In addition to the traditional forms of qualitative research, Nobles Research is now offering online bulletin board focus groups to help clients obtain the insights they seek.

What is a Bulletin Board Focus Group (BBFG)?

A BBFG is very similar to a message board or chat room. It is comprised of participants who have been recruited according to your screening criteria to participate in a discussion online. Respondents are recruited in the same way as for traditional focus groups. Discussions can be designed to last as long as needed to accomplish the research objectives. However, 3 to 7 days are the most common lengths.

A minimum number of participants for an active group would be 10. However, groups can be as large as you wish.

What makes a BBFG unique from other tools is that the respondents need not be present at the same time. Participants can "log-in" at times convenient to them to take part in the discussion. As a result participants often provide more in-depth feedback and well thought out responses.

Discussion Flexibility

The BBFG allows three types of discussions that can be used through the entire group.

1-on-1 Interview - This type of discussion allows the moderator to communicate to each person individually. The participants are prevented from seeing the responses of others.

Uninfluenced Response - In this setting the respondents answer the moderator's question and then after responding are allowed to view and comment on the responses of others.

Group Discussion - In this format the respondents see each other's responses as soon as they are posted.

Time and Travel Savings

In today's time-challenged corporate environment, BBFGs offer substantial time and travel savings. A BBFG allows you to interact with people all over the country, even the world without leaving your desk.

The entire project team can view the discussion online. In addition, team members can also type in comments to one another that are seen only by the observers and not the participants.

Potential Uses for Bulletin Boards

Product Usage Study
A bulletin board can be an effective tool for helping you gather somewhat "real time" information about the experience of using your product. Panelists can be instructed to post after each use of the product. This can provide information over the course of the usage period. In addition, research has shown that respondents will provide more details about their experience when blogging or using a web bulletin board than in a focus group discussion.

Long Term Panel
A bulletin board is a great tool to use for a longer term study especially for a hard to find or geographically dispersed target audience. A bulletin board can be designed to last a month or longer. Perhaps you are targeting a new segment. A bulletin board could allow you to learn about their behaviors, motivations and frustrations. You could then return a few weeks later to the same panel to get their feedback on concepts (see sample research flow on the right). These same panelists could also be given a sample product to use. In this same scenario you could also create a larger panel (30+ respondents) that would allow you to gather some quantitative data in addition to the qualitative data. The bulletin board software also allows for administering surveys.

Advantages of Bulletin Boards

• Interact with geographically dispersed respondents
• Interact with hard to reach, time-challenged respondents (medical professionals, CEOs, etc.)
• In-depth feedback as panelists can provide well thought out responses
• Time and travel savings for research team
• Ability to share various forms of stimuli (pictures, concepts, video)
• Transcripts of the discussion are immediately available

Experience a Bulletin Board Focus Group!

If you would like to experience this methodology first hand, demonstrations are available to allow you to view the features of this research tool. Demonstrations where your entire project team could participate in a bulletin board are also possible