Previously, I talked about when in-person focus groups were planned and our flights to Colombia were canceled due to COVID-19 mere hours before takeoff. We had to pivot quickly and, while stressful, we learned a few valuable lessons. A few months later when in-person focus groups were still not possible, we were still learning lessons…
Untold Research was responsible for carrying out virtual focus groups in Chile. These focus groups took place in Santiago and Antofagasta with men and women who had previously been identified as the movable middle. The purpose of the sessions was to understand which social justice topics were more relevant to them, how they understood them, and how important it was for them for these issues to be addressed during Chile’s constitutional reform.
While technology allowed for focus groups to take place, it also came with new challenges. For example, maintaining participants’ attention was much harder than when conducting in-person groups as they can be easily distracted by their environment (e.g. kids playing, pets, the doorbell, etc.) The moderator role not only must keep an eye on the time, promote conversation, and keep participants on topic, but also keep everyone engaged and away from distractions. During these sessions, Untold Research once again learned a few things:
1) Keep groups to a maximum of six people in order to be able to see everyone on one screen and keep track of everyone’s participation;
2) Double check there aren’t any important events happening the same day/hour as this can be highly distracting. In this case, a soccer match was taking place and one of the men’s groups lost focus for a while;
3) Participatory techniques help keep participants engaged. For remote groups, we’ve found success with mixing open discussion with close-end questions (show of hands or a poll) and exercises where each participant must give input.
4) Require and explain why having the camera on is essential, once participants understand the moderator also learns from their body language, they are more than willing to keep it on and participate.
5) The local partner should always be in charge of recruitment and logistics, namely, to verify participants have a stable internet connection. A poor internet connection can render a virtual focus group useless, so testing connections before and on the day of the focus group is essential.
6) Overrecruit the groups and have back-up participants waiting in the wings. While this is a common practice, it becomes even more important for virtual groups as even more distractions and unforeseen issues may arise, preventing participants from logging in or participating fully.
As the pandemic continues, some countries are open for in-person research and others are not, preferring techniques that leverage technology like phone and online interviews and virtual focus groups. Untold Research continues to adapt to changes out of its control and to explore new ways of conducting research. In the first quarter of 2022, Untold Research will conduct virtual focus groups where people from different countries will log into the same group. Stay tuned to what this new experience will add to our growing list of lessons learned while conducting research during a global pandemic.