the most valuable insights when they are done at the earliest stages of idea development.  The group dynamic works really well when showing people conceptual ideas and testing a new product or service positioning. Gathering feedback from existing customers is also perfect in the group environment as you can build on existing quantitative data.

2. Why not conduct focus groups to learn about a Website?

We've been asked this question often and the answer is that people don't use a Website in a group environment. While showing some high level interface visuals in a group setting is fine, usability testing works best when its set up to learn from individuals in a 1 on 1 setting.

3. Should surveys and focus groups be done at the same time?

While qualitative research draws out highly detailed feedback, sometimes you simply want get measurable answers and overall opinions from a target audience.  Surveys are great for benchmarking customer perceptions and learning whether attitudes change over time via future surveys.  There are solid reasons behind an integrated research effort to understand the shifting needs of your customers and presenting information that is statistically valid to accompany qualitative findings.