Welcome back. Now, that you have transcribed
your focus group ensuring every word was correctly captured,
you now have the task of interpreting and analyzing your data.
In this process, you will be combining your transcript and
your notes as a prelude to conducting analysis.
The analysis component is made up of parts.
The first part is to go through the transcript and bring out themes.
Then, you want to look through the transcript and
read the notes you took while you were conducting the focus group.
You're noticing if they would enhance the flavor of your interpretation of the group.
But don't worry, I will show you how to do this.
After this lesson, you will be able to explain the process for
interpreting notes from a focus group and add focus group notes to the analysis.
Let me show you what I mean.
During our focus group, a discussion started up about how
social media communication may actually misinterpret actual feelings of the individual.
Almost all participants entered into this discussion.
I had intended to cover this topic at the end of the group but I
went with the flow when a participant started this discussion.
While they talked about this emotional issue,
they also covered various apps they use on the cell phone.
This turned out to be the best discussion of the group.
I have put in my notes participant change direction of the group.
If I just read the transcript verbatim I wouldn't have known the direction was changed.
This is something I might want to include in the final analysis and the report.
Further on, I will give you
a practice activity where you can pick a paragraph from the focus group transcript,
highlight key words or quotes,
and put the theme in the margin.
In preparation for that,
let me show you how to do it.
Here's a paragraph I took from our focus group.
As you can see I highlighted quotes that I considered
good examples of key points made during the discussion.
I also made notes along the margin of the transcript that signifies who is talking,
male or female, and the topic area,
and a few words to summarize the points they were making.
Let's begin with some best practices for using focus group
quotes your aim is to find quotes to highlight in your report.
Here are guidelines to select quotes.
Make sure it provides a key point.
Select quotes that drive the point home.
Several quotes might mention one or two aspects of what the discussion was
about choose one that provides an interesting viewpoint to support the topic.
Sometimes, if an active discussion ensues and many quotes seem worthy of including,
you might extract each quote you think is valuable.
Put them in an Excel file under the column heading, the quote supports.
Then review the quotes later to pick the best one.
Before selecting quotes, go through and decide on the points you aim to highlight.
Then, only, use quotes that are needed to back up the key point you are trying to make.
Center the quote to make it stand out from the explanation.
Put the quote in italics and/or use
quote marks to illustrate the words are exactly what the person said.
The quote should be verbatim,
but do not identify the person who made that statement by name.
That would violate the confidentiality agreement.
In the process of interpreting focus group notes,
as you incorporate them into the transcript,
you will identify key points made in the focus group.
Then you will select quotes to illustrate the point you want to make.
For example, my notes show that
one key point from the group is that people like the features of the camera on
the iPhone because they can take pictures and
then they're easy to import into other Apple devices.
So when I reviewed the transcript to find this quote,
I look for the topic of features people like the most.
Since many people mentioned the camera,
I try to find the best quote capturing specific details of what they liked.
So I selected this quote which mentions the type of phone she uses,
and how she likes the camera feature the best,
and how it connects to her other devices.
She said, "I have an iPhone 6S.
I like the camera.
I like it because it connects to my Mac and music.
It's just easy and I have Apple everything.
So Team iPhone."
Be vigilant to protect the confidentiality of those in your focus group.
You promised participants to protect the confidentiality,
so keep identification general not specific.
For example, from our focus group I chose a quote to use for the report.
Notice I did not name the person,
but rather said female participants stated.
Or you put in parentheses, participant female.
Using notes adds life to
your word for word transcript that only you and your assistant will remember.
This usually provides important flavor to your report.
So I usually read over my notes immediately following the group.
That helps me capture important information that may get lost in transcription.
For instance, during our focus group on cell phones,
I chose to switch the direction of
my planned questions because someone made a comment about how posts on
Facebook and text messages don't convey
true meaning of what really is happening in that person's life.
I captured this in my notes as a note to self,
and then switched the direction of the group accordingly.
I went with the flow of this emotional comment and asked
others how they felt by saying, "Others?"
The topic brought up many interesting examples.
They played into each area of discussion about
a variety of apps used on a cell phone including emojis,
social media, texting, Skype,
WhatsApp and so on.
This is an example of how a skilled moderator that can adapt to the flow of the group,
but stay on point and make sure all questions get covered happens.
Topics that yield an emotional response can
serve as good material for quotes to back up your summary.
Pay attention to what people are saying
and the looks on their faces of others as the person talks.
Take notes about the reaction as well as what is said.
Note when someone else starts to say something.
You will want to go back to that person and sometimes you might say,
"I see that you need to say something,
let's go to this person first, then you, then you."
Later, these notes can be integrated into
your transcript analysis to give flavor to your report.
Now that we have combined our transcript and notes,
we will move into the analysis phase.
It is very important to look at the transcript objectively.
Read the entire transcript from beginning to end several times.
Look to see how themes are drawn out.
Then consider how the notes and quoting guide, recording themes, etc.
fits with what focus group participants actually discussed.
Susan BermanPresident, Impact Research
