Sometimes our clients need specific feedback about one or two troublesome case questions (e.g., how they can most effectively present the science involved in a series of cases). Issue-specific focus groups are ideal for getting precise answers to these questions.
- For a typical issue-specific focus group, we will recruit and carefully screen a group of participants from the venue or a surrogate venue.
- Participants are instructed in a way that encourages them to provide their ideas, rather than to act as “jurors” or decision-makers in the case.
- Participants hear a brief summary of the case, then an extensive presentation of the issue in question.
- Participants are divided into groups to be interviewed about how they would improve these presentations. The goal of this interview is to emerge with a clear answer to the client’s questions (e.g., here are the case themes, the evidence, and the visuals necessary to present the science case most effectively).