Welcome back. Up to this point,
you have collected and analyzed your qualitative research data.
You dove into the various comments and interpreted themes and results.
Now, you need to compile your findings and develop a focus group report.
This report could be used to communicate with
your stakeholders and help make important decisions.
But first, we need to discuss the various components required for a focus group report.
At the end of this lesson,
you will be able to recall and describe the components of a focus group report.
Let's start with the introduction to the topic.
The introduction is important in setting
the stage of the entire report so the reader knows what to look forward to seeing.
The introduction to the topic summarizes the purpose of the research.
It's where you describe how you came upon the research,
what the problem is,
what made you decide to do the type of research
you chose whether it be quantitative or qualitative,
and how it will best answer the business question.
Usually the introduction will be one or two paragraphs, no longer.
There are only set requirements and length if you're planning to publish,
but not when you are delivering the report to the client.
Next, let's consider the section on background and methods for the focus group.
In the background and methods section,
you will want to discuss what type of qualitative research you decide to do,
and why you decide to do it.
You will also describe the methodology you chose for conducting the research.
This section explains the background about your methods for conducting the group,
which details the recruiting and screener types you use to get specific participants.
Also include details about where,
when, and how the focus group was conducted.
In our business case example,
we chose to do a focus group with 10 to 12 participants who were
20 to 30 years old and who were UC Davis students who also had a high end cell phone.
The background and method section would note this and explain that these demographics
represent a group of people we anticipate would be interested in the client's product.
Therefore they would be suitable to tell us what
those prospective customers are thinking about related to topics.
The purpose of this section is to let the reader know
exactly what was behind the finding you are about to impart.
Next comes the executive summary.
An executive summary is optional,
and sometimes it's called a top line report.
But sometimes a client will want this before or
even in lieu of a full focus group report.
This summary will cover all the main points and conclusions from the focus group.
However, it won't have quotes.
At most, the executive summary will be a few paragraphs.
The purpose is to give the client
a thumbnail summary of the major findings from the research.
Often, when publishing an article,
the executive summary will be used in the article as the abstract.
Next comes the body of your focus group report.
This is where you summarize the most important findings which will include the code,
the topic, theme, short paragraph about what you found, and the quotes.
After this comes the summary of important findings.
The summary paragraph is seen after the results and
before the recommendations as a way to reiterate the findings.
The purpose is to help the reader remember
the key points from what they had just read in the body of the report.
Next comes the limitations section.
The limitations section will discuss the general limitations of doing
qualitative research as well as
the limitations you discovered from conducting this particular research.
The purpose is to reveal that
your qualitative research is not generalizable to the entire public,
and be forthcoming about any problems you encountered while conducting the research.
There are no requirements for the length.
Lastly, you present your recommendations for your client.
This section usually includes recommendations for follow up
research in the form of more focus groups or a quantitative survey.
The recommendations section is used to suggest steps that would be best to cover
if the research is intended to fill a next gap in providing answers for your client.
The purpose is to justify conducting further research if
necessary to reach an optimal conclusion for the research project.
That gives you a brief overview of the component parts expected in a Focus Group report.
We will go on to learn a little about how to write each of these sections.