a

helpful field-guide to doing better focus groups

I thought I would write ‘a book’, mostly because I

liked the idea of being on your bookshelf.

Now I think of this as ‘The Real Time Together

Project’.

My hope is that it will earn a life of its own, be

shared and passed on, gently shake the status quo,
get people talking and, perhaps, practicing our
labor with a new vigor.

Another hope is that some people will check out

RealTimeTogether.com, where you can actually
order a real world, hard copy, handy pocket size
booklet.

arnie jacobson
founding partner, QRC
 We’ve been doing this a long time...since hair was big and
jeans baggy.

Dumb luck and good timing landed QRC in LA during the

West Coast account planning hey-day of the mid 1980’s.

Back then, we simply believed in the power and

possibilities to be found in a couple of well-spent hours
with a small group of people in a workshop. In hindsight,
I suppose not much has changed over the years.

When we all do this kind of work well, we are reminded...

• that there is a deep down humanity in spending real

time, really together.

• of the worth in discovering the gems in our work that,

culver city office late 80’s caught in the right light, inspire truly great and
worthwhile efforts by all involved…designers, creative
and marketing folks.

• to be thankful to the people who help us along the

way, the future consumer…the ‘users’, ‘experiencers’,
‘enjoyers’ and, if we’ve done our job really well, future
‘advocates’ and ‘fans’.

2
There are two reasons I thought The ‘Real Time
Together Project’ was worth doing…

• More people who are not qualitative researchers

are out there doing qualitative research. I’d like
this to help them enrich the time they spend with
people in their own projects.

• And, because the value of really good qualitative

research is going through a phase of being
undervalued. I’m not completely sure why... but I
do believe that what we do, practiced at its highest
form, helps us draw back the curtain of knowledge The Studio. Boulder,CO. 2018
and fact, and cast light on that deeper thing
...insight and understanding.

3
You’ll see in the section about ‘status and control’
that if you want the people participating in your
qualitative work to be honest and offer something
deeper than their ‘face value’ response, that they'll
need to know your motive, from the start.

My motive for doing this is that I’d like to pass on

something of what I’ve learned over the many years of
doing this (which is an excellent example of a ‘face
value’ response!).

Dig a little deeper and my motive is also about a fear

of fading, like old wall-paper…of wanting to stay on
your radar, of occasionally being asked to talk and
train, and (of course) to continue to be part of
interesting, worthwhile projects.

4
SPENDING REAL TIME, REALLY TOGETHER

Is it old-fashioned to believe in the value of

sitting down and spending real time, really
together?

The more we find ways to do this the more

humanity, insight, revelation, connection and
creativity we share.

This simple thought is what keeps me going. It

runs through every anecdote and bit of advice I
have to share.

5
 BIRDS-EYE PERSPECTIVE

Let’s make a case for changing the vocational

vernacular…and infuse a whole lot more humanity into the
worthwhile work we do.

An excellent place to start is the term ‘focus group’. What a

terrible description of what we are trying to accomplish. As
the person who is facilitating a group, the more you ‘focus’
the more ‘research-y’ the time will be.

Here at QRC, we’ve got into the habit of using the term
‘workshop’. After-all, we’re putting our participants ‘to work’
bringing to life ideas, thoughts and reflections in the context
of their own lives…sharing, considering (and ‘working’) with
one another’s perspective and points of view.
the harder you focus
...the less you find out
The better we get at this, the more we’ll find that the people
we work with in our projects move beyond the expected
norm of ‘responding’ and ‘critiquing’ to a much more
interesting and helpful role of participating and collaborating.

Maybe, one day, we’ll stop thinking of the people helping us

as ‘respond-ents’?

6
WHAT WE DO

All good qualitative projects are exploratory. We explore

how people make sense of the things our clients are
interested in. This sounds simple but it is how we know for
sure we are truly including the consumer along for the ride.

It doesn't matter whether ‘the ride’ is about positioning and

branding, developing concepts and creative ideas, or the
bigger picture ways communication works and is expressed,
we are essentially doing one thing…

generating a people-driven vernacular

We facilitate an experience that introduces an essential core

idea, or thought, that marketing folks have come up with,
and then figure out how normal people not in marketing
make sense of it all in the everyday context of their lives.

This is what “being in pursuit of a people –driven

vernacular” is all about.

In the end...where the internal perspective (the marketing

folks have come up) and the external perspective (how
normal people make sense of it) overlap is almost always
where the magic resides.

7
 ‘PLAYING CONSUMER’

People are good at ‘playing consumer’.

