How can you conduct successful focus groups and interviews?

From my experience working in marketing research, innovation and managing brands at Bacardi and Diageo - the first question is - is a focus group really the right choice? They offer qualitative data (aka opinions of a few people) and are most suitable to tease out very early ideas. Large campaigns need large analysis of quantitative data to ensure it’s the right thing to do. If you’re sure, you need a Learning Plan with a clear Research Plan to answer your learning plan. Very clear objectives, very clear questions to answer.

Determine your focus group questions and interview questions. They should be open-ended, clear, simple, and direct. Avoid leading, confusing, or complex questions that might bias or overwhelm your participants. You can use a focus group topic guide or an interview guide to structure your questions and ensure you cover all the relevant topics.

Recruit your participants based on your research objectives and criteria. You should aim for a homogeneous group of participants who share some common characteristics, such as occupation, age, gender, education, or experience. However, you should also allow for some diversity of opinions and perspectives within the group. You can use various methods to recruit your participants, such as online platforms, social media, referrals, or incentives.

Online focus groups are cheaper & faster, but I think the main advantage is in terms of audience. If your target group is <5% of the population it can be challenging to recruit people in the same area at the same time. Conducting them online obviously means you have a larger pool to recruit from given location isn't an issue

From my experience working in marketing research, innovation and managing brands at Bacardi and Diageo - i’d question the use of online focus groups. Unless they are being used as a very quick read or you are seriously strapped for cash - interviews like this are meant to create and expand current ideas. For this, you should be in the room to truly tease out what you’s like answered.

Use an intelligent third-party app to help you with the logistics and analysis of your focus group or interview. For example, you can use Podcastle to transcribe your audio recordings into text, edit and annotate them, and generate insights and summaries from them. You can also use SurveyMonkey to create online surveys, schedule your sessions, invite your participants, and collect feedback.

From my experience working in marketing research, innovation and managing brands at Bacardi and Diageo - your participant selection needs to reflect your research and learning plan. Ideally, if you have the funds, you should recruit as large a sample of possible to be as representative of YOUR consumers. Ideally even Nationally Representative on class, age and living location. My top tips: You should ensure each focus group is small enough to manage and lead. Put your segments together. You want additive conversations, not participants clashing. Identify your loyalists / super fans. Have them in one group or make sure your grab them afterwards, even if it’s for a beer at the pub. They are usually full of gold!

In designing questions it's worth considering asking in a less direct way, with projective techniques. It can be difficult for participants to describe a brand or they may be reluctant to share some views. E.g. describe the type of person who purchases this brand? Also, would use minimal close-ended questions this is not quantitative research despite what the text says.

More than a comfortable environment, it is critical to create an environment where participants feel safe - honest opinions and feedback are usually more likely to be collected. Especially crucial if the goal is to solicit feedback from employees. In my experience, I always start by breaking the ice with my participants and also give examples of how feedback has been used to inform decision making. The down side for not creating a safe environment will usually result in canned feedback, or feedback that participants think you want to hear vs original intent.

After analyzing the data, summarize your findings and share them with relevant stakeholders or team members. Use these insights to inform your decision-making.

You should review your transcripts, notes, recordings, and observations and look for common themes, patterns, insights, and recommendations. You should also compare and contrast your data with other sources of information, such as secondary research or quantitative data. You should present your findings in a clear and concise manner that answers your research questions and supports your hypotheses.

Don’t base large commercial decisions on focus groups, or use them to decide ideas that are close to completion. Focus groups & interviews are for EARLY STAGE idea development. Blue sky thinking. Coming up with new concepts, strategy & platforms. No-one behaves normally in a focus group. Take it at face value. It’s not representative. This is why, if someone quotes numbers at you from a focus group (“but 9/10 people from the focus group said…”) kindly ask them to leave the room. They don’t understand research. If you want to make a predictive decision; limit business risk or choose between or refine very well progressed ideas/concepts - you need a representative set of participants answering rapid emotion based open questions “system 1”