Skip to main content

Introduction to Focus Groups

This session provides an overview of the basic skills involved in conducting research with focus groups. The class will emphasize that there is no “one right way” to do focus group research. Instead, the approach here is to present both the most common options for doing focus groups and the criteria for helping you choose among those options, in order to meet the needs of your particular research project. 

The outline for the class follows the steps involved in doing a focus group research project, including: 

  • when focus groups are most appropriate 
  • how to select appropriate participants
  • how to write the interview questions
  • how to moderate
  • how to analyze focus groups