Conducting a Focus Group

1. Conducting a Focus Group Presentation to: Oak Park Neighborhood Association Prepared by: Joël L. Phillips EMT Associates, Inc. 771 Oak Avenue Parkway, Suite 2 Folsom, CA 95630 September 27, 2005

2. Table of Contents What is a Focus Group?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 How Does a Focus Group Work? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Three Types of Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 How Do We Collect Information? What Do We Do With Information? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Advantages of Focus Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Disadvantages of Focus Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 General Guidelines for Managing a Focus Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Facilitating a Focus Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Facilitator Behaviors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Dealing with Different Personalities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Ground Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Our Focus Group Interview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Opening Script: A Suggestion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Go Over Ground Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 No Before We Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Time Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Hints for Spontaneous Follow-Up Questions: Curiosity in Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

3. What is a Focus Group? • A process to collect information through a group discussion based on a set of questions. • Uses a moderator (or facilitator) that follows a predetermined interview guide (scripted). • Small groups – generally between 5 – 12 • Collects information about a group’s perception, attitude or experience on defined topics. • Uses people from the population under study

4. How Does a Focus Group Work? Broad questions less structure Beginning Middle Third More structured – lead into topics of most interest Obtain answers to specific assessment questions

5. Three Types of Questions Interview Questions – These are predetermined and limited in number. There are 10 broad questions for our Oak Park focus groups. Follow-up (Probes) Questions – These are written questions added in interview questions below. There are 16 follow-up questions in our interview. Spontaneous Follow-up Questions – These are questions that the facilitators – especially the backup co-facilitator – can ask after listening to the first set of responses to each question. You may find you will use 25 – 50 spontaneous follow-up questions.

6. How do we collect information?What do we do with information? Written summaries Collection Methods Results in “data pools” Taped Recordings Data pools are categorized and analyzed.

7. Advantages of Focus Groups • Provides insights – not just what you think but why • Reveal consensus and diversity of participants’ perceptions • Allows group interactions to build on each other’s ideas • Provide opportunity to explore reasons behind the response

8. Disadvantages of Focus Groups • Groups are small – may not be representative • Generates lots of information – difficult to analyze • Information can be biased by subjective interpretations • Outspoken individuals can dominate the discussion

9. General Guidelines for Managing a Focus Group • Mix of questions – general and more specific – include follow - up probes • Select group members who represent the target population • Limit size of group to 5 - 12 – smaller groups = more depth and detail • You don’t need to do a lot of focus groups (4 - 6 often the maximum), but this is depending on variation of the target groups • Good note keeping is central to the success of the focus groups. Generally, the sessions are recorded.

10. Facilitating a Focus Group • Create a friendly, comfortable climate - Way the room is set up (drinks) - How you greet the participants (chat) - How you talk to them (friendly) • Maintain neutrality in your words and expression - Behave in a way that shows each answer is interesting – but no better or worse than any other response. Use a lot of “uh – huhs” and thank you’s. - Avoid use of affirming (positive) statements like “that’s a great idea…” - Avoid negative body language or facial responses • Seek balance among participants - Encourage non-talkers to be more expressive - Make sure all members feel valued - Give both verbal and non-verbal (a nod) cues to participants

11. Facilitating a Focus Group • Convey sense of purposefulness - Set positive tone - Guide the pace of the meeting - Make sure all questions are addressed (sometimes they may need to be repeated twice) • Time management - Watch out for time limits for each question - Make sure you and your partner know roles and responsibilities, who leads on each question, who asks follow-up and spontaneous questions REMEMBER – Key facilitator traits are WARMTH, NEUTRALITY AND PURPOSEFULNESS

12. Facilitator Behaviors • Pause 7 seconds after asking a question – don’t rush in. • Invite participants to express a different point of view: - “Does anyone see it differently?” • Request more information. - “Tell me more about that.” - “I don’t understand.” - “Could you please say more?” - “Will you give me an example so I can understand better?” • Try to maintain neutrality while listening to your fellow students. Avoid piling on with such statements as: - “Yeh, that’s how I see it too.” - “No, that’s not right.” • Don’t offer advice or solutions. This isn’t a session about fixing things or providing resources – it’s to get their ideas and thoughts about a small number of issues concerning Oak Park. • Make sure to get everyone to the extent possible to contribute.

