Group Discussions: How to Adjust from Interviewing One to Moderating Many

You are a seasoned interviewer, have conducted hours of user interviews and are now facing your first group discussion? Interviewing one person suddenly turns into moderating many. Scaling up from only one participant to six, eight, or even ten can be scary. Many facilitation techniques are similar, yet there are a few things that you need to do differently. But no worries, here are my 7 tips that will help you through your first groups.

Tip #1: Be picky about participants

Whilst you can always end an 1:1 interview early if the participant turns out unfit, you need to be picky right from the beginning of a group discussion. So, who do you exclude?

For any group discussion, it is common to recruit more people than you actually need. This is the so called ‘over recruitment’. Often, people don’t show up. For a session with eight participants, I always plan with two participants on top.

This means, you have a comfortable buffer in case of no-shows. On the other hand, you might end up with more participants than needed.

Now, you must decide quickly who to send home. You might ask ‘Why not do the group with ten instead of eight participants?’ Don’t do it. It will mess up the carefully planned timing of your discussion guide. Ten people discussing a matter take way longer than eight people discussing the same matter.

How to screen out? I follow a step-by-step approach:

1. No frequent flyers: In case I have a participant whom I already know from previous studies or who indicates they often participate in research, I screen them out. I don’t enjoy having semi-professional participants in my group discussions who hop from one research project to another. I never know whether they really meet my recruitment criteria or if they just learned how to work the system with fake responses. Sad to say, but there are many of those research hoppers. Even with the best intend, they can really spoil a study with fake input or ambitiously trying to outperform the less experienced participants.

2. No bad hair days: My second criterion is whether I feel the participant is ‘fit’ to participate today: Someone has a cold or appears intoxicated? First thing they tell you is something that went wrong today (e.g., “I just lost my purse in the subway.”)? They already behave edgy with my team during paperwork and technical preparations? Terrible internet connection? Maybe not the best day to participate in my group discussion.

3. Good mix of socio-demographics: Quite often, I am looking for a good mix of ages, genders, living situation, etc. If all my participants show up, some traits might be over-represented, and I can screen out some people who are too similar.

4. Keep what sparks my interest: If all my participants show up, I can look into interesting combinations of my specific recruitment criteria which I feel might be beneficial for the group discussion. Something that is really interesting to me and that I want to have in my group for contrast. For example, this could be a quite rare brand preference, an exotic platform used, or an extreme user with excessive time investment into the product.

Of course, I am very polite when I reject the participants I screened out. Usually, I say:

“Thank you all for joining and being on time. We always invite more people than we can include. That’s my safety net. I want to make sure to have the number of people in the group I planned on. And we try to have a good mix of different people. So unfortunately, X and Y won’t be able to participate today. Not joining today does not mean that someone did anything wrong. Instead, see it as a little lottery win – you still receive your reward and additionally get some paid time off. I am looking forward to seeing you next time.”

Tip #2: Put more emphasis on ground rules

You must make sure that everyone has their say. For that reason, I will have to give more guidance than in a 1:1.

As such, I start each and every group with the same intro, covering the same topics but phrased according to the situation and my participants:

“There are X people in this group, and it is my job to make sure that everyone gets a chance to speak and that we finish our conversation in time. So, I want to warn you at this point and please do not take it personally or hold it against me. What will happen:

I might interrupt you and ask someone else to have a say – as it is my job that everyone is able to raise their voice.

You don't have to convince each other. I look forward to different views and a lively discussion.

I might interrupt you and say, ‘Let’s go to the next topic’. This does not mean that I am not interested in what you are saying, but that I keep an eye on the time.”

This sounds awkward? I am setting the scene so that nobody feels disrespected by my moderation. When starting with such an intro, everyone understands that it is my job to ensure a flawless conversation where everyone has a say. Clarifying this upfront is a real game-changer.

Tip #3: Call them by their names

During group discussions, I always work with participant names. I need them to moderate properly. I might call out “Jim, what’s your take on this?” or politely stop someone “Tim, let’s start with someone else having the first say.” If I don’t have the names, I cannot use this little moderation tool. How do I remember the names?

