15 Tips for a Better Bulletin Board Focus Group
Your client is pleased, but your participants are burned out. Your focus group is having fun, but you’re not getting the feedback you want. You think the session went great, but your client is disappointed. Can the participants, the online moderator and the client all be happy? They can–and these 15 ideas for a better bulletin board focus group can help:
1. Write clear instructions: The instructions are the first thing your participants will see when logging in, so make sure they’re clear, concise and correct. Consider attaching the instructions as a pop-up image, so that participants can keep them open on their screen as they participate. If it’s your first board, upload your instructions early and have a colleague or coworker do a brief run-through beforehand to ensure they make sense.
2. Be conversational and informal: It doesn’t pay to be formal and stiff with your questions. The best insight comes from an informal conversation. And don’t be afraid to infuse a little humor.
3. Make an engaging introduction: Go over expectations, but also welcome each participant individually, introduce yourself and share some information about your life. That way they know there’s a real a person on the other side of the project.
4. Warm them up: After your introduction, ask participants to share some information about their lives, such as where they live or their favorite vacation spot. Then, respond to their posts. It may seem like just small talk, but in fact you’re modeling the interactions – easy and comfortable and informal – that you’d like to see from them.
5. Mix up the style of questions: Keep participants engaged throughout the project by mixing up the style of questions. Changing formats requires them to concentrate on what’s being asked, instead of just going through the motions.
6. Communicate your presence: Even though you might not be logged in when your participants are, it’s important to give them reminders throughout the day that you’re there, that you’re listening and that you appreciate their participation. Post “head-nods” during the project and send a daily thank-you to participants who are following instructions and making insightful posts.
7. Encourage participant interaction: If you want participants to interact with each other, include that as part of the written instructions. Also, model that behavior and praise participants when you see it happen. Finally, remind participants at the beginning of each day that you’d like them to not only share their own thoughts, but also reflect on what others are saying.
8. Encourage participants to go back and review new posts: One of the many benefits of a bulletin board focus group is that it’s asynchronous – meaning participants can work at their own pace. The downside of that is that one participant may have moved on before other participants have a chance to weigh in on that particular question. Encourage participants to go back to previous sections and look at and respond to what others may have said after them.
9. Incorporate various elements into the board: Not only should you change the style of the questions you pose, but also consider adding different elements to the discussion throughout the board. You could add a short pop-up quantitative survey, or show visuals and images instead of text-based stimuli.
10. Use group names to help identify participants: Design your dashboard so that you’re quickly able to tell who’s who. Assign those logged in to groups, like client vs. non-client, new customer vs. old customer, etc. Participants or clients won’t be able to see the classifications.
11. Keep the board open a few extra days: After the board officially ends, keep it open for a few days if you can. This will allow stragglers to catch up, or let participants go back and review their answers or post supporting photos or videos.
12. Encourage expression of feeling: LOL! J ALL CAPS, bold, italic, underline, bold italic underline. You get the picture. Since you can’t hear the inflection in their voices when they’re typing text-based answers, encourage participants to rely on other ways to express their feelings–through web abbreviations, emoticons and font treatments. Posting videos and photos also can help convey the expression of feeling.
13. Monitor participation carefully: Obviously, you should be logging in several times a day to prompt and respond to participants, but beyond that, pay attention to how many posts participants are making and how much time they’re spending per day. Depending on the platform you use (we recommend QualBoard!), that information should be readily available in your dashboard. Participants who don’t seem engaged might benefit from an email reminder from you or a follow-up call from the recruiter.
14. Keep client team involved: If your client isn’t observing the boards as they happen, update them regularly (twice a day isn’t too much) and include highlights from recent sessions.
15. Ask for feedback on the process: At the end of the final day, ask your participants for feedback. Or, consider following up with them after it’s finished. The same goes for the client. Consider holding a comprehensive review once the project is completed; for longitudinal studies, you might want to check in a few times while the project is still ongoing.
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