Research Tips

The Use and Misuse of Focus Groups

Focus groups are an excellent tool for specific situations, but they’re also frequently misused. The key thing to remember is that because focus groups involve small numbers of people, typically selected through convenience sampling techniques, they do not provide statistically valid and reliable results. However, focus groups can provide good insights that can be subsequently verified with a quantitative study, and they can generate in-depth explanations of unexpected or particularly important findings from quantitative studies. Therefore, if you’re looking for definitive results, you may want to consider using focus groups in conjunction with (rather than as a replacement for) quantitative research techniques.