Mock Focus Group

 

I did a mock focus group just now with some actor friends of mine. I am so glad that I chose to do it as I think it highlighted a lot of useful things to think about in my actual groups. 

They were absolutely brilliant and kind enough to give me some feedback at the end to see what they had thought. One of the main things was they didn't feel like I was leading them at all with the questions (bar one), to the point where one friend asked me midway 'I'm not sure how you want me to answer this' to which I replied that I just wanted honest, genuine opinions. 

I noticed that at the beginning I was doing far too much talking (which I am prone to anyway!). Granted I had started off with an ice breaker and one standardized question, but I think the flow was off as everyone was waiting their turn. I remembered that my role was to be a mostly silent facilitator, listening closely, offering up questions when appropriate or probes when needed. Once I encouraged everyone to jump in whenever they had a thought or story, the conversation became so much more natural and ideas started to emerge organically with people being inspired with what others were saying. It felt great to actually see that in action and not just read about it in qualitative theory books! 

A lot of work is still needed on my questions, especially when it comes to phrasing questions around stigma. It feels like a tricky subject to enter into without suggesting that a stigma does exist. So I still need to find a neutral way of asking the things that I really want to ask. To be continued! x