Group Dimensions is known for moderating dynamic discussions with carefully selected respondents:

¨        Quality focus group moderation.

¨        Scientific, reliable data analysis.

¨        Well-written and thorough reports.

¨        Realistic logistical advice and support.

¨        Development of powerful moderator’s guide, screeners, and recruitment tools.

¨        Complementary model building for program development.

¨        Flexibility and reasonable rates.

In addition to semi-annual focus group training workshops in the Washington, DC, area, we conduct on-site, tailor-made training workshops:

¨        We have developed on-site focus group training programs for NCQA, The World Bank, Brown University, U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Census Bureau, the United States Information Agency, the Urban Institute, and many social service agencies. 

¨        Our workshops explore focus group research as part of the social science research tradition, including:

¨        The relationship of focus groups to surveys, evaluation research, individual interviews, and other methods.

¨        The multiple uses of focus groups in institutional, professional, social, policy, and scholarly research.

¨        The application of focus group findings to marketing, membership development, consumer satisfaction, social policy, and program development.

¨        The scholarly literature on focus groups.

¨        Research design issues such as building group blueprints, sample selection, and how to screen and recruit participants.

¨        Ensuring reliability and validity.

¨        Development of the moderator's guide.

¨        Interpersonal communication theory.

¨        Group dynamics theory and training.

¨        Dealing with difficult participants.

¨        Working with tapes and transcripts.

¨        Interpretation and presentation of data.

¨        Writing top-line vs. Extensive reports.

¨        Ethical and technical issues.

¨        Working with clients, colleagues, support staff, and commercial facilities.

¨        Estimating costs and planning logistics.

Group Dimensions principals, Janet Mancini Billson and Norman T. London, facilitate conferences and social policy meetings.

¨        We have facilitated national meetings on such issues as privacy of medical records (National Committee for Quality Assurance) and integration of science education findings into public education curricula (The Chesapeake Institute).

¨        We also facilitate retreats for project officers (Agency for Health Care Policy Research, Canada-US Fulbright Commission).

Focus groups constitute a form of scientific social, policy, and public opinion research. 

¨        As structured group interviews that proceed according to careful research design and attention to the principles of group dynamics, focus groups should be distinguished from “discussion groups,” “problem-solving groups,” “buzz groups,” or “brainstorming groups.” 

¨        Focus groups are not designed to help a group reach consensus or to make decisions, but rather to elicit the full range of ideas, attitudes, experiences, and opinions held by a selected sample of respondents on a defined topic.

¨        The complexity of insights generated by focus groups extends far beyond the number of people involved or the cost of conducting them.

¨        Because of the small numbers involved, however, the participants cannot be expected to be thoroughly representative in a statistical sense of the target population from which they are drawn, and findings cannot reliably be generalized beyond their number.