Additionally, questions are carefully planned, and more importantly, the moderator and assistant moderator are highly skilled in the methodology. In order for any professional development initiative to be optimally successful, the designees must embrace and own it as theirs. The addition of focus group interviews to the needs assessment process can provide information that would not otherwise surface which can lead to the development of such a program. Professional development planners who are considering focus group interviews as a companion to their more traditional survey for needs assessments will be richly rewarded for their efforts. Listening and Learning Focus groups are fundamentally a way of listening to people and learning from them.
Focus groups create lines of communication.
This is most obvious within the group itself, where there is continual communication between the moderator and the participants themselves. Just as important, however, is larger process of communication that connects the worlds of the research team and the participants. People who are new to focus groups too often limit their attention solely to the communication that goes on within the groups. In the Focus Group Guidebook.