The Anatomy of a Virtual Focus Group

By David Brake

Focus groups have been a mainstay of product development for a few decades now. In practice, they are qualitative rather than quantitative events. There is something compelling about having a dialogue with real consumers, and focus groups facilitate a kind of feedback that is simply not possible with standard surveys. Focus groups allow you to show a gathering of eight to ten people real things and envisioned things. You can facilitate dialogue that lets you hear the voice of your consumer. Most importantly, focus groups can be done at all points along the Product Development Life Cycle.

Face-to-face focus groups can be expensive, however. So for many companies focus groups are viewed as costly and incapable of producing actionable, reliable metrics.

Before you accept this inside-the-box thinking, consider the virtues of a Virtual Focus Group.

Having managed and moderated over 800 Virtual Focus Groups in the last six years, let me first outline the process and highlight the value of Virtual Focus Groups.

1. A quick definition: a Virtual Focus Group (or VFG) is a one to two-hour event in which participants sit at a “virtual table.” All they need to participate is a telephone and internet connection. There are two clear advantages to a VFG over a live focus group. First, for what a live focus group will typically cost, you can conduct two and sometimes three VFGs. This means that you are hearing from 16 – 24 people in your target market rather than eight; this can significantly increase your confidence level in the conclusions you derive from this activity. Second, a live focus group limits you to a specific geographic area–not always a bad thing–but a VFG allows you to bring people from across several time zones and zip codes together.
2. VFGs are “high touch” events. At my company we typically interact with the selected participants more than ten times before and after the event. This is notable because in today’s socially networked world many of your VFG participants can actually become vocal champions for your product or service. Most people are pleased to be part of something BIG. If you manage the relationship properly not only do you get valuable insight from your participants, but you also create advocates and stakeholders.
3. Every VFG begins with a qualifying screener. Think of this as a mini survey. The goal is to find the most qualified participants from a larger population within your target market. A properly designed screener can serve a dual function: 1) It helps you identify qualified participants, and 2) It produces valuable quantitative feedback from your market. Indeed, if you screen a few hundred people, why not construct the screening tool so that you capture other market intelligence as well.
4. Many VFGs include a “pre-event activity.” This is an online activity that typically takes 15 – 30 minutes. VFG participants are asked to complete such an activity prior to the scheduled VFG. On one hand, it allows you to confirm their real interest and commitment to participate in the VFG, and on the other hand it allows you to present information or content that you want them to experience before the VFG. This can range from completing an actual product review to previewing a new concept. You can use a pre-event to test different messages or promotional campaigns. Important to note here is that you can present visuals, audio, and video in the pre-event activity. It’s an effective way to gather initial insights from the participant as you get to know them better as people. It can also inform the final Discussion Guide.
5. Every VFG should be professionally moderated and driven by a Discussion Guide (DG). It’s hard to be both product developer and focus group moderator. If you’re biases don’t show, your VFG participants are likely to be suspect. They’ve become too used to being “sold to.” The DG should be an interactive tool that presents a topic to be discussed, and then asks each participant to grade, rate or quantify something before you engage in discussion. This means that each participant sees a question on their computer screen, and responds online before anyone vocalizes his or her thoughts. This approach has two advantages. First, it greatly reduces the possibility that one member of the VFG can influence the responses of others because everyone has to “lock in” a response before you discuss the topic. Keep in mind that human beings can be influenced by others. There might be an especially articulate participant who sounds smart; others at the table might be inclined to agree with this person because they want to come across as smart as well. It happens. Likewise, we’ve seen situations where a participant is inclined to disagree with another participant because of factors such as geography, surname, or the tonal quality of one’s voice. If you had a really bad dating experience in college with a guy from Boston whose baritone voice still lingers in your long-term memory bank, you might have a subconscious reaction to someone at the VFG table who reminds you of that person. The second advantage is that by having VFG participants provide ratings to certain questions we move the event toward more of a quantitative activity. It’s really the best of both worlds. You measure reactions and then you hear consumer voices.
6. The format of the VFG allows you to present a live demo of something–anything from software to a walkthrough of a website. You can also present video, audio or visuals. You can do everything from introducing a new concept for a product or service to presenting potential advertising and promotional approaches they’d like to get reactions to before launching to a wider audience.
7. VFGs should be recorded, and you should generate transcripts for the session. Keep in mind that transcripts are valuable to peruse after the fact, but the tone of someone’s voice is more powerful than the words that come out of their mouths. Think about the statement “That’s a great feature.” You might get excited to read that in a transcript or in a survey comment box. The statement can be voiced with tones that range from adulation to sarcasm. You can’t read that, but you can usually hear it.
8. Most of VFGs include a follow-up activity with the participants after the event. I highly recommend this. This might be a brief survey with a few follow-up questions.  It could be a brief interview in an effort to further build a relationship with the participant.
9. Your VFG should result in some kind of summary report for the stakeholders at your company. At Grandview we favor something we call a “Snap-Shot Report” produced by one of our analysts who has carefully reviewed the audio recording, transcript, and responses to the Discussion Guide. This is, in essence, an Executive Summary that details the conclusions drawn from the VFG (or series of VFGs). It also provides a “Next Steps” overview that suggests potential strategies to consider, including a plan for staying connected to those VFG participants who are most likely to be viral promoters of your product or service.

Virtual Focus Groups are one of the best ways to “connect” with consumers. And when I say “connect” I am talking about using VFGs to create awareness, amplify a problem, fulfill a need, and ultimately win a customer. Hopefully, a very loyal, extremely viral customer with lots of people in their social networks--just waiting to hear more about your product or service.

Your VFG does not have to follow the exact format I've described. Some of our clients insist on 60-minute VFGs, and others find two hours to be ideal. Some clients like to conduct a pre-event activity while others don't like to consume that much of a participant's time. Your VFG strategy and execution will vary depending upon the audience, product or service, and your stage on the Product Development Cycle. To conclude, I'm including a quick video highlighting Grandview's general approach to Virtual Focus Groups. We've had excellent results with this format and approach.






David Brake is CEO of The Grandview Group, a technology company that helps organizations leverage the wisdom and insights of customers, prospects, and stakeholders using a life cycle review platform. His special area of practice is On-Demand Learning and qualitative Audience/Consumer research. He co-authored the first edition of an international best-selling book, The Social Media Bible (Wiley, 2009). When he’s not working he enjoys ultra-distance cycling. Contact David at d.brake@thegrandviewgroup.com
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