How to Select and Design a Successful Focus Group

Your employees have unique perspectives and opinions you don’t want to miss out on. When you can hear about their experience, you’re able to make better-informed decisions, enhance employee satisfaction and engagement, address bottlenecks, and so much more.

While there are many ways to interact with your team and obtain this knowledge, few methods can rival the effectiveness of a focus group.

Throughout this article, delve into the key considerations and strategies for selecting and designing a successful focus group so that your organization can thrive.

What is a Focus Group?

A focus group is a qualitative research method that brings together a small group of individuals to engage in a guided discussion on a specific topic of interest.

The group is facilitated by a moderator who asks open-ended questions. These questions encourage the individuals to share their opinions on the matter and allow the moderator to better understand their attitudes and perceptions on the topics and ideas. For workplaces, in particular, focus groups reveal employee perspectives, how satisfied they are, communication effectiveness, and their overall work environment.

The Difference Between a Focus Group and an Interview

While it may seem like a focus group is an interview, it’s actually very different in terms of format and interaction. Like we just described above, a focus group involves a small group of individuals who are in a guided discussion that requires their interaction and opinion. Whereas an interview is typically a one-on-one discussion with a flexible question format.

Whom to Select for Your Focus Group

When selecting focus group participants, it’s a good idea to invite individuals are influential among their peers. These individuals can contribute to a more inclusive and representative focus group experience. They can also become champions of your initiative who encourage participation and adoption, so it is a good idea to involve them in early stages such as the discovery phase.

It’s also important to have a balance of participant traits. This includes:

  • Optimists and champions (promoters)
  • Independent contributors
  • Frustrated, skeptical or cynical leaders/influencers
  • Boundary spanners (those who have a broad view of the organization)

Best Practices When Designing Your Focus Group

There are a few best practices to follow when designing your focus group. Here are our top five to follow:

  1. Break your focus groups into cohorts

Grouping based on at least one common demographic trait is beneficial because it brings together people who share similar characteristics like age, gender, job roles, etc. By doing so, you’ll be able to dive deeper into shared experiences.

Likewise, creating cohorts provides a safe environment for the participants to share their honest opinion.

  1. Choose people that will be open to share

While it may seem obvious, make sure to pick individuals who are extremely open and forthcoming in sharing information. Both positive and negative.

This will ensure you’re getting the entire perspective, not just fragments.

  1.  Don’t group individuals in ways that will inhibit them from sharing information

We strongly recommend that you don’t group people with others that would make them feel unsafe, or uncomfortable. For example, don’t group anyone with their direct chain of command.

You want your focus group to be a space that has zero power dynamics and encourages honest discussions.

  1. Choose participants who work across different areas of the organization

Choosing participants who work across multiple departments such as internal consultants or subject matter experts gives you a broader understanding of how the entire organization works together.

They can provide valuable input on how to improve collaboration and communication across the enterprise.

  1. Give yourself a break if you have multiple focus group sessions

On average, focus groups are 90 to 120 minutes in length.  When scheduling focus groups throughout a day, it’s important to give 30 minutes between sessions: 15 minutes to debrief the session and 15 minutes to set up for the next group.

Conclusion

A focus group can give you valuable insights about your organization. However, in order for it to be successful, you have to select and design it strategically. Incorporating diverse traits and perspectives, as well as ensuring representation and fostering open and honest discussions are key to unlocking rich qualitative data.

Steve Utech

Steve Utech

Steve’s life mission is to unlock the mysteries of complex human interactions to make people’s work and personal relationships more meaningful, productive, and satisfying. All things niche and complex are food for his ADHD brain. He’s a geek at heart with irreverent humor, but also has a deep love of people. An experienced leader in the areas of culture optimization, organizational effectiveness, and team development, Steve is the visionary and founder of illumyx. His background in both the hard sciences and the art of family dynamics allows him to take a behavioral and systematic approach to organizational change and transformation. He has worked with Fortune 1000 organizations and executives in a variety of sectors to help them optimize their culture and achieve results. Steve holds a Master of Social Work from the University of Denver in Colorado and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota. An adventurer at heart, Steve spends his free time exploring nature with his 4 kids and anyone up for testing their limits. He enjoys rock climbing, backpacking, and finding brief moments of rhythm out on the dance floor. Above all, he enjoys seeing people grow and develop by giving them the freedom to explore and try new things. As someone once put it, “Steve makes it safe to be dangerous.”
Steve Utech

Steve Utech

Steve’s life mission is to unlock the mysteries of complex human interactions to make people’s work and personal relationships more meaningful, productive, and satisfying. All things niche and complex are food for his ADHD brain. He’s a geek at heart with irreverent humor, but also has a deep love of people. An experienced leader in the areas of culture optimization, organizational effectiveness, and team development, Steve is the visionary and founder of illumyx. His background in both the hard sciences and the art of family dynamics allows him to take a behavioral and systematic approach to organizational change and transformation. He has worked with Fortune 1000 organizations and executives in a variety of sectors to help them optimize their culture and achieve results. Steve holds a Master of Social Work from the University of Denver in Colorado and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota. An adventurer at heart, Steve spends his free time exploring nature with his 4 kids and anyone up for testing their limits. He enjoys rock climbing, backpacking, and finding brief moments of rhythm out on the dance floor. Above all, he enjoys seeing people grow and develop by giving them the freedom to explore and try new things. As someone once put it, “Steve makes it safe to be dangerous.”
Max Kresch

Max finds creative problem solving deeplyfulfilling is highly disciplined in his approach to research. He brings an advanced mathematics background to illumyx with significant experience in machine learning techniques, computer programming, and complex statistical analysis.

