Focus groups

As part of some research, I was invited to take part in a focus group tonight. This isn’t my first experience of a focus group. I was involved with another focus group a few years ago which revolved around quality of services provided to school-aged children with special needs, be they physical, social or mental health related. Lego Lover has received services from this provider in the past and my input was requested to help improve their services. There must have been about fifteen people on that occasion but it all worked out well and I was able to voice my opinions on a number of issues quite comfortably. The moderator must have been quite good as everyone seemed to have a chance to speak up on several different topics. Sadly, this organization spent a lot of time and money doing numerous focus groups and paying participants but didn’t really make very many effective changes to the organization.

Tonight, however, the group didn’t feel so comfortable There were only nine of what I think should have been ten participants in attendance. But two or three seemed to dominate the discussion throughout. A few attempts were made by the moderator to include others but it was the squeakiest wheels that got most of the attention. I did manage to get a few words in on a couple of occasions but didn’t feel I made as much of a contribution this time. It’s interesting how differently both of these groups were run.

It was also interesting to note that most of those in attendance seemed to have vastly different attitudes to the subject than I did. I sometimes find it comes as a shock that what I think is a natural way of thinking isn’t the opinion of the general populace. We were given a chance to view some online content and provide input on website design and content during the last half hour and I found that the most interesting part of the session.

For my almost two hours of attendance, i was paid the rather generous sum of sixty dollars. It’s possible I may be asked to take part in additional research but i am doubtful that I will be compensated as well as this time if at all.