Annex VIII: Focus Groups

If you are not aiming to collect feedback from the broader community, it may be worthwhile to convene a focus group that brings together a particular group. For example, to ensure the voices of language minorities or women are reflected in the process, a dedicated session in which these groups can discuss their views on certain issues can help gather a broader understanding of the priorities and lived experiences of the public.  

A focus group is a group interview of up to 10, carefully selected, demographically homogenous participants. Focus groups require a facilitator to ask the participants questions about their beliefs, opinions, and views and guide discussions on certain issues. Another facilitator is needed to observe and record the participants’ reactions and responses to the issues raised and analyze their responses after the interview(s) have taken place. 

Focus groups can elicit open-ended and broad responses, revealing common and divergent views within a community. Often, these responses have more depth and nuance as participants can stimulate others to share their views and experiences, helping to tease out further the issues at hand and utilizing vocabulary that is commonplace in the community. This interactivity can enable the convenor of the focus group, in this instance the local authority, to get closer to what community members are thinking and feeling on the matter.  Distinct from the previous two public engagement methods, focus groups engage with multiple respondents simultaneously, so the convenor can obtain qualitative data more conveniently and effectively. However, as focus groups yield qualitative data it is likely harder to score on a scale, in other words, to quantify the different responses. There are computer programs available that can assist in the analysis of qualitative data which will be highlighted in a later section of this guide. 

Preparing for and Selecting the Focus Group

Effective focus groups rest on the establishment of an “egalitarian” context in which the conversation(s) will take place–participants must be comfortable to interact and share their views freely. As such, prior to convening a focus group, there are a few important aspects to consider. Firstly, the different group members in each focus group should be carefully selected. Each group’s participants should speak the same language, be of the same age range, socioeconomic status, and especially if discussing sensitive topics, of the same gender/sex. Where possible, group members should not know each other before the discussion. As necessary, conduct separate focus groups to gain an understanding of the views of different communities within your area.  

The physical setting of the focus group should also be carefully considered when planning the research. Consider whether the meeting space is associated with anything, such as a particular group within the community or a certain event(s). The space should be accessible, inviting, and comfortable for all participants to convene in a circle with space for the facilitator(s) too. Before the discussion begins, it is important to obtain informed consent from all of the participants, reiterating the confidentiality terms of this research.

To ensure that all your desired participants are able to attend the focus groups and fully engage in the process, consider the visible and invisible (social) constraints that might impact their ability to participate. Consider if participants have caring responsibilities, such as for children or elderly relatives, and provide accommodations such as holding the focus group at certain times where those with caring responsibilities are able to more readily join the discussion, or providing childcare/eldercare arrangements for when the discussion is taking place. It might be helpful to offer a stipend to participants to cover the worktime that is lost as they attend the focus group. Think about these issues at the beginning of your research design phase to ensure that adequate logistical, time, and financial resources are budgeted into your plan.

Those wishing to go deeper on this topic can consult the following two guides for focus groups by University of Minnesota’s Professor Richard A Krueger:

• Designing and Conducting Focus Group Interviews (2002) Link. - This document offers guidance and advice for moderators and note-takers, includes sample questions and dialogue, and also offers guidance on analyzing focus group feedback.
• Focus Group Research Methods (2015) - available as a download at this link: Link.  - This document contains the essential information needed to conduct focus group interviews; it is presented in outline form and is intended for quick reading.

Focus Group Facilitators

As previously mentioned, one facilitator will moderate the discussion, establishing the ground-rules of the conversation (no interruptions when someone is speaking, try to answer based on their own views and experiences), encouraging participants to share their views, and keeping the discussion on track. Through open-ended questions and smooth transitions from one issue to the next, the facilitator should ensure that all the research goals are covered throughout the meeting. The facilitator should explain the purpose and format of the discussion at the beginning of the session to establish a common understanding of the proceedings for all the participants. At the end of the meeting, the facilitator should provide an oral summary of the discussion, reiterating the purpose of the research and attempting to capture the common themes and differing perspectives raised during the meeting. 

The role of the other facilitator is to record the important points of the discussion, including verbal and non-verbal feedback, but who does not take part in it. This facilitator may wish to also use audio or visual recording devices to supplement their efforts, but these are not required. If you do opt to record group discussions, it is important to transcribe them after the meeting to help with their eventual analysis.  

Both facilitators should note what was not said during the discussion. It is important not to assume consensus when some participants do not speak, especially if the majority of the group shares the same or similar views on an issue. Participants may not have expressed a view because they agree with the majority, or because they are unwilling to voice their divergent views.

Many guides on focus groups suggest that facilitators have training and/or qualifications in these methods. This is not always possible, nor is it absolutely necessary. Having said this, it is important not to underestimate the value of the facilitators. This guide from Richard A. Krueger and Mary A. Casey lays out the skills and tasks, as well as valuable tips, required of the facilitator(s) when conducting a focus group. This resource is a comprehensive guide on how to prepare and conduct a focus group, and analyze the data gathered from it. 

Focus Group Activities

While many focus groups rely on a structured discussion in which the primary facilitator asks a set of questions which participants answer, there are other activities which can be included when conducting focus groups that might be fruitful for the research question(s) you are seeking to answer. These activities are relatively inexpensive and can be quick to execute especially when being run concurrently with the focus group. All of these activities can help to combine the qualitative insights gathered through the discussions with quantitative data. For example:

• Free listings: Group members are asked to list all the things they can think of that relate to a particular topic. This exercise can help researchers to understand the terminology, framing, and extent of what focus group participants think about an issue. The frequency of similar responses can be plotted, and help to identify themes or patterns from the other qualitative data gathered throughout the focus group.
• Pile sorting: The facilitator(s) will ask focus group participants to organize individual, unsorted items related to the research questions into groups. You might ask participants to sort the piles according to their similarities and differences (a “closed card sort”) or within a different series of classifications that you provide (an “open card sort”). Alternatively you may prefer that the participants provide their own labels to these different categories/groups. Pile sorting software is available, but index cards and self-adhesive notes can work just as effectively. Similar to free listings, pile sorting activities can help you to identify commonalities and divergences in focus group participants’ perspectives on various issues within and between different focus groups.
• Ranking: In ranking exercises, groups members make decisions between available options, either ranking a list of items according to a specified criteria, or coupling items and comparing them in pairs. There are different ways of conducting these comparisons. Different ways to measure the ranking positions include assigning points to the position of each option (for example, ranked third corresponds to three points) for every member of the group and then calculating the total points awarded to each option. Another option is to assign an equal number of votes to each participant, and ask them to assign votes to the proposed options–this is often referred to as “Dot-Voting.”
• Rating: The facilitator(s) will provide the group members with a list of items, which they must position on a scale to indicate their levels of agreement, frequency, and/or satisfaction. Typically, rating exercises use numbers or adjectives, such as “Very Satisfied/Satisfied/Neutral/Dissatisfied/Very Dissatisfied).