Focus group FAQs

This article applies to: UserTesting 

On this page:

• What is a focus group?
• Why are focus groups helpful?
• When should a focus group be conducted?
• How do focus groups typically work with UserTesting?

What is a focus group?

• A focus group is a live activity with one moderator and multiple contributors.
• Focus groups usually involve 4–8 participants during one session and multiple sessions.
  • For instance, you might hold focus group sessions across four cities each with 4–8 participants for a total of 16–24 total participants in your sample.
  • Important: Avoid relying on just one focus group session with a single pool of contributors; instead, aim for a diverse range of participants.
• During the session, the moderator asks the group about their behaviors, preferences, attitudes, and experiences on a topic or item of interest (also known as the "stimulus").
• Focus groups can be conducted in person or online.

Why are focus groups helpful?

Focus groups are useful in a number of ways. A focus group:

• Allows participants to interact and converse with others while discussing a topic.
• Reveals insights into a group’s actions, thoughts, and feelings.
• Encourages people to build on each other’s ideas, which allows a group to brainstorm an idea or challenge.
• Lets you collect ideas from a large group of people quickly.
• Allows researchers to gauge attitudes across a span of people within a single test or among multiple sessions.

When should a focus group be conducted?

• Focus groups are often associated with the discovery (or early ideation) phase—before design and development has begun—as a way to identify requirements based on attitudes.
• But focus groups can present an even greater value a bit later in the research process–during the middle concept stage–when you share a stimulus such as a product, service, brand logo, or a phrase being developed and ask people for their thoughts and attitudes.

How do focus groups typically work with UserTesting?

• UserTesting's Audience Solutions team can help recruit people for your focus groups. Because of this, focus groups are only available on certain subscription plans with Professional Services bundles.

• Based on your required demographics, we'll typically recruit up to three groups of five participants for a webcam or voice-based focus group.

  • We'll coordinate with participants to schedule them at a specific time and date.

  • As the customer, you are responsible for moderation and analysis.

  • If the webcam option is chosen, all participants will share their webcams and participate via Live Conversation.

  • The final result includes both a video of the session and a transcript of the participants’ conversations, all of which will be available on the platform.

Note: Unlike usability tests, participants do not navigate to or explore a site or app during a focus group test. Instead, the researcher clearly explains the idea or prototype so that people understand what they are to give their opinions about.

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