In face-to-face situations, you could work with name tag. I personally don’t like that. Instead, I scribble a little overview of the table and note down who sits where during the introduction. Being able to address someone who gave me their name 60 minutes ago - without a name tag - is quite impressive and engaging for participants. They get the feeling that I really see them and that I am paying attention to what they have to say (which I am). If the name is noted down on a name tag, I lose this opportunity to build rapport.

In a remote setup, names are often visible underneath the participant’s tile. Yet, I still note them down. Sometimes, the displayed name is just an alias. And I also had to learn that some video conferencing tools do not display the names all the time. Which is a serious problem, because without names, there is no body-language in the world that can help me address a specific person in the remote call. And I must admit, 90 minutes into a group, I cannot remember all names. So, I note down the names at the beginning and add a little visual cue because I cannot rely on the order of the tiles. For example: Lisa (black shirt), Victoria (yellow background) or Sandy (big glasses). I am looking for an anchor which allows me to quickly identify my participants.

Tip #4: Use the informal address

There are less occasions in English where this makes a difference, however it does in German, French, Italian, and in many other languages. There is not only “Dr Smith”, “Mr Smith” or “John”, but also a formal and informal way of saying “you”. And in many cultures, the formal address is quite commonly used among strangers, workmates and even neighbours.

Yet, I nearly always use first names and informal address for my participants. I just ask at the beginning of each group whether this is fine for all participants (it always has been). Whilst some other moderators prefer to ‘feel the room’ before picking the formal or informal address for an individual interview, I find the informal address a powerful tool, especially for group moderation. I deliberately go to the informal address, as again, I can use it as a way of bonding and bringing this group of strangers together.

Tip #5: Interrupt more

It is your job to make sure that none of the participants hijacks the group with an opinion and silences others. You need to make sure that everyone is heard. As such, you need to take more control over the course of conversation than you might do normally.

When you see me moderating a group, you will hear me interrupting participants quite often – in a polite and charming way. And as you already learnt in my previous tips, I use the first names for it and always keep a twinkle in the eye, so that the participants do not hold it against me:  

“Samantha, I love it passionate you are about the topic. I am curious what Linda thinks about it.”

“Matthew haven’t heard from you in a while. What do you think?”

I know, interrupting others can feel harsh and impolite in the beginning. However, sorry to say, you will need to learn that. Do it politely, do it with a joke, or with a compliment. Find your own style. I know that we were raised not to interrupt in personal conversations… but in a group discussion you will have to interrupt and go on. Otherwise, you will never finish on time or won’t cover even close to the material you wanted to cover.

Tip #6: Rely less on your memory

In an 1:1 interview situation, I am quite good at remembering 45 or 60 minutes into the interview what my interview partner told me. With six or eight people in front of me, I am losing track (and I am honestly admitting it). As such, in a group situation, I take way more notes. You are prepared and you know which topics will come up later in the discussion. Someone mentions something in the beginning which might be of interest to prompt later? Note it down next to the name (remember, I took note of their names in the beginning).

Let me give you an example: When I know that the visuals I will present later on show people being outside and one participant introduces herself as ‘nature lover’ whereas another one talks only about indoor activities, I note that down. If later on the reaction to the material is very diverse, I can enquire

“You told me in the beginning that you rather like to spend your time indoors. What role does that play when you judge this image?”

Apart from you gaining richer insights when you connect the judgements of your participants to their personal context, this again builds a stronger bond as it makes them feel heard and seen.

Tip #7: Ask the right questions

Ok, you got me. This tip is no different to what I would recommend you for 1:1 interviews. If you want to learn more about preparing questions for an interview, user test, or group discussion, check our online courses on How to do user interviews and our 10 pro tips for your interview guide.

Need more help? Stay tuned or reach out if you have specific research challenges. We can include them in our upcoming blog pieces or online courses.