Focus Groups

Often survey research that tends to be broad but shallow is paired with guided discussions that are deep but focused, adding dimension to the understanding of a topic. NRC specializes in focus group research for which we craft the discussion guide, recruit the participants, facilitate and scribe the meeting, analyze the findings and write a final report. Sometimes these are stand alone reports and other times they are linked with survey findings to provide a more complete understanding of topics or results. Skilled facilitation of focus groups is an art, but the design of recruitment sampling, questions and probes as well as analysis of results is a science. Although focus groups results are not intended to be generalized the way survey results can be, if done well, the results provide real insight into the “why’s” of study findings. In a focus group, we can discover what motivates people to participate in local government programs, what they consider in making policy tradeoffs, what they need to know to make better decisions.