It is useful to think about people who participate in

research as having both ‘a public voice’ and ‘a private
voice’.

People’s public voice is the one they use when being

asked about something as a consumer. It is an important
voice and the one that most consumer research is
designed to listen to.

However, if you are conducting research that is seeking

something deeper, something beyond a ‘face value’
response then you’ll need to learn how to encourage and
reveal people’s ‘private voice’

‘public voice, private voice’

….you’ll hear it in the special place between what a
person says and what they mean, between how they
want to be seen and how they are.

One way to get to that special place is to tune into what’s

happening at ‘The Periphery of the Obvious’...

8
THE PERIPHERY OF THE OBVIOUS

If there is one thing that sets apart a good group

experience from a bad one, it would be this...

In a good group a very simple thing happens…the

moderator fully takes in, and facilitates, the response
to the response.

In other words, when an individual says something in

a group, no matter how interesting it is, it really
doesn’t matter unless the moderator explores the
reaction of the other participants.

Good group work is exploratory by nature...exploring

the group’s response to an individual thought or
idea.

This is what happens at the periphery of the find what you’re looking for
obvious… it is where the group’s dynamic is waiting at the periphery of the obvious.
to be engaged, where response moves beyond face
value, true insights are mined and, just occasionally,
magic found.

9
Getting into the practice of watching how the
participants in a group respond, in any given
moment, to the person speaking is good for
everyone participating in a project...

If you’re watching the group, it will help you move

beyond listening out for sound-bites and help you
become more fully engaged in ideas and responses
powerful enough to move others.

If you’re moderating the group it will help you tune

into body language and energy levels, re-introduce
ideas and thoughts that strike a chord, learn about
and play with language and the way people make
sense of things, fully and deeply explore the few
things that matter.

And if you’re a participant in a group, to feel you

are truly part of something, to listen and build on
external ideas and thoughts that ring true, to
personally tune into internal emotions and
responses that you then share with the group.

10
STATUS AND CONTROL

My good friend, Gary Hirsh, is a master of improv. His

company, ‘On Your Feet’, was a pioneer in bringing improv
techniques into the workplace.

Gary once told me that ‘status’ and ‘control’ are two

underlying forces influencing many of the games people
play when they are together...especially in a group.

In any given moment, ‘status’ and ‘control’ influence the

type of exchanges we have with one another. What we
say, and don’t. How open, or closed we are. If we want
to engage and contribute, close down or go along with
the flow.

Understanding these two influencing forces and learning

how to recognize them, shape their influence and ease
their impact is the key to fostering a constructive and
creative group dynamic.

When we learn to deal with these influencing forces, we

will have a much better chance of creating a collaborative
(rather than competitive) dynamic in our workshops.

11
A good place to start to deal with ‘status’ and ‘control’ is
yourself. When you walk into the room you are already
in a place of power...in control of the agenda, time and
experience.

Simple, little things that can make a difference...

• The chair you sit on should be the same size and type
as everyone else’s. On fancy office type chairs that
go up and down...lower yourself (and your status).

• You don’t have to sit on your own at the head of the

table.

• Ditch the discussion guide (or put it on a side table).

The guide is a symbol of control...the less you directly
interact with the guide the more natural interaction
you’re likely to get between the people participating.

• Discourage notes, questions, or any interruption

from the backroom.

• Be curious, always. Your interest, energy and form

of engagement will model and encourage others to
do the same.

12
DANCING IN A CONE

The shape of a cone, by its nature, celebrates ‘context’.

A cone can’t help itself being open, wide and accepting.

Another cool thing about a cone is that as its perspective

narrows, concentrates and gets more specific, it simply can not
shake off the bigger, broader perspective it is intrinsically part of.

And dancing represents a state of being that breaks out of

everyday role and routine.

Dancing with your ideas and thoughts celebrates an uninhibited,

curious, creative nature. It can be wild and crazy, it can be
elegant and graceful. The one thing it is not is pedestrian,
dancing in a cone
predictable or boring.

The most obvious way ‘Dancing in a cone’ will help is in the way
you design the kind of time you want to spend in your
workshop...your discussion guide. (The last section, ‘Letter to
Dave’, has a lot of practical advice on both discussion guides and
moderating.)

The visual concept is also very useful when you get to the
figuring-it-out-part...your analysis.
note on illustration: Our daughter, Lucy, did this dancing watercolor for us.
She decided we needed to dance more and arranged lessons for us at a local studio. 13
ANALYSIS

If I were a Hedgehog, my bristles would stand on end every time I saw

the term ‘Qualitative Data’.

