A two-hour focus group asks people to react on the spot, in a room, in front of strangers. Some of the best answers arrive later, at home, when the person is standing next to the thing you asked about. An online bulletin board is built for those answers. It runs for several days, and people take part when it suits them.
The method
Between 20 and 30 people join a private, moderated discussion site for three to five days. Each morning a new set of activities opens: questions, photo and video uploads, short polls, and markup tasks where people place likes and dislikes directly on a concept or package. Most people spend 20 to 30 minutes a day. A moderator reads every post and follows up with probes, in the open thread or privately.
The question it answers
Why do people do what they do, and how do they react to an idea once they have had time to think about it? Boards are good at the detail behind a habit, early reactions to concepts and claims, and topics people would rather not discuss in a room. They are a poor fit for sizing. Twenty-four people can tell you what matters and why. A survey tells you how many.
How we run it
We recruit for the behavior that matters and check that each person writes clearly before they are invited. Every question is set as group, private or private first. Group questions let people build on each other. Private questions are for personal topics and honest first reactions. Private first means each person answers alone before they can see anyone else, so the loudest early post does not set the tone. The moderator probes within hours, asking for an example or a photo, and your team can watch from an observer login and suggest follow-ups as the days go on.
What you get
A short topline each morning while the board runs. Within days of close, a report with themes counted by participant, quotes, markup hotspots and a comparison of private and group answers. You also get the full coded transcript and a library of every photo and video, tagged by theme.
Where it goes wrong
Too many questions a day, and answers get short by day three. Group-only questions let the first few posters shape everyone else. Probes that arrive a day late find people who have moved on. And teams sometimes read a board as a vote. Twelve of 24 is a strong signal of what to test next and a poor estimate of market share.
The sample below follows a fictional vacuum brand through a four-day board on a new cordless stick vacuum concept. Click the tabs to move from the activity plan to a sample thread, the concept markup, the themes and the deliverables. Every brand, participant and number is invented.
Illustrative only. All brands, products, participants and figures are fictional. Open the sample full screen.