Focus Groups
Focus Groups can prove useful for trying out your ideas or research messages and gathering feedback. They are a relatively inexpensive way of sense-checking your impact activities or outputs.
Identify stakeholders (see Stakeholder Mapping) from your network (see Network Building) – this will depend on the purpose of your focus group.
Make sure you have a diverse spread of stakeholders with interest or experience in practice, as well as research.
Consider how you can support people using services to engage in your focus group e.g. people with a learning disability, carers, children
- Arrange to meet, this could be virtual or face-to-face
- Remember to provide refreshments and reimburse travel expenses
- Identify a facilitator and plan an agenda or list of items that need to be covered ahead of time
- Ensure you have a way of recording the discussion (see Podcasts)