Focus Group Studies

Focus groups are in-depth group interviews of around 6 – 9 carefully selected people with the purpose of revealing ideas or attitudes on a specific subject.

They can be used at the exploratory stages of a project to determine the most pressing niche in the market; during the development process to evaluate existing products or to give a greater insight into why certain opinions are held, or even after a product has been developed to assess its impact or to generate further avenues of research.

The key to a successful focus group is skilful moderation; otherwise the agenda can be altered by the group’s enthusiasm or dominated by one or two personalities. The moderator also needs to be able to use projective and/or enabling techniques for those that find it difficult to talk and to inject a little fun into the group.

At WSS we are fortunate to have a moderator with over 20 years experience managing focus group studies and leading participants through the discussions. We can design, moderate and analyse discussion groups, providing a recording of each session as well as a detailed report of findings as standard.