How to Develop Focus Group Questions

I am writing questions for a focus group for a side project that I am doing.  I found this very simple guide on how to get started and what to focus the questions on and the group itself.

How to Develop Questions for a Focus Group

by Chris MacKechnie, Demand Media

Focus groups are an important market research tool companies use to gather feedback on their products and services. They provide an opportunity to have a conversation with a set of individuals to better understand their views and opinions. A facilitator can ask questions of the group, probe for more details, and prompt discussion between focus group members. One of the key aspects of a successful focus group is asking the right questions.

Items you will need

• Focus group facilities
• Video-camera or voice recorder

Step 1

Set your goals. It is important to identify the information you expect at the completion of the focus group. For example, if you design clothing, do you want the group to help set strategic direction, such as whether you introduce fitness apparel or smart-casual business clothing? Or do you want to reinforce your choice of fitness apparel and identify price-points, styles, and colors? It is easy to end a focus group with a muddle of opinions that don't form a cohesive part of a marketing strategy without setting goals first.

Step 2

Limit your questions. A common mistake many focus group novices make is trying to cram too many questions into a session. A 90-minute focus group with 10-12 participants shouldn't have more than five or six principal questions. Each question needs to be fully discussed, and will likely involve drilling down on particular ideas and comments. Plan on spending about 10 minutes on each topic.

Step 3

Start with open-ended questions. Your first set of questions should be designed to gain the big-picture insight. Open-ended questions ask for ideas and opinions, not simple one- or two-word responses. Asking a focus group participant what she thinks of a logo design is an open-ended question. Asking if she likes the color is a closed-ended question. Similarly, asking participants if they like pink track-pants might never uncover that yellow is their favorite. It is very easy for a focus group to be steered by the questions, which can cause skewed results and disingenuous opinions.

Step 4

Follow up with specific questions. Once your group has voiced their unprompted views, it is acceptable to ask specific questions. Does the group prefer elastic waist-bands on their workout attire or a draw-string? Are members of the group more drawn to safety features on an automobile or fuel economy? Probe for reasons for each opinion. Attendees could be choosing fuel economy because they feel contemporary automobiles are inherently safe, an opinion that can make a difference when the company sponsoring the focus group needs to allocate resources.

Step 5

Quantify. Focus groups offer opportunities to learn why people hold certain opinions. Your questions should try to capture the opinions of the entire group. It is very easy for one or two vocal attendees to drive the conversation of the session. To avoid this, probe to find out who within the group shares a particular opinion. Asking who prefers red and who prefers blue provides an opportunity for less vocal group members to weigh in on a discussion. Some insight can be gained if the opinions are universal across all participants or if opinions vary considerably.

How to Use the Power of Your Smiles to Your Advantage

Smiles, they're beautiful and yet freely given to everyone around you. A smile can never run out of style and out of mode for they are the best things one can ever wear.

Inexpensive too, smiles create an infinite impact on people and life in general. A smile given to the right person at the right time could influence what that person does next and the choices they make.

Smiles have the power to break down the cold walls of indifference and warm a lonely heart that's blue. Discover one of life's most constructive weapon and that's the power of your smile positioned for your own advantage.

Position your smile as the best rapport building tool. The smile is one of the most important strategies in dealing with people in all walks of life and is an important means for building and establishing rapport. Given the reality that our enjoyment of life depends to a great extent on how we manage and connect with people, a sincere smile is always the best strategy to build and establish rapport. The smile maintains attention, helps bolster open body language, and reassures the other person of your sincerity. Be the first to smile; don't wait for others!

Position your smile to break down walls of indifference. We all have our individuality and preferences as to what kind of people we'd like to hang out with. Sometimes people carry with them preconceived ideas about people and respond to them based simply on how they look, carry themselves, or dress. While this response of building invisible walls around a person for the sake of self-preservation is normal for many people, and is something to respect when interacting with others, it doesn't stop you from being able to use the smile as a way to melt the walls of indifference.

Use your smile to affect choices positively. A bad mood usually results in facial characteristics reflecting the negative feelings, including a frown, furrowed face lines, and perhaps a scowling demeanor. A smile changes the equation immediately. And in so doing, choosing to smile instead of frown can influence your choices about everything else you do that day. A smile can brighten your mood, improve your outlook, and lead you to make positive choices using sound and good judgment.