Data is facts. In a qualitative context, this suggests that the literal, ‘face
value’ response we hear from people is our goal, and that our job is
simply to report what we heard. It seems to me that a lot of qualitative
research is conducted with this narrow, literal, myopic mindset.

The figuring out part must take into account ‘the Complete Qualitative
Experience’.

This includes what people say, and don’t say; the verbal and non-verbal
response; the nature of engagement and energy; and most of all...

the underlying driving forces and influences at play.

Move away from the ‘what people said’ mindset...hone your instincts,
engage your intuition and ask yourself the question that matters
most...WHY?

Ask yourself ‘why’ and your approach to analysis shifts from a ‘content’
perspective (data) to a ‘cause’ perspective. ‘Cause’ leads to the
common, shared, underlying driving forces and influences at
play...which uncovers what you’re really looking for, the insights that
will help most.
14
 Start at the beginning...with the people you worked with. What
Here’s something simple to try out... was the really big insight into them, their lives and whatever it is
Remember the visual of ’Dancing in a cone’...here’s a you’re researching (the category)?
practical way to apply it to your analysis.
Then consider what you learned that matters most about the way
The ‘cone’ is about celebrating context and ‘dancing’ they see the choices (brands) they have in that category...what
represents a state of being that breaks out of the was the big insight here?
norm and mundane.
next, what is at the heart of appeal, connection, relevance, in the
relationship people currently have with your brand?

then, what you learned that matters most about whatever

life insight(s)
market + brand relationship insight(s)
response to the work insight(s)
making a positive change insight(s)
concepts, positioning, creative ideas, communication ...whatever
you were working with.
Finally, what of significance changed (or could change) in the
relationship people have with the brand as a result of what you
were working with...and how best to accomplish this moving
forward?

align the above Stand back and see how your key insights line up, how they fit
to figure out how best to move forward
together and influence one another.

It is hard to explain why, but there is a ’mutual attraction of really

good insights’...they want to find one another, fit with one another,
move, influence and compliment one another.

15
REPORTING

One thing that sometimes makes me feel like a dinosaur is

seeing super-impressive reporting that is visually engaging and
dynamic...integrating video, photography and skilled graphics
and design. I’d like to do this better. The one concern I do have
is that execution can trump content. It looks amazing, but did
the story provide the context, content and deep understanding
that lead to the actionable insights that will help most?

More typically, I see really boring reports that have been

‘saved-as’ and ‘re-formatted’ so many times they write
themselves. These reports typically tell their story in bullet
points. I hate bullet points. To my mind they have no place in
qualitative research. Bullet points are little leaches that sap
the humanity out of the story you have to tell. They are a
disservice to the qualitative process and disrespectful to the
people who participate in our work.

If you’re interested in other far more interesting and clever

people bashing bullet points, check out Edward Tufte’s ‘The
Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching out Corrupts Within;
David Byrne’s (yes, THAT David Byrne) ‘Envisioning Emotional
Epistemological Information’; and perhaps best of all, Jon
Steel’s ‘Perfect Pitch’.

16
some things that might help...

Be a catalyst. Our role is to inspire others to do great

Speak People. You’re writing about lives and how
things. Make sure you provide the kindling to get the
everyday people responded and worked with the
fire going.
concepts and ideas you wanted their help on. Don’t
detach yourself from all this by using research- or
Start Fresh. There is no one format to tell the story of
marketing-speak. Write in a way that brings to life the
what you found out. Treat each project in a fresh
time you spent with the people who helped you in
way. Write about and share your story in the way
your project. Recognize (and have reverence for) their
that will help your client, your team, most. There is
turn of phrase, how they put it, made sense of it.
no one magic format for this.
Write to last. By now, you know how I feel about
Use models only when you need to. Researchers
bullet points. Use prose. Write sentences. Imagine
love clever models. Use them only if they truly add
someone who was not on the project read this and
something to your finding or insight. Toss them out if
make sure they would completely ’get’ it. Imagine
you are using them instead of being able to write
someone picking this up in a year...make sure it has
about what you want to share.
legs, it will make sense, still inspire and move.
Tell the story in person. Conference calls and video
conferencing are hugely helpful, but they will never
replace the magic that a group of committed,
enthusiastic, engaged people can accomplish when
they are together, in person.

17
 LETTER TO DAVE

…back in 2013 Dave, a young account planner, called

me up and asked for a few good tips on running good
groups.

Dave was about to hit the road with a big project and
hadn’t done much moderating.

I sat down and wrote him a letter.

