What is a focus group?

By definition a focus group is 'a group of people assembled to participate in a discussion about a product before it is launched, or to provide feedback on a political campaign, television series, etc'

Focus groups:

• Are measured in Qualitative data-. This is data that includes opinions and feelings
• Used to refine the products. the feedback given may or may not be taken into account by the persons hosting the focus group about the product being reviewed.
• Require contributions who reflect the target audience. (Age/gender/occupation)
• Usually include 8-10 participants. This number ensure that it's a small enough group so that everyone has a chance to speak, but large enough so that people don't feel on the spot.
• Have questions prepared ahead of time
• Encourage all participants to speak
• Usually have a scribe or someone recording the session so that the group can look back upon the feedback once they have heard it.
• Also have a facilitator that ask people those questions. They make sure that they hear from everyone and politely redirect talkative people. This insures that the group get a wide perspective of their products.

In focus groups make sure you avoid:

• Closed Questions- yes or no answer. 
• Leading questions- value judgements, implying how good something is in a question.

Phil showed us this video to reinforce, what not to do in a focus group.