When Naomi Henderson, RIVA’s former owner and CEO wrote her article “Magic of 8,” the typical focus group was 2-hours long with eight Respondents, four issue areas, and questions within each area.
Like our RIVA DIVA always pointed out, things are always changing, especially as our industry expands.
Naomi explained that the “’right’ group size is often a function of a client’s need for specific results” while also indicating that it’s sometimes down to the comfort levels of the Qualitative Researcher (Henderson).
With the increase in utilizing virtual focus groups and the increase of questions Clients want to ask in the time allotted, the number of Respondents in a focus group has adapted to still be able to hear two-thirds of the Respondents’ POBAs (perceptions, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes). A reminder that hearing from two-thirds of your Respondents is the RIVA best practice to ensure you’re getting the data you need for your Clients.
In-Person
Naomi’s assertion of a moderator only really has one hundred minutes of actual research time in a two-hour group to ask questions still holds true. Managing logistics, giving ground rules and instructions, assuming the potential of a late start, playing traffic cop, etc., have their effect on the time you have left to get data.
RIVA has noticed a trend of moving to smaller groups in a two-hour in-person focus group. Instead of the magic eight, six is the better number. This is also the number of Respondents that RIVA recommends to our research partners; as well, we limit the number of Respondents in our student-training mocks to six.
By talking with less Respondents in a two-hour focus group, it allows for Moderators to hear from everyone at least at some point during the discussion, get deeper below top-of-mind responses, and get the Clients gotta-gotta more effectively.
Virtual
In virtual focus groups, there are more logistics to manage: tech checks, mics muting and unmuting, playing traffic cop more often than in-person when needed, sharing and unsharing screens, etc., that make it challenging to Moderate a group of eight Respondents and still get through all the questions while hearing from two-thirds of the room.
Typically, we’ve also noticed that, when online, most groups tend to be only ninety-minutes compared to the full two hours so this needs to be considered when setting up virtual focus groups. Less time equals less questions and deeper probing or more questions and surface level probing.
In order to honor hearing from enough participants and get your client’s needs met, the number of Respondents recommended for online is only five Respondents – and definitely no more than six.
Summary
Due to fuller guides, varying logistics to manage, and the desire for deeper insights through qualitative research, in 2025, the “magic number” is now 5-6 for 90-minute to two-hour sessions depending on the research request.
Written by: Brittany Mohammed, Qualitative Training & Research Specialist