I reckon ‘Dave’s letter’ has just about every practical

thing I’ve learned that is most helpful in writing a
discussion guide and then getting in there and
my old Olympia typewriter moderating a workshop...especially for any kind of
branding and communications types of project.

If you’d like an actual copy of Dave’s letter, ‘A Day in

the Life of a Focus Group’, you can download it at the
realtimetogether.com website.

Here’s most of it...

18
Step #1. Stop thinking about ‘writing’ a discussion
guide...start thinking about ‘designing the kind of time’
you want to spend with the people participating in your
workshops.

Tips on a discussion guide…

You’ll know you’ve done a good one when there’s not a

question in it.

Start off each section with the ‘discussion aim’...what

you want to accomplish in that section.

Then, write about what you need to get the

participants thinking and talking about. List the key
issues and themes you’ll want to listen out for and
cover in the course of the natural conversation you’ll be
facilitating.

When you’re designing the kind of time you want to

spend with the people participating in your workshop,
it almost always takes the shape of a ‘context cone’
(picture the ‘dancing in a cone’ visual on page 13).

19
You’ll typically start off with the biggest
context…whatever it is you’re interested in the
natural, everyday context of their lives.

You can often design this section in a fun way that

helps set the right ‘frame of mind’ for the way you’ll
want the participants to work with ideas and
concepts later in the group...for example, working
with a photo–sort to practice articulating imagery.

Then you’ll narrow in a little bit and move onto ‘the

category’…e.g. exploring current perceptions,
appeal, interest, relevance, identification, affinity,
etc associated with the choices out there (the
brands).

The goal here will be to provide a ‘frame of

reference’ for us (and the particpants) that provides
a benchmark for what they think of the brand, and
key competitors, coming into the group. This will
include relative appeal, perception and imagery.

20
A nice Segway to the next section, ‘communication’
(again narrowing in) is to explore the key brands’
voices….advertising, after all, is the way brands talk to
us. You can do this through conversation, or sometimes
it will be useful to ‘stimulate’ the conversation with a
carefully selected competitive print sort or clutter reel
of tv ads.

And then you’ll be about ready to look at, work with

and explore whatever it is you’re specifically interested
in (e.g. positioning and branding, developing concepts
and creative ideas, or the bigger picture ways
communication works and is expressed).

At this point, I usually let everyone know who is behind

the study. Not only is this a good opportunity to
explore what they think of the brand, but this
transparency and sharing helps the group get on board,
feel a part of something and gear up to work with the
ideas, concepts, territories, whatever you brought
along…and want their help on.

21
Remember two things as you work with whatever
stimulus, concepts, creative or design ideas you're
working with…

Work with the ideas, don’t throw darts at them. You

need to make sure you introduce your stimulus as
starting points they will imagine, lend shape and form to.
Foster a constructive conversation…avoid a critical one.

Generate a people-driven vernacular around whatever

you’re working with. At the end of the day, all you really
need to uncover is:

• how people most easily make sense of something in

the everyday context of their lives,

• and what it is about that ‘something’ that potentially

grabs them most.

By the time you get to the end of the workshop, and

have covered everything, make sure you leave some time
to reflect back on the group and the key themes that
emerged. Also, as they are about to leave the workshop,
it is always interesting to consider how their thoughts
and feelings about the brand you've been working on
have changed since they arrived.

22
Before the group starts... we like to over recruit and make
sure everyone shows up early enough to chat with them. Pick
the people you feel will work together best and that you want
to work with.

Don’t work with groups bigger than six people. You want one
conversation and six people is just about perfect for that. An
ideal group size is about the same size that can happily share
a pizza together

The most important part of any group is the beginning. In

fact, most of the problems moderators have to deal with, like
dominant (obnoxious, loud) participants and quiet (shy-as-a-
clam) participants, happen because they didn’t start the
group off right. Take your time and do it right. Done well, the
pattern of conversation and exchange you set at the
beginning, will last throughout the group.

‘Say what you want’. At the very beginning, when everyone is

getting settled, explain what the group is about. I’ve never
understood why a moderator would want to keep what they
want the group to talk about, secret. It you were a group
participant wouldn’t you want to know why you are there and
how you are meant to help? (you don't need to say who the
client is yet, but you can assure them they will find out soon).
23
And once they know the goal, make sure they know how
important they are. This kind of work includes them in
the process of making marketing and developing creative
ideas. The more they know they are part of a process,
the more they will want to contribute to it (rather than
critique what you’ve brought along).

Then, say what you want the group to be like…

I often point to the obvious, that they all showed up for

this research thing and expect to be asked questions, and
whether they like or don’t like the things they are
shown...because isn’t that what research is?

