8 Hot Insider Tips from Years of Moderating

By Rich Thau

I've never blogged before about the art of structuring and moderating a successful focus group, but since the folks at Focus Pointe Global asked me to do this, I'm honored to take a stab at it. So, here goes, in sequential order from recruiting to executing:

1) How do you avoid recruiting highly opinionated people into your group so that they don't try to dominate the conversation? Well, there's no sure-fire way of achieving that, but many years ago I started inserting a question into the screener that seems to have helped mitigate the problem: Ask whether the prospective respondents have any bumper stickers on their cars that convey a political message. If they do, that's telling you something: They want to try to convert others to their point of view. You probably don't want them in your group.

2) If you want typical adults ages 22-64 in your groups, try not to host the groups before 5:30 p.m. Sessions conducted during business hours on a weekday tend to be filled with people who are not ideal respondents. Occasionally lunch-time sessions attract good respondents. Also, I've done successful groups over the weekend—but who wants to make a habit of doing groups on a weekend?

3) It makes sense to meet the recruits before bringing them in for the session. Sometimes you spot someone who shouldn't be there—perhaps they're asleep, or not fully engaged—and taking a quick look can help avoid some uncomfortable moments during a group. It also helps to ask folks stationed at the welcome desk if any respondents look familiar, like “professional respondents.”

4) I almost always re-screen groups by asking a key question differently in the re-screening than in the original screening. It's a great way to find people who should have been screened out originally, but weren't. I also regularly try to understand discrepancies between the original screening and the re-screening by pulling people out of the waiting room and asking them to explain the discrepancy. Sometimes the gap is explainable, and sometimes it's not. And when it's not, I've often paid the respondent and sent him/her home.

5) Nothing sets me off more than respondents who try to game the focus group system—they arrive three or four minutes after the group starts, so they expect to get paid without having to attend. I make it a hard rule with facilities: If the respondent isn't there by the time the group starts, they don't get paid unless I take them while in progress (something I am loath to do). The recruiting screener told them they needed to be there 20 minutes before the session starts, so if they are late, no payment.

6) My firm specializes in moment-to-moment dial testing, where we get continuous feedback on video presentations of various types during the focus group. If you ever conduct a session using the dials for this purpose, you MUST not only give detailed instructions, but also conduct a quick warm-up to make sure the instructions are understood. After moderating hundreds of sessions with the dials, I've noticed that there's at least one person in each group who does not follow the instructions—and as moderator I don't know who it is, what they're doing wrong, or how to set them straight, until I do a warm-up.

7) Never moderate groups back-to-back; always take a half hour break between groups to do a "brain dump" of what you learned, eat something, and consult with the client. We typically run groups from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., and then from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

8) The most effective time-saving device I've come across for report writing is to do a digital audio backup of my session with my own recorder, and to sync the time on the recorder to the time on an easy-to-read digital stop watch that I place in front of me. When someone says something I want to make sure not to miss, I write down the name of the person and something they said, along with the time, so my associates and I can find it easily on the audio afterwards.

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Rich Thau is President and Founder of Manhattan-based Presentation Testing, Inc. (http://www.presentationtesting.com). You can reach him at richthau@presentationtesting.com or 212-760-4358.

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The opinions expressed in this blog post are Rich Thau's and not necessarily those of Focus Pointe Global. 

Finding The Best Focus Group Moderators: Charisma

What characteristics do the best focus group moderators share? If you’ve been following the Focus Pointe Global Blog this week, then you know that objectivity is an essential trait for any successful moderator. Given the extensive flexibility, planning and coordination required by the moderation process, efficiency is also important.

Without the ability to put people at ease and create the kind of relaxed and intimate group settings that invite participation from every focus group respondent, even the most objective and efficient moderators won’t get far.

Therefore, the third, and perhaps most critical, characteristic of a good moderator can best be described as charisma. The best professional moderators know how to interact with complete strangers, encouraging them to open up and talk about their feelings, beliefs and experiences with candor. They know how to establish a strong professional rapport with respondents and encourage them to speak their minds freely and openly.

Good moderators are personable, friendly and warm without being unprofessional or overly familiar. They have an uncanny ability to manage interpersonal and group dynamics in such a way as to elicit responses from even the shyest of focus group respondents. They are skilled at probing unexpected turns in the discussion, teasing out thoughts and perceptions, digging deeper to uncover the underlying emotions and motivations without taking the entire group off track.

For more help choosing the best possible moderator for your next focus group, click on the button below to schedule a consultation with one of the experts at Focus Pointe Global.

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Finding The Best Focus Group Moderators: Efficiency

There are a lot of factors to consider when coordinating a successful focus group. One of the most important of these is finding the right moderator to guide your respondents and help you achieve your data collection objectives. This week on the Focus Pointe Global blog, we’re taking an in-depth look at the top three characteristics of a good moderator.

In our last post, we talked about the importance of objectivity. In this post, we’re turning our focus to the impact of efficiency on the moderation process.

Since focus groups are very often conducted according to tight schedules with rapid turnarounds, your focus group moderator must have impeccable time management skills. That means providing the kind of carefully balanced guidance that keeps your focus group discussion from wandering off track while simultaneously nurturing lively, in-depth discussions that yield powerful results. This balance requires extensive advance planning and the ability to remain flexible when necessary.

The best focus group moderators are also extremely good team players. They are capable of working closely with recruitment specialists, project managers and clients in an efficient, collaborative manner to ensure that everyone’s needs and objectives are fulfilled.

Once your focus group is complete, the moderator is responsible for communicating the findings and impressions of each session in a summary report that addresses the client’s requirements. That means that, not only does this individual have to be capable of guiding the focus group discussion in an unbiased way, he must also be able to simultaneously make the kind of careful firsthand observations that supplement and inform the rest of the data collection process.

For more help choosing the best possible moderator for your next focus group, click on the button below to schedule a consultation with one of the experts at Focus Pointe Global or check back in to the FPG blog later this week for the conclusion of this series.

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Finding The Best Focus Group Moderators: Objectivity

Getting the right people in the room for your focus group is the first step to marketing research success. But without a good moderator leading the discussion, even the most highly targeted group of respondents won’t yield the impactful data collection results you’re looking for. Choosing the right moderator for your focus groups is key. This week on the FPG blog, we’re taking a closer look at the top three characteristics of good moderators.

First up: Objectivity.

A truly objective moderator is essential to the success of your focus group. Without this key characteristic at the head of the table, your focus groups risk reflecting the beliefs and opinions of your moderator and not your respondents. With this in mind, it should go without saying that your moderator must never make any judgments of your focus group respondents. In order to be valuable and relevant, the information gathered in a focus group environment must remain unclouded by irrelevant factors like appearance, education level, accent, etc. If any such factors are relevant to the study at hand, they should be identified and sought out or eliminated at the recruitment stage, not during the focus group itself.

The person that you choose to lead your focus group discussions must remain completely neutral while still engaging everyone in the room. He or she should be able to guide the discussion without bias by using both verbal and non-verbal cues. That means avoiding the kinds of leading questions, gestural cues and subtle signals that might steer one or more respondents in a certain way.

For more help choosing the best possible moderator for your focus groups, click on the button below to schedule a consultation with one of the experts at Focus Pointe Global or check the FPG blog later this week when we’ll continue this series.

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