 

Max has experience working on complex Department of Defense projects and he recently transitioned his career into social science research. An erstwhile lecturer on data science at the University of Wisconsin, Max is gifted at communicating complex topics in easy-to-understand ways. Max assists the team in survey analysis and reporting and provides oversight on research design and analysis.


A father of two with a passion for music. In his free time, you’ll find him at a local park with his kids, cruising on his rollerblades, or jamming on his guitar with one of several bands he plays in. 

Max Kresch, PhD

Senior Data Scientist

Andrew Fleck

Andrew (Drew) Fleck, PhD, is a results-oriented organizational leader, certified executive coach, behavioral scientist, consultant, and entrepreneur. Drew is driven to add value to peoples’ lives by helping them become more self-sufficient. No matter what role he plays, he focuses on helping clients build strategic foresight into their organizations. He is a natural collaborator who looks for opportunities to partner and build-up others’ skill, knowledge, and confidence.

 

Drew is highly pragmatic and objective with a unique ability to think clearly under pressure. We can thank the US Air Force for that trait.  His studies and practical experience make him an expert in leadership, learning, organization design, organization development, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Over his career, he performed a number of strategic roles that aligned him with his love for travel and learning about different people and cultures.  He has a reputation for transforming organizational systems from a reactionary transactional approach to a proactive strategic approach.

 

Drew started his career in High Tech, but has since worked across a variety of industry and government sectors. Drew holds Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Human and Organizational Systems from Fielding Graduate University and a Master’s in Management and Organizational Behavior from Silver Lake College.

Andrew Fleck, Ph.D.

Chief Behavioral Scientist

Kristy Krautkramer

Kristy is a highly organized, strategic thinker and planner. She helps bring focus and levity to the nerd kingdom at illumyx. Committed and caring are two words that describe her best and she has endless energy to support projects and causes she believes in. Her background in music, teaching, and finance brings greater efficiency and harmony to illumyx’ processes and team interactions.

 

Kristy leads operations for the illumyx team, specializing in administrative functions that include finance, HR, and employee onboarding. Her love for order and accuracy frequently find her leading qualitative analysis projects for illumyx.  A former educator, Kristy has a Master’s degree in Education from St.Norbert College.  


Kristy is the mother of four boys. She often unwinds by hosting large gatherings for family and friends, having a good laugh, enjoying a glass of wine (or a swig of tequila), and diving into niche romance novels.

Kristy Krautkramer, M.A.​

Business Specialist & Qualitative Research Analyst

Dan Ritter

Dan is a data geek with a passion for computational social science and its applications in the workplace. Dan has never been a fan of the left-brain vs right-brain dichotomy–he is a dedicated all-brainer. He believes in the power of data to help us better understand human behavior at scale, and also that a healthy dose of humanity is required to accurately interpret data and apply insights with wisdom and tact.

 

Two of his favorite quotes sum up his approach to work:

 

“Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion,” W. Edwards Demming

 

“...people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel,” Maya Angelou.


In his free time, Dan enjoys wilderness camping with his family, reading, and tinkering with anything that can be taken apart. A lifelong learner, he holds a BA in Education, is currently pursuing his MS in Data Science, and has amassed a growing collection of certificates from fine institutions around the country.

Dan Ritter

Director of People Analytics

Steve Utech

Steve’s life mission is to unlock the mysteries of complex human interactions to make people’s work and personal relationships more meaningful, productive, and satisfying. All things niche and complex are food for his ADHD brain. He’s a geek at heart with irreverent humor, but also has a deep love of people. An experienced leader in the areas of culture optimization, organizational effectiveness, and team development, Steve is the visionary and founder of illumyx.

 

His background in both the hard sciences and the art of family dynamics allows him to take a behavioral and systematic approach to organizational change and transformation. He has worked with Fortune 1000 organizations and executives in a variety of sectors to help them optimize their culture and achieve results. Steve holds a Master of Social Work from the University of Denver in Colorado and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota.

 

An adventurer at heart, Steve spends his free time exploring nature with his 4 kids and anyone up for testing their limits. He enjoys rock climbing, backpacking, and finding brief moments of rhythm out on the dance floor.

 

Above all, he enjoys seeing people grow and develop by giving them the freedom to explore and try new things. As someone once put it, “Steve makes it safe to be dangerous”.

Steve Utech, MSW

Founder, CEO, and Director of Consulting​

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