{"id":5916,"date":"2012-07-09T04:09:50","date_gmt":"2012-07-09T11:09:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/?p=5916"},"modified":"2025-08-18T03:45:57","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T10:45:57","slug":"beware-of-the-focus-group-of-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/beware-of-the-focus-group-of-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Beware of the Focus Group of One"},"content":{"rendered":"

I ran into this cartoon on one of my favorite #MRX blogs LoveStats<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I’ve always found it interesting that some companies would rather spend hours of expensive executive time\u00a0discussing their thoughts and opinions rather than just taking the time to run a quick and dirty online survey to at least get some data to support their ideas.<\/p>\n

Surveys don’t always work<\/strong><\/p>\n

Granted, you can’t count on a survey to tell you whether a market will embrace a new concept or not — in sometimes new-to-the-world ideas are most successful when a persistent entrepreneur trusts his or her gut and just goes with it.<\/p>\n

But if you’re trying to make improvements to a product, service or offer – doing a quick survey might just give you enough information to make a better decision.<\/p>\n

Tips to creating a short\u00a0<\/strong>survey<\/strong><\/p>\n

Surveys don’t have to be long and complicated to help you make a good decision. \u00a0In fact, you’re never going to have perfect information and just because you can’t get perfect information, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get SOME information.<\/p>\n

Create a survey asking your specific question.<\/strong> \u00a0Sometimes we get too wrapped up in creating the perfect questions (I know some of you market research pros will get on me for this) . \u00a0But when all you want is a quick pulse of what your audience is thinking — why not just ask them? \u00a0For example –<\/p>\n