Change lives with your smile. Smile affects things and lives around us. People, pets, and even the systems in which we work and socialize are at the mercy of our treatment. When we smile, our mood brightens up and affects our responses towards both beings and objects. The positivity that emanates from relying on the smile to guide our way helps us to love our life, and to be inspired to treat others with kindness and compassion, realizing that all beings matter and that smooth-running systems make life easier. Our pets deserve our kindness, out wilting potted plants deserve watering and weeding, and the people we meet each and every day deserve our warmth and appreciation. The smile's after effect? Love, kindness, gentleness, goodness and compassion start to flow out from you as a perfectly natural response.

Position your smile to give hope. Some people find that when they are hurt and fall into despair, they tend to become negative and seek to manage the world so as to minimize their interactions to avoid being harmed again. In doing so, they can withdraw and find life meaningless and cruel. A well timed and caring smile could give such unhappy people a glimpse of hope as they see that another person does care and does find this life meaningful. A smile means that they can share that meaning. Lift their mood with your smile, the smile of hope.

Share your attitude. A smile could be an indication of a great attitude. Smiling is one of the best responses towards mistakes and failures; that kind of smile says "D'oh! I am so human!". Using humor in the face of shortcomings shows a great attitude and at the same time wisdom. Smile, brighten up and be wiser the next time around!

Know peace, share peace. A smile is a powerful tool for peace. It is a powerful gift and is one that can help to initiate and maintain peace through its expression of love, understanding, humility, and kindness. Smiles in the family create unity and acceptance; smiles in the face of danger express a determination to overcome hardship with a level head and a kind heart. Smiles can hold together a nation and a world, in peace. Smile, and it will be a great life ahead!

http://www.wikihow.com/Use-the-Power-of-Your-Smiles-to-Your-Advantage

Small Companies at Big Conventions?

Is it really worth the big expense for small companies to have a booth at Large Conventions? 

I don’t think so! 

Conventions seem to be a place for large manufacturers and distributors to show their wares for other industry leaders to see and to show how well they are doing. I know that when some of our manufacturers have not shown up at conventions that they usually go to then everybody is talking about how bad they must be doing and so on.  This show is also for the attendees to see as well and not necessarily to sell products at the convention itself.  This doesn’t mean that personnel from the small companies should'nt go to these conventions and that’s actually my recommendation.  Go to the convention and interrelate but don’t spend the sometimes astronomical sums for booth space.

Ride on the back of a larger company….Let them do the work for you…Work smarter and not harder!

 

How to Survive Cadaver Lab!

We through our new company employee into a cadaver lab a couple of weeks ago to learn about head and neck anatomy much to his delight.  He relished the opportunity and as you can tell by the picture he is suited up and ready to go.  I found these cadaver lab guideline below at Ehow.com.

One of the rites of passage for any medical student is going through anatomy lab, which can include studying cadavers. While dissecting a human cadaver for the first time might be exhilarating for some, it can be a real challenge for others. When approached with the right frame of mind, dissecting a human cadaver can be an extremely instructive experience.

Know what dissection you will be performing before you go to cadaver lab.

Eat before you start dissecting.

Begin your cadaver lab session quickly upon entering the lab.

Share the cadaver dissection work with your lab partners.

Spray your cadaver with moistening solution before leaving cadaver lab.

Review the dissections you performed

Tips & Warnings

·         Wear two sets of gloves on each hand. The solutions you deal with can penetrate a single pair of gloves after a couple of hours. This can make your next meal extremely unpleasant.

·         If you are extremely sensitive to the smell of the cadaver lab, wipe a bit of vapor rub under your nose.

5 Points in Lecturing on a Specific Topic!

5 Points to Lecturing on a Specific Topic!

Engage

Prepare

Encourage Curiosity

Challenge

Create Expectations

TMJ Cranio Pain Course this week....

At a TMJ Cranio Pain course this week and getting really into CBCT with the lecture and the workshop.  The CT technology in Dentistry has really come on strong.  We can see so much more for the patinets benefit.

"3D Cone-Beam CT and Neuromuscular Occlusion"

Below is a course the description that is being offered by Imaging Systems and headed by the Mr. Richard Greenan (main speaker).  This course is a non-LVI course but it is taking place at their beautiful facilities in Las Vegas. If you want to learn more please email me at chris@goodxrays.

This course will present information regarding what to look for on CBCT scans and how to obtain optimum results through proper controls and image manipulation. Participants will receive the latest guidelines and protocols for accurate Cervical, TMJ, Airway and Implant procedures along with an enhanced understanding of the norms, 3D head and neck anatomy. Emphasis will be placed on both image manipulation and interpretation. The pros and cons of CBCT Imaging and soft tissue liabilities will be discussed.

