Focus Groups for Introverts

image by 3dman_eu at pixabay

What is a focus group? It’s a group session for reaching a consensus. It’s not a highly interactive group session where group dynamic is more important than individual’s contributions. Some people mistake it for a design workshop or brainstorm/creative session. In a focus group, participants have to consider each other’s opinions in order to decide on a conclusion that applies to everyone.

There is always a use for a moderated group discussion where participants are expected to reach a consensus at the end. One example is to reach agreement among stakeholder about a project buy in. I’ve used it for an organization to set its mission together with its fringe members. I’ve also used it for my team’s “health check”, e.g. what went wrong, what went well, and how do we do it differently for the next period.

The consensus is important, because the agreement, shared expectation, and single understanding need to be confirmed on the spot among everyone in the group. Aim for zero misunderstanding and mismatched expectations.

Moderating focus groups is a skill that builds with experience. It’s always great to have a session where participants are considerate of each other and respect the moderator’s cues. What about a session where some people are too talkative (or trying to dominate) and some people are too quiet? It’s important to understand your participants before running the session, and one way to do it is by considering introvert participants.

Focus groups have been used for market research in order to observe the conversation among participants. Usually, researchers invite a group of people who can influence each other (selected personalities), or sometimes a group of people who already know each other (comfortable sharing opinions with each other). Yet you might still get some introvert participants.

What is a focus group for introverts like?

1. Questions are given a few days ahead, so participants can write their answers on their own time before submitting them to moderator.
2. The moderator processes all answers qualitatively and quantitatively and during the session shares the questions and answer’s summaries.
3. The main thing the moderator asks from participants during the session is to agree with the conclusion of each answer’s summary. Additionally, they can criticize or start a discussion around it.
4. The collection of summaries and conclusions is the result shared with stakeholders.

Benefits:

1. Participants can write thoughtful answers. Meanwhile, in a moderated session with questions asked on the spot, introverts might have trouble coming up spontaneously with a thoughtful answer.
2. Participants provide answers in isolation. Meanwhile in a real-time discussion, only the first answering participant has the privilege of giving their very own answer. Participant no. 2, 3, 4, and so on can get biased by the previous answers shared in the group. Participants might avoid giving either a totally different answer (social norms) or exactly the same answer (sound like parroting), while both are actually okay!
3. Participants are more likely to share sensitive topics. I didn’t disclose participant’s names on each answer shared during the session, because I wanted to honor their privacy in writing possibly a very personal answer, unless they chose to disclose which one their answer was for the purpose of elaborating further.
4. The moderator doesn’t need to summarize answers on the spot while also at the same time asking for a consensus.

This modification of focus group is beneficial for common challenges in the workplace that can be talked about by two individuals but difficult to be discussed in a group. Hidden motivations? Secret struggles?

If you’re a market researcher, you can’t ask the questions ahead, especially when they already know each other. The questions could get “leaked” among participants and discussed before they start the session with you. It makes you lose the rich information about how they discuss among themselves before reaching the consensus. How do we share the question in the session yet expecting introverts to be equally heard?

We can give participants a short time e.g. 3 minutes to write down answers on a piece of paper before sharing it with the group. They can then take turns to read the notes out loud. After that, let the session roll. Introverts might be less heard, but at least their first answer per question is already shared in the group.

If you’re a design/user researcher, don’t worry about introverts! Focus groups are not appropriate for design/user research anyway. First, we cannot immerse in people’s problem of using a product in a focus group (interviews and observations do better). Second, we cannot predict how users will actually interact with a product by discussing a product concept in a focus group.

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