Advantages and disadvantages of focus groups
Advantages:
• Like open-ended interviews, the participants are able to raise their
own issues that they feel are important.
• Unlike one-on-one interviews, focus groups allow the interviewer to be
less intrusive, and discussion can take its own direction – people are
often more candid and spontaneous in a group discussion.
• Discussion among focus group participants can generate new
information and raise new issues providing a range of responses with
useful information.
Disadvantages:
• Focus groups should be run by a skilled facilitator and often by an
outsider to the program.
• Since focus groups work best with 4 to 10 people, organizing groups
and motivating people to attend may be difficult.
• The group dynamic may silence some, especially dissenting opinions.
• May be expensive and time-consuming to conduct and transcribe, and
require either a trained note taker or transcription of tapes.
• Usually not quantitative, and usually not generalizable samples.