Focus groups are a strange mixture of planning and serendipity. For all the work that goes into choosing a facility, recruiting the respondents, and writing the discussion guide, you just never know what will happen once the talking begins. Respondents may confirm all of your worst fears, validate your hunches, or take the discussion in directions you never thought you’d go - all in the same two-hour span.

In her new book, The Mirrored Window: Focus Groups from a Moderator’s Point of View, veteran moderator Judith Langer tells what it’s like to go through every step of the often-unpredictable focus group process.

Early in the book she provides an explanation for the enduring power of the focus group. "Seeing and heating consumers only a few feet away has an effect that no set of statistics or written reports alone can have. It makes the abstract real because it is human and individual. Qualitative research offers not just an intellectual comprehension of consumers, but a vivid, visceral recognition that affects on a very deep level how companies see, feel about, and deal with their customers from then on."

Having shown us why focus groups are conducted, she then devotes the rest of the book to showing us how they are conducted. With humor and clarity, she covers the entire focus group process, from the decision to do groups to choosing a moderator, defining the research tasks, and analyzing the results.

She gives the reader some ~eat food for thought along the way:

  • Remember that, in many cases, the focus group participants are just plain folks, so they won’t get your marketing-speak. In other words, to use Langer’s examples, don’t have the moderator ask questions about the "aspirafional images" associated with relief from a migraine or about the "implementation" of a new office product.
  • Some clients may wish to withhold backgound data on the project from the moderator for security reasons, passing information along only on a need-to-know basis. But keeping them in the dark about the true end use of the research findings may keep the moderator from using all of his or her interviewing and analysis skills.
  • Clients must realize that they may not like what they hear in the groups. And moderators must be sensitive to the fact that it may be hard for the creative team, for example, to hear their ad concepts ripped to shreds.

The chapter "Moderating: The Listening Loop" is an in-depth look into the mind of the moderator, how she tackles the interviewing process, the phrasing of questions, the analysis of respondents’ answers, and dealing with problem participants.

Langer also includes an insightful chapter on techniques useful for going beyond the basic interviewing approaches. And the section on analyzing and presenting the results is also very detailed, offering nuts-and-bolts directions on everything from report organization to content dos and don’ts.

Equally illuminating is the section on the logistics of the focus group process (setting up the facility, recruiting, screening) which should give clients a good idea of the many things that must go right for a focus goup session to run smoothly.

It may be too much to ask someone who only occasionally sits in on a focus goup to read this book. But if you use focus goups frequently, or plan to start using them more, and want to know how a skilled moderator does her job, look into The Mirrored Window.