The objectives of this consult are for the participant to be able to:

•      Utilize techniques for manipulation of 3D CT images for better results

•      Implement procedures for CBCT scans for proper Cervical, Airway, TMJ and Implant diagnosis

•      Understand how to properly map all axial TMJ images and create the necessary report

•      Use 3rd Party Software, Invivo, IVisions, etc for accurate and volumetric airway studies

•      Understand how to interpret CTs and MRIs for false positives and false negatives

•      How to correlate X-Ray findings with clinical EMG’s and jaw tracking

FACULTY

•      Richard W. Greenan

•      Christopher Thornburgh

           

Bone Grafting

I participated in a x-ray sales and x-ray consultant role for a 3 day bone grafting course.  The course consisted of lecturing and 3 surgeries.  Great course and the docs were really pumped to get back to their practices to do some bone grafting.  The enthusiasm was excellent and the best I have seen in a while.

Gas Prices are UP....So are Electric Car Dealers

I was in Chicago and ran across a Tesla Dealer at a mall http://www.teslamotors.com/ .  I was surprised as I was under the impression that these were speacial order only at the moment. Here was a manufacturer of electric high performance vehicles with a store at an upper scale mall.  I took this picture rite before closing so there was nobody in the store.

Ortho for General Dentist with X-Ray Lecture

In Chicago for Ortho for the GP and giving a Panoramic and Cephalometric X-ray Basics.  Great course if your wanting to expand your practice into Ortho.  The weather was horrible though and getting out of there and headed to my next designation was tuff and involved a very late flight and a cancelled flight.  I have never had  good experience out of Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Cant be just Me!

Reward Yourself for Hard Work!

Rewarding yourself is very important sais Ken Austin (See his link below).  I took him up on his writing and went fly-fishing after coming back from Alabama.  had such a relaxing time and landed a few wild North Georgia trout.

When you are working for yourself or towards a goal, it is essential to reward your own hard work and achievements.  It is important to reward yourself when you reach any goal because:

It feels good
It will motivate you further
It shows you are making progress
It is a reminder that working hard pays off
It celebrates the achievement of a goal
It helps you to measure your progress

Ken Austin runs a website dedicated to motivation and self improvement. One of the subjects covered is "Staying Motivated and Achieving Your Goals."

Successful Installation and Training in Alabama

Another Successfull Volumetric Dental Xray Unit installed and trained.  The doctor had a beautiful new Porsche GTS Carrera so I had to throw that pic in for all the car lovers out there.

Social Media PowerPoint Presentation Download

Here is a great Social Media PowerPoint by Matt Winn.  Its great at getting the point across as to how important Social Media is now to a product, product line or service.  You can download it at http://www.slideshare.net/Volusion/social-media-your-fashions-online-success

Another Happy Customer and a Great Install

Back at the Westin in Atlanta to dine with a Customer!

I have to say that I was so impressed by the rotating restaurant at the top of the Westin from last week’s sleep meeting that I decided to go back to host a dinner and meeting for a potential customer.  The views are fantastic of our wonderful city but it’s not so distracting and leads to good conversation.  If you ever in Atlanta I highly recommend it.

In my backyard for a Sleep Course! Atlanta

Lecturing on Measuring Airway in 2D and 3D with CBCT for Dentist.  Havent been to the Westin since the tornado came through a couple of years ago and blew out half the windows.  The place looks Great!

It's going to be an exciting 2012 at the Las Vegas Institute

This year will prove very interesting and exciting at the Las Vegas Institute.  A lot of new Things so hopefully will keep everybody in the loop when it's appropriate to release the details!

First CE Course of the Year!

First CE Course of the Year is a Ortho for GP course.  Hopefully start some momentum to carry into the rest of the year.....

Finally Installing End-of-Year 2011 Sales

Well its an extremely busy beginning of the year for me.  Getting all the end-of-year sales installed and trained up.  Its tough to be gone for 2 weeks straight after being with family and friends during the long holiday break.  Its tough to keep your health up as well.  I have not been able to exercise as much as I want due to travel, weather, being busy, etc.....  That’s my excuse!

First Trip of the New Year

First trip of the New Year.  I was rewarded by a fantastic view of the Grand Canyon and a first class upgrade.  I have noticed that Delta is on a GREEN Campaign already and they have these neat little bamboo trays.  It works and I am hooked on their GREEN Campaign even though the engine I am sitting next to is I am sure chewing up tons of fuel and exhausting tons of bad stuff. 

For my followers I hope that you are all having a fantastic New Year.