Moderating focus groups: 6 tips for beginners

Focus groups are a great way to get qualitative feedback from your users in a short amount of time. But, moderating a focus group requires a lot more than a room full of participants and a list of questions. A good moderator practices and plans well ahead to maximize the time and get great feedback from participants.

When I was training for focus group moderation as a young UX designer and researcher, I found that there wasn’t as much learning material online as I would have expected. That gap actually lead me to write this article. These are my beginner tips that I wish I had read when I was training.

Note: These tips were written for moderating in-person focus groups but the tips could be reasonably applied to remote focus group moderation as well.

Tip 1: Observe other moderators

This sounds obvious but I cannot stress this point enough. Nothing is more valuable than watching others moderate a focus group. Ideally, you are watching someone who is good at moderating a focus group, but even poor moderators can teach you what not to do.

Notice the way the moderator asks or frames questions. Observe how they respond to participant feedback and, in turn, how participants respond to them. So much of what happens in a focus group is non-verbal. Observation can teach you a lot about how to read a room so that when you are moderating, you will be able to pick up and respond to the needs of the group and maximize value. Pay attention to how the mood in the room can shift depending on certain factors, questions, or responses. How does the moderator handle a rambler (see point 3)? How do they get feedback from more soft-spoken participants? Where do they choose to probe a little more?

Can’t find a moderator to observe? Videos are fine too

Attend focus groups in person when possible (for the full effect) but you can also benefit from watching videos.

I highly recommend watching this video by Richard A. Krueger, PhD. He is a great moderator and offers a lot of great tips.

Tip 2: Determine data points then draft questions

The purpose of the focus group is to get real, actionable feedback. Every question should point back to a data point and get you closer to what you need.

Imagine you work for a car rental service provider. Your leadership team wants to know how customers feel about their service.

Example data points:

· Services your company might be missing or failing to deliver on

· Ways your company can get customers to return

· What factors would make a customer choose your service over a competitor

Example questions:

· What do you like about renting a car?

· What are some inconveniences you have experienced while renting a car?

· What is most important to you when renting a car? Why?

· What is least important? Why

· Think about your last car rental. How did you decide to rent a car? What other options were you considering?

· How do you choose a car rental service company?

· If you are a repeat customer, why did you go back?

Your questions and activities during the focus group should help participants answer these questions. You can’t get everything, so be realistic with your questions. If it is not all that necessary or can be covered with another question, don’t ask it.

Plan for revision time and dry runs

I recently moderated some focus groups to determine an audience’s reaction to a short movie series that my client was producing. (Film introduces its own challenges, but the format was not all that different from a typical focus group.) To make sure we were planning well, we drafted a script, had our client review it and suggest changes, and got feedback from several other members on our team. We went through many rounds of revisions. We were tweaking it during several dry runs and even tweaked it after the first two real focus groups.

If you find that you have too many points to hit or have questions that would fit better in a quantitative format, you can use the last few minutes of the focus group to have participants fill out a short questionnaire on paper. This works well for data points that are important but may not elicit truthful responses due to the social setting. A word of caution: Please keep a questionnaire short. Participants probably won’t leave on a positive note if you ask them to fill out a several page survey after they have just spent an hour giving you feedback. As with any human activity, bias will be present so be aware of that.

Tip 3: Prepare for ‘The Rambler’

In nearly every focus group I have moderated, I have had a rambler. This is the participant who tends to dominate the conversation (usually unintentionally) and thereby inhibits the rest of the group from giving feedback. Remember, YOU are in control of the group and responsible for keeping a balance. There’s no golden rule but I personally don’t let someone go on for more than 30 seconds. Here are some tactics I learned these from the aforementioned video from Richard A. Krueger, PhD.

If a participant is starting to ramble, do the following:

· Stop taking notes

· Quickly find a pause and politely interrupt the person

· Acknowledge that they have been heard (“Thanks for sharing that,” or “I’ve noted your point.”)

· Redirect the question to someone else specifically (“We’ve heard from Anna. But now, John, what have you experienced?”)

Tip 4: Don’t skimp on the introduction

Because time with your participants is precious (and often expensive!) it can be tempting to rush right into questions as soon as everyone sits down. But, failing to provide an adequate introduction can inhibit the potential of the focus group’s feedback.

Think about it like preparing for a production. You are setting your stage and giving a pep talk to the performers to help them come to life. You absolutely must create an environment throughout the session where participants feel respected, comfortable, and valued. While your conduct throughout the session will help with this, a good introduction will set the tone.

Everyone has a different style and each focus group is different. Adapt your introduction to fit your needs.

My typical intro is no more than 2 minutes and generally includes:

· Welcoming and thanking participants

· Getting verbal consent from participants if the group is being video or audio recorded (for research purposes only.) I’ve never had a problem with this. A note on this — I always record my focus groups so I can go back and review it. Video is ideal, audio is mandatory. For this reason, I tend to outsource the focus group location and audio/visual technology to a third party vendor. But, if you are short on budget, you can purchase your own cameras and recording devices.

· Introducing myself, my note-taker, and the client (if desired). I don’t have participants introduce themselves because that can take too much time. I do have them put on name-tags as soon as they arrive.

· Quickly reviewing ground rules:

1. Housekeeping: turn off phones, remove distractions, bathroom location
2. We are on a first-name basis (hence name-tags)
3. There no wrong answers
4. Feeling different from other participants is fine; feel free to comment and be honest but let’s try to avoid arguments
5. Review my job as the moderator: I’m a researcher. I will guide the conversation and ask questions. I am doing my best to keep the group on time so I may interrupt to push the group along.

Tip 5: Ask someone else to be the note-taker and a bring a template

While I do have a superhuman boss who can moderate a focus group and take notes at the same time, I have found the most people (including myself) do best when someone else is taking notes. Your job as a moderator is first to moderate, not take notes. You’ll probably want some paper nearby to jot down quick notes, follow-up questions or themes for later but I strongly encourage asking someone to take notes for you.

Quick Tips for Note-takers

Use a template: I find that the best way to take notes is to create a template. I like to layout my notes in a two-column table with a row for each question. The questions are pre-filled the left and the second column is blank for taking notes. This helps organize the notes by question and provides a clear space for each question. This is also helpful when the moderator skips around and needs to return back to a question — you’ll be able to go right back to it and have space to write comments.

See the example below:

How to take notes: Focus on your data points and capture themes. Don’t worry about capturing direct quotes — that is what the recording is for. Jot down the time throughout so you can orient yourself when you need to refer back to the audio later.

Asking questions: Decide with the moderator beforehand as to when you should ask clarifying questions. In the moment? At the end?

Give a summary to the group: If you have time at the end, give a brief high-level summary of what you heard and ask participants to assess whether you missed something. It’s a good way to get clarification and any last-minute feedback.

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Tip 6: Practice, practice, practice

It’s a cliché but it’s true. Practice on your coworkers, your friends, your family, whoever you can! They don’t have to be long focus groups but try to make it formal enough to give you real experience.

When you have a focus group coming up, you should absolutely do dry runs. Use them as an opportunity to test your questions and the overall flow. These practice sessions are the BEST way to get feedback.

The more you practice the more confident you will feel and, most importantly, the better the focus group will go. Good luck!

Do you have other moderating tips for beginners? Did you try some of these tips and have some feedback? Do reach out! I would love to hear about your experience and how I can improve.