Review the Internet for Focus Groups to learn how to conduct one. After reviewing what you have found, make a short Focus Group Discussion Guide to answer either some qualitative questions you have for your group project or some other general area of interest.

 

This is qualitative research questions for a focus group or one-on-one interview. These are usually open-ended questions where the objective is to understand how or why, rather than what. A good example of a discussion guide would be as follows:

 

Introduction: "Our purpose today is to discuss cola products, which you have indicated that you use."

 

1. "What are some of the cola products that you have used?"

 

2. "Which of all the cola products do you prefer? The reasons you prefer _____ is because...?"

 

3. "Describe when you typically drink colas."

 

4. "What are sometimes that you would not drink colas but would choose something else. Why do you think that colas would not be appropriate for those occasions?"

 

5. "When colas are not available, what do you choose to drink?"

 

6. "If you could change one thing about colas, what would that be?"

 

As you can see from these questions, the purpose of qualitative research is to understand the emotional side of issues. Generally, a factual question is followed up with a probing question for more information, using questions like, "And the reason that is important is...?"

 

Include the brief Discussion Guide Outline that you have prepared.