13. Dealing with Different Personalities The group is made up of all sorts of people – who come with different social and interpersonal skills. Here are some tips on handling different personalities. For dominant talkers: • Withdraw eye contact • Shift attention, “Thanks, Chris. Now I would like to hear how the rest of you feel about…” For shy people: • Try for appropriate eye contact • Ask that everyone (or a whole section of the table) respond to a question • Less often (only when it seems appropriate), call the person by name for a response For rambling types: • Withdraw eye contact after the talk gets repetitive • Turn slightly away • Do not take notes or reinforce the talk in any way • At a pause, say, “Thank you, Terry. Now I want to get some other people to jump in here on this question.” Repeat the question, if necessary, to pull the focus back. • (Rarely) Interrupt. “Excuse me, Evelyn. I’m sorry to have to interrupt you, but I see other people would also like to answer this question and I want to make sure they have times.” Then repeat the question.

14. Ground Rules Ground rules provide sense of structure for the group that allows for a productive conversation. They provide for sense of comfort and confidentiality. Two ways to do ground rules. • Let each focus group come up with them. (problem – time) • Come in with a prepared list of Do’s and Don’ts (preferred) Review these with participants.

15. Example Let’s do our ground rules for these focus groups.

16. Our Focus Group Interview The Opening • Keep it brief • Indicate how long the session will last • Describe the process • Lay out the ground rules • Do introductions. Go to the suggested script.

17. Opening Script A Suggestion Good evening. I’m ____ and my partner tonight is ______. Thanks for coming to this meeting. We are here today to talk about alcohol, drugs and what our community can do about problems related to the use of these substances. It will probably take about an hour—maybe a little more, maybe a little less. We aren’t interested in names or personal stories. We want to know how you think and feel about these issues. We have some other ground rules (go to sheet) that we will use in our meeting. Notes will be taken but no names will be used in reporting the results of the session.

18. Go over ground rules Emphasize again that the purpose of the session is to get as many opinions as possible about each topic. It is not to make decisions or persuade each other. Strongly encourage people to state their personal opinions, no matter what opinion others in the group may hold. Explain as facilitators you will be the guides. You will recognize people to speak. As much as possible, encourage people to speak one at a time, but assure them if they get lively, you will help them sort it out. Let people know you might rush some sections of the discussion they find interesting – and may even have to interrupt some people, in order to get through all the questions or ensure all are heard from. Ask people to speak for themselves.

19. Now before we start… Let’s take a few minutes to introduce ourselves. We want your first name and how long you have lived in Oak Park. Then, Go to Question 1 --

20. Questions Start time for focus group:

21. Questions

22. Questions

23. Questions

24. Time Tracking Starting on the first page of the questions (page __) you will see a suggested time allocation for each question. A blank for actual time is provided as well. On your Interview Guideline (separate handouts) that you will use in your focus groups. The estimated time and actual time will be blank. Before you run each focus group, you will need to fill in the actual clock time, like 9:30 a.m., for your focus group session, with the first entry on page 2 being your focus group starting time. Use a pencil. Then you fill in the rest of the actual time blanks by adding time to your starting time. The elapsed time space indicates how many minutes should have already passed in your focus group session, if you are following the time estimates for each question. The actual time indicates the time on a clock, such as 9:45 a.m. or 10:30 a.m. For example, beside Question ___, the elapsed minutes says “__.” If your session started at 9:30, then your actual time here will be ___. You fill in all the blanks for actual time in advance, and this show you that by ___ you should be starting Question Two.

25. Hints for Spontaneous Follow-Up Questions: Curiosity in Action Note: Spontaneous follow-up questions are the key to detail and depth. They help you get the good stuff that’s below the first, “surface” answers. Here are good first words for spontaneous follow-up questions: Please say more about that. Can you give me more details? Anybody else? What is it about…. Tell me more about… What is your experience with… Describe… Imagine… What caused you to… What features of X do you particularly like/dislike… How… When… Where… How often do you… Note: Try to avoid “Why” questions because they can put people on the defensive and make them not want to answer questions at all.