Then I share what I really want the group to be like....for

this short time we have together to not ‘feel like
research’. You don’t want answers to questions, you
want a lively, dynamic, creative conversation (at this
point you could have them consider, together, what
makes a great conversation).

24
Here’s one way to kick off a group…

Give them a little time before the group “officially” starts to

work on something together. They can pair up or break into
two teams. Give them a fun, simple task that has something to
do with the topic you’ll be kicking off with. Give them only a
few minutes. Then, when the group re-forms have them share
with one another what they found out and encourage them to
start to explore common ground.

Why do this? ...because it is a way to jump-start the kind of

group dynamic (type of conversation and way to work together)
you want to have for the entire group. However you want to do
it, your goal early on is to get them to tune into one another
and not depend on you for the next question.

If you find the participants keep looking to you for a question,

you can do a number of things. Try simply directing their eyes,
through eye-contact, to someone else in the group who is
responding positively (with their body language). If this doesn’t
work, or seems weird, get up and walk around. Try standing
behind the person talking so he or she has to look to the others
(I call this ‘corralling’). And if you’re still having a problem ‘say
what you want’... “hey, this is your group, remember. Tune into
each other, listen-and-build-listen-and-build”.

25
Covering your topics:

Once you've’ got the hard stuff done (getting that

conversation going) all you have to do is facilitate, nudge and
encourage the conversation in a direction that will help you.

A small thing that helps me...when I’m introducing a new

theme (or further reflecting on something that they are
already talking about) I try not to think of a new question to
ask, but instead how best to frame the thought as an open-
ended theme for them to work with.

When you’ve designed a really natural discussion flow, you’ll

also find it pretty easy to hear the segues that will get you
from where you are to where you want to be.

Here’s a tip that can make a big difference…so much of what

you will learn that is true and meaningful in a group will come
from non-verbal response. You don’t have to be an expert in
body language to figure this out. Consider what’s not being
said. Remark on this. Comment on the group’s positive and
negative energy “something is connecting here...what is
it?”...or “there doesn’t seem to be much energy around this
idea, what going on?” (these are all good examples of what
happens at ‘the periphery of the obvious’ in a group
discussion, page 9)

26
Another thing to do, throughout, is to look at the
group’s response to what an individual is saying. In
other words, look at everyone else rather than
focusing only on the person speaking. This will help
you see what strikes a chord in the group (which
you jump on and expand) and what is akin to a lead
balloon (not interesting to others...move on).

Working with stimulus:

All this work in fostering a group dynamic will, by

its nature, encourage more creative and
constructive conversation around your
stimulus. What you want to avoid is those ‘face
value’ (public voice) responses that sound like
they’re coming from a jury rather than the group.

Start off by recognizing that whatever stimulus you

have (concepts, near finished, far-from finished,
positioning ideas or territories, story boards, single
frames, ad-cepts, whatever the heck you’ve got) is
simply meant to ‘stimulate’ conversation. People
don’t watch storyboards, let alone experience
positioning statements. Treat creative ideas for
what they are (an idea) not what they will be (a
finished execution).
27
My goal with just about anything I introduce to a group
is to generate ‘a people-driven vernacular’ around the
idea, the concept, the whatever. I want people to bring
to life whatever I’m introducing, in the everyday context
of their lives…to blow meaning into it with their words,
their turn of phrase, into something that resonates for
them and rings true.

Marketing people have a certain way of talking about

the positioning, branding and advertising they come up
with. Our job is to leave that behind, to be curious and
interested in one thing only, how the people who will be
the consumer make sense of it all, bring it to life, find it
interesting.

Picture your group playing catch with an idea.

Encourage them. You know what you need to find out,

so listen and use their way of putting it, their turn of
phrase, to explore more deeply. In Psychology this is
called ‘active listening’, which you don’t really need to
study, but you do need to listen, really, really well.

28
And, if you want to use projective techniques (like
personification, photo-sort, guided visualization, psycho-
drawing, word-association, etc, etc) make sure you move
beyond the ‘what’ and explore the ‘why’.

Projective techniques are used as a spring-board to

‘enable’ and ‘stimulate’ a richer, deeper, more emotional
response. Too often, researchers stop at what people
have come up with and not explore where that image,
idea or reference is coming from.

The real benefit in a projective exercise is in identifying a

deeper down emotional response or association that
people share…that’s where the magic is!

29
 Arnie Jacobson
late night in a bar arnie@QRConline.com
‘melancholy tombstone’ projective exercise

30