Running a Focus Group
A focus group is a group discussion of between 6 - 12 people, where a facilitator leads groups members through the exploration of usually one specific issue that all the participants have had experience of or views on. This discussion is structured through the help of a topic guide, which includes a set of questions and prompts which enable to the group to focus down on the issues being discussed. Facilitators can be supported by observers, who take notes and observe the group interaction, which can help in developing greater understanding. Focus groups can be used as a way of gaining greater understanding of an issue in a number of ways from more formal research through to planning and development of resources or services, and can help to gain understanding of why people hold a particular view. What focus groups can't tell you is how many people hold this view.
Strengths of focus groups:
- Many people feel more relaxed in a group situation, where they are not having to answer all of the questions all of the time.
- They can bring people together with similar experiences and can in themselves lend some peer support e.g. a focus group of service users may be a useful way of helping people feel safe and supported enough to explore issues in more depth.
- They can feel empowering and inclusive as although focus groups are led by pre developed topic guides, ideas can emerge from within the group, which helps shape the direction of the discussion.
- The facilitator will try to consider most aspects of the issue within the topic guide, but may not think of everything, and at time unexpected issues may arise.
- Other people's ideas can often generate thoughts and make it easier for people to express their feelings, and build on ideas.
- They provide in-depth information on views and the feelings behind them
- Participating can increase people's confidence
Weaknesses of focus groups:
- There is less control over who attends a group, these are often subject to people turning up on the day and may be poorly attended, or have a mix of people that doesn't lend itself well to the process.
- People may tend to agree in groups and be reluctant to go against the views of the majority.
- Planning can be time-consuming and therefore costly
- Individuals can dominate, where others may be reluctant to participate.
- They rely on people to be assertive enough to express their views in a group situation.
- A skilled facilitator is needed, to keep dialogue flowing, and very occasionally, to deal effectively with 'unacceptable' behaviour
Stages in setting up focus groups
1. Agree the purpose/aims and objectives - You need to settle on an issue which is focused enough for people to have something in common.
2. Plan ahead - It can be easier if you are researching with a pre-existing group, otherwise recruitment can take some time to sort out. However, if people are known to each other this can bring limitations such as people feel inhibited or concerned about confidentiality. Questions within the topic guide need to be well considered in advance, to allow the group to have enough structure and focus.
3. Devise an effective topic guide - Include enough questions to cover the issues, but not too many as this might prevent ideas emerging and limit the discussion around the individual questions. Prompts are helpful, if discussion dries up but the facilitator feels that people may have more to say on the issue.
4. Allow enough time - plan for each group you carry out to last about 11/2 hours, much less and there will not be enough time to explore the issues and too much time, may feel tiring for participants and may not bring extra benefits within the quality of the information gained.
5. Transcribe and coding data - It is usual in a focus group to either take notes of what has been said, although this can be difficult for the facilitator themselves to do, and may require another person, or tape record proceedings. Tape recording proceedings does have the advantage of providing more accurate recall of events, but however can inhibit people. Transcribing the data from the group into full notes can take some time. To do this more systematically, you can code the data, that is apply a code of some description to emerging issues (this can be numbers or different colour highlighter pens for example). This allows you to see what issues have come up most often and can allow you to pick out themes.
6. Analysing and writing up or presenting findings - from the coding stage, you can begin to analyse what has been said which allows you to present the data more effectively.