We believe it is important to conduct one for ourselves, given as some outsider opinions and information may enable us to view our product with broader minds and thus develop them better. Also, given how focus groups are often relatively expensive to conduct, one can place a certain weight and value on the data which they receive.
The main thing is that a focus group is conducted before the products are finalised, so that they can be changed and adapted in accordance to the feedback received. Therefore, we have decided to present our rough cut versions of each of the three products to our focus audience. It is also important that the participants of a focus group reflect the target audience of the products, and so for this purpose, we have selected to use a class of AS Media Students.
Watching an extract from a Simpsons episode for pointers as to how to conduct an effective focus group, we made notes on the following:
The main things we noted were that the director of the focus group often asked closed questions which required merely a yes or no answer. They failed to reveal much information and didn't allow participants to explain as to why they liked or disliked something. Equally, the questions were somewhat leading and directed, making the value judgement type question redundant.
Learning from this, when running our own focus group we will have someone whom has not been involved with the development of our products, to host the session as this will keep it unbiased as we realise how important it is to gather genuine qualitative data and not swayed or influenced results. Equally, we have supplied our 'host' with a set of fair, unweighted questions which should provide us with successful answers and effective steps in the right direction!
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