Davor Tomic
Aug 25, 2017 · 1 min read

The way I understood it, Erika doesn’t claim the tool to be broken. It is merely a wrong tool for the job.

When you mentioned human nature, I thought you were onto something. But then you shifted the “blame” — which is perhaps not the best word to use here — to a conductor of focus group based research, whereas the problem really lies in how differently people present themselves in groups/public from who they truly are. They are typically afraid of looking incompetent or irresponsible when in company of people they don’t know, which is a standard setting for focus groups.

Anyone doing user research for financial digital products will tell you how reluctant people are to admitting their lack of knowledge or caring about finances. They are afraid of coming across as stupid, illiterate or irresponsible. It takes a while for them to open up even in 1–1 interviews, whereas in any sort of a group setting they will most like just smile and nod and follow the lead of the most dominant/charismatic participant there, for example.

Hope this gives you another angle to consider and that things make more sense from this new perspective.

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Davor Tomic

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A designer, problem solver, facilitator, eternal student. Wannabe writer and speaker :) Finding joy in helping people by giving them their time back.