Learn how to conduct effective focus group discussions for your research. This step-by-step guide covers planning, facilitation, and analysis to help African scholars gather meaningful insights.
If you’ve ever been part of a lively group conversation where ideas bounced around the room and one comment sparked five more, then you already have a sense of what a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) feels like. In research, FGDs are a powerful tool to tap into people’s shared experiences and collective thinking—but they need to be done thoughtfully to actually give you useful insights.
In this post, I’ll break down what FGDs are, why they’re valuable, and how you can conduct them without getting lost in the weeds.
What Exactly is a Focus Group Discussion?
FGDs were first used in market research—companies wanted to understand what customers thought about their products. Over time, the method migrated into the social sciences and community research. Instead of just asking individuals one-on-one, FGDs bring together a small, relatively homogenous group (for example farmers from one area or women from a certain age group) to discuss a topic with guidance from a facilitator.
Unlike surveys or even key informant interviews, the magic of FGDs lies in interaction. People respond not just to your questions but also to each other. This allows you to capture how opinions are formed, challenged, or reinforced within a group.
Why Use FGDs?
Here are some advantages:
- Efficiency: You hear from multiple people at once, rather than conducting 10 separate interviews.
- Rich data: The group dynamic often brings out deeper insights—participants remind each other of details, challenge each other, or build on ideas.
- Flexibility: FGDs can be adapted to different settings, group sizes, or facilitation styles.
- Inclusivity: They give communities a voice, especially when you’re interested in collective experiences or traditional knowledge.
But here’s the catch: while FGDs are powerful, they’re also complex. Without careful planning, they can easily become unfocused or superficial.
How to Conduct Focus Group Discussions in 5 Simple Steps
Step 1: Designing Your Group
FGDs aren’t “one size fits all.” You’ll need to make decisions about:
- Group size – Typically 6–12 participants is a good balance. Too few, and you won’t get much diversity of opinion. Too many, and quieter voices may get drowned out.
- Who’s in the group – Homogenous groups (for example, all smallholder farmers or all young mothers) often work best, because people feel more comfortable sharing. Sometimes, separating groups by gender or age makes discussions more open.
- Number of groups – One FGD is rarely enough. You keep going until you reach “saturation”—when new groups stop producing new ideas. A rough rule of thumb is 10–12 groups, but it depends on your project.
Be mindful of how you recruit participants. Relying too much on a single local contact can create a “gatekeeper effect,” where one person decides who gets to speak. This risks leaving out important voices.
Step 2: Preparing Your Questions
Like Key Informant Interviews, FGDs should use a semi-structured guide. Prepare a set of open-ended questions but allow room for natural conversation. Some examples:
- “Can you tell me about how farming has changed in your community over the past 10 years?”
- “What challenges do families face when dealing with long dry spells?”
- “What ideas have worked well in adapting to these changes?”
The goal isn’t to march through a checklist but to spark discussion. Think of yourself as a host nudging the conversation along.
Step 3: Facilitating the Discussion
Good facilitation makes or breaks an FGD. If possible, get an experienced facilitator or translator to assist. Here are some tips to help you and your facilitator to provoke a good discussion:
- Set the scene: Create a comfortable, neutral space. Explain the purpose and reassure participants that there are no right or wrong answers.
- Encourage everyone to talk: Watch out for dominant voices and manage them to avoid silencing other voices with potentially differing perspectives that can enrich the discussion. Politely draw quieter participants in with questions like, “What do you think about that?”
- Stay neutral: Your job is to guide, not to lead. Avoid signalling approval or disapproval.
- Track the flow: Pay attention not just to what’s said but how the discussion evolves—what sparks agreement, disagreement, or laughter.
Having a note-taker or recording (with consent) helps capture details you might miss.
Step 4: Analyzing the Data
This is where many FGDs fall short. Too often, researchers just pull out a few quotes to support survey findings and move on. But real value lies in analysing the interaction itself. This can be done through software (some of which are free) like NVivo, MAXQDA, and QDA Miner to analyse themes and content. Analysis can include:
- How did opinions shift during the conversation?
- Were some voices consistently dominant?
- Did minority views emerge—and were they acknowledged or silenced?
- What underlying values or beliefs came out?
Simply counting how many people said something isn’t enough. What matters is the context of the discussion and how meaning was co-constructed in the group.
Step 5: Knowing the Limits
FGDs are great, but they’re not always the right tool. They’re less useful if you need precise data (like household income levels) or if the topic is too sensitive for people to discuss openly in a group. Also, remember that what people say in a group may not fully reflect what they do in private.
Think of FGDs as one piece of the puzzle, often best used alongside surveys and interviews.
Conclusion
Focus Group Discussions bring people together, guide the conversation, and see what ideas emerge when people talk to each other. When done well, they provide insights you’d never get from numbers alone.
But they also require planning, skilled facilitation, and careful analysis. If you approach FGDs as more than just a box to tick, they can open a window into how communities think, interact, and make sense of the world.
So next time you’re designing a research project, don’t just ask individuals—bring people together and let the conversation flow. You might be surprised at what you discover.
