On Focus Groups

I’m proud to say I survived my first focus group.

No, I wasn’t invited to one; I planned and held one at work with a group of 25 professionals. The planning process was a little crazy at times, but I was lucky enough to have some great coworkers help me throughout the process.

The end result? We had a fantastic turnout, and our publication now has a much better insight at what our readers want to see. (In case you’re wondering, it’s implementing QR codes, bridging the gap between web and print, and investing in a solid iPad app for reading longer articles.)

Focus groups are a great way to connect with your market – in our case, it was to get real readers into our offices and pick their brains about what they’d like us to change about our publication.

Do you have experience as a focus group participant or as a focus group planner?