Top 10 Reasons For User Focus Groups
- Fresh Perspective – Remember? You’ve
looked over the product subject matter to a point where you can no longer look
at it totally objectively. Other people will give you a fresh perspective...
- Criticism – You need it. I need it. Constructive
or otherwise, delving into the good and bad points of a product or project
is necessary. It is up to a project leader to learn and integrate the
input of the outside world or customer base to ultimately temper the
quality and appropriateness of the design.
- Knowledge/Experience – Everyone you meet will
have had some experience that will pertain to your product or program
in one way or another…
- Expertise – If you have chosen representatives
of the field of your product, chances are they have some expertise you
don’t have… That’s OK, design does not occur in a
vacuum!
- Opinions – There is no way of knowing what
a mind is capable of in terms of viewpoints on future directions, feelings,
biases and psychological factors. Multiply that by all the people in
the world.
- New Direction/Attitude – So maybe you have
been doing it all wrong and you need someone to drive you back to the
“drawing board”. That’s OK too, the fact that you
are willing to change is a good sign.
- Buy-in/Constructive – Maybe you’ve done
all your homework and have established something that is a hit right
off the bat…You still need the outside buy-in to fuel your progress
in this direction.
- Better Market Penetration/Positioning – Know
your target market. If your Product(s) embody a wider range of warm
and fuzzy factor it may very well appeal to a wider market sector.
- Protection/Liability – Even if your user focus
group isn’t someone like the F.A.A.. It is important that you
have based your problem solution on the support of witnesses who have
seen, heard and judged it to be safe. The wider the range of experts
the better…
- More Heads Are Better Than One – Bottom line…
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