focus group facilitation

Focus groups are a fast and cost effective way to collect the Voice of the Customer. Collecting the VOC should occur throughout the product or service development cycle.  It should take place before a final concept is defined, before development, and after a product or service has been launched. 

IMPACTure uses a tried and true method for collecting the VOC. Focus group sessions are done in concert with product development team members so that an organization can learn the process and eventually conduct their own focus group. Our philosophy is that organizations DO NOT need to spend thousands of dollars to consultant and /or marketing research groups to get the data they need to design successful products and/or services.

Here's how we do it!

1. Choose customers who represent those that love you and those that hate you.  Customers who are the most critical of your product or service can sometimes give you the best feedback. 
2. Create a customer presentation.  The product development team will also need to put together an overview letting the customers know what you’re doing. 
1. The presentation should contain:
   1. Why you’re doing what you’re doing
   2. The focus group questions
   3. The evaluation criteria you will be using and a clear example of the evaluation criteria
3. Conduct the focus group session.  This is typically done with team members and a professional focus group facilitator.  If not all team members can attend, the most technical team members need to be in attendance.

Focus groups do not have to be complicated and expensive endeavors.  The trick is to capture “what” the customer needs with enough detail to determine “how” you’re going to meet that need.  You don’t want the customer to give you a product or service design solution.  Engineers, research & development employees and technicians in your organization should determine the design solutions.