Focus Groups
A focus group is a focused discussion where a moderator leads a group of participants through a set of questions on a particular topic. Focus groups are often used in the early stages of product planning and requirements gathering to obtain feedback about users, products, concepts, prototypes, tasks, strategies, and environments. Focus groups can also be used to obtain consensus about specific issues.
When and why to use focus groups
Advantages of focus groups include:

• Quick, cheap and relatively easy to assemble
• Good for getting rich data in participants' own words and developing deeper insights
• People are able to build on one another's responses and come up with ideas they might not have thought of in a 1-on-1 interview
• Good for obtaining data from children and/or people with low levels of literacy
• Provides an opportunity to involve people in data analysis (e.g. "Out of the issues we have talked about, which ones are most important to you?")
• Participants can act as checks and balances on one another - identifying factual errors or extreme views

How to plan and prepare for focus groups
Invite around 6 to 8 people to participate for a session to last for about an hour. Then, prepare an agenda including a list of the top-level issues to be tackled (if appropriate).

Useful tips to encourage discussion

• Ask participants to think about an issue for a few minutes and write down their responses
• Ask each participant to read, and elaborate on, one of their responses
• Note the responses on a flipchart/whiteboard
• Once everyone has given a response, participants will be asked for a second or third response, until all of their answers have been noted
• These responses can then be discussed