7 alternatives to focus groups

Photo by https://unsplash.com/@will_myers

Focus groups can seem like a quick and easy way to get a lot of insights in a short amount of time. You invite a group of people to a conference room, ask them some questions or ask them to give some feedback on your product.

The problem with using focus groups is that they can lead to subjective and shallow outcomes. There may be participants in the group that are the loudest and influence everyone else’s opinion and more importantly, people don’t always tell the truth in a group setting. If you discuss sensitive topics, you run the risk of people not wanting to share their experiences. Also, with limited time available per person, you may not learn as much about your users, their needs or the problem space.

Luckily there are lots of alternative methods you can use to get more robust insights.

Interviews

It could be that you’re not sure who your users are and want to know more about them. Doing one-to-one interviews with people will help you understand more about who your users are and how they’re doing things now. They will also allow you more time to build up a rapport with the participant and probe them for any extra details. To understand even more about their circumstances you can visit them in the space they are most likely to use your product, like in their homes or place of work. 

Usability testing 

If you’ve already built or prototyped something and you want to find out how easy it is for people to use or you want to validate recent changes or features, usability testing is the best method.  By observing 5 or 6 people using your product, you should start to see patterns and understand which  areas  cause problems for people. Usability testing is pretty straightforward to set up and you can even test remotely using screen sharing option in tools such as Zoom or Skype.

User journey mapping 

Maybe you are looking to understand more about how your user solves problems now and how your product or service can make a difference. Using user journey mapping can give you a step by step visual overview of what users do when faced with a problem and how they solve it, as well as an insight into gaps and opportunities. 

Preference/concept testing 

If you just want to get feedback on your new logo or a design mockup, preference testing is ideal. You can share your designs with a large sample of people individually and ask them to pick their favourite and why.  You can also ask people to describe the characteristics of your designs using a predefined set of words from the Microsoft Desirability Toolkit to reduce subjectiveness and improve the quality of your data 

A/B Testing

If you have 2 versions of a page or prototype and want to see which one is more effective, you can use an A/B test to show both variations of your design to people by randomising which version they see. A/B testing works well if you have something measurable to compare, such as if people clicked on a particular link or call-to-action.

5 Second test

First impressions count. We make quick judgements on a website within seconds and certain factors will affect our decision-making to stay or leave the site. By showing participants your design for 5 seconds and asking them what they recall, you can quickly find out if your website or product is doing a good job of communicating its purpose.    

Analytics

Analytics is an important tool in the toolkit and when we combine data from usability tests and other sources, such as comments or call logs, we can start to see the whole picture. Analytics can inform your user research strategy by identifying potential questions or problem areas to focus on, but it can also be used to validate (or invalidate) any issues you’ve identified during your testing. 

If you want to learn more about what research methods are best for your project, feel free to send us a message or email us at hello@userlab.co.uk