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Hey Reader,

Each week in this newsletter I take a question from a reader. This week let's dive into this question which came in from an internal communications manager in the Netherlands:

Ah my friend. You're in the right place.

Because not only am I an internal comms consultant but I am also a qualified sociologist. I spent four years at Trinity College Dublin studying social research methods, learning the methodology behind qualitative research from academics who wrote the textbooks. Yes, this includes focus groups.​

​​And I've spent the last 15+ years applying these social research methods inside organisations, running hundreds of focus groups across different industries and companies. I've facilitated conversations about everything from leadership trust to intranet redesigns to major change programmes.

​I've dealt with the dominant voice in the room who won't stop talking. I've had awkward groups that sit in silence and don't want to open up. I've had sessions that turned into complaints and venting sessions about senior leaders.

​I've dealt with it all!

​And now I can confidently run any focus group in any company with any audience, because I have a clear methodology and approach that works.

​I can help you. Today my new course on focus groups is available.

I want you to know that the disastrous experience you had is not unusual btw. It's very common! Because how many communication professionals have actually been trained in how to design and run a successful focus group?

Spoiler alert: hardly any.

Most of us just figure it out as we go, sometimes with disastrous results, as you found out. And for others, we just avoid focus groups entirely, they seem overwhelming or intimidating and too difficult. So we just... don't do them.

And honestly, the anxieties are valid. How many people should you even invite? How long should it run? How do you write questions that get people talking honestly rather than giving you safe, corporate-speak answers? How do you make sure you're not just hearing from the same enthusiastic volunteers who sign up for everything?

And even if the session goes okay, there's the reporting problem. How do you turn pages of messy notes into actual insights? How do you write something that gets leadership's attention rather than gathering dust in their inbox? And what do you say when your boss asks "who said that?" after you've promised everyone confidentiality?

But here's the great news, you can design and run great focus groups to manage all of these problems. The dominant voice, the silent people, the venting spiral, the notes you can't make sense of... there are specific techniques to manage all of it.

I can teach you.

I want you to run focus groups in 2026. Hand on my heart, I'm a huge fan of focus groups because of the deep insights and incredible data they give you.

Employee surveys are great at telling you the what and the when but they're pretty crap at giving you a rich insight into the why. Why is morale so low? Why does no one trust the leadership team? Why is our newsletter open rate so abysmal?

Focus groups are the key to unlocking the WHY.

I've created a brand new on-demand course that teaches you everything I know about designing and running focus groups.

I've run hundreds of focus groups, grappled with every conceivable disaster along the way and figured out the most important things that get you a successful focus group every time - with insights you can actually use.

By the end of this course, you'll have four key capabilities:

Plan focus groups strategically

Not just throwing questions at people and hoping for useful answers, but designing sessions that deliver the specific insights you need to make better decisions.

Design questions that uncover real thinking

There's a skill to writing questions that get people talking honestly about what they actually think, rather than what they think you want to hear. You'll learn it.

Facilitate with confidence [even when it gets tricky]

Someone dominates the conversation? You'll have a plan for that. The group goes silent? You'll know exactly what to do. They veer off-topic? You'll redirect them smoothly. No more lying awake the night before worrying about what could go wrong.

​Turn conversations into recommendations that drive change

You'll learn how to identify themes, structure your findings and present them in a way that gets leadership attention.

Find the course here

What's inside the course

The course is structured across six modules, each building on the last:

​Module 1: Focus group fundamentals

• What focus groups can (and can't) do
• When to use focus groups instead of surveys
• Setting yourself up for success from the start

Module 2: How to plan a focus group

• Choosing the right group size
• How long sessions should run
• How many groups you need to see real patterns emerge
• Virtual vs in-person focus groups

Module 3: Selecting participants

• Why "whoever volunteers" is a trap
• How to get the right mix of perspectives in the room
• Different recruitment approaches and when to use each

​Module 4: Creating your focus group guide

• Setting clear objectives
• The three-part structure that works
• Writing open-ended questions that generate real conversation
• Avoiding leading questions that bias your results

​Module 5: Facilitation techniques

• Managing dominant participants without shutting them down
• Drawing out quiet voices
• Handling tangents, complaints and sensitive topics
• Keeping discussions on track while staying flexible

​Module 6: Capturing and using insights

• Note-taking approaches for virtual and in-person sessions
• Identifying themes and patterns
• A simple reporting template you can download and use
• Presenting findings that get attention and action

This is everything I've learned from my sociology training and 15+ years of practical experience, distilled into one course. You'll get video trainings from me, plus a complete template library including a reporting template, a focus group guide template, recruitment email templates and facilitation scripts.

These aren't theoretical frameworks or academic models, these are the actual tools I use when running focus groups for clients, refined over hundreds of sessions.

All of this for just €249.

Enrol here

I'm genuinely excited about this one. Focus groups are such an underrated and underused listening tool in our world, and I think more communicators would use them if they just had the confidence and know-how to do it properly.

Thanks for reading and stay curious,

Joanna

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Find me on YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn and check out my book​

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Want to work together?

• Join The Curious Tribe. This is my membership community for ambitious, curious communicators who want to achieve more in their roles and have fun at the same time. Membership allows you to work directly with me for 12 months, make deep connections with other communication pros who 'get it' and improve your skills through training and learning. More info here.
• Ready to review your channels and content but don't know where to start? Download my practical Internal Comms Audit Playbook to guide you through a DIY audit - no expensive consultant needed.​ This has ready-to-use templates and checklists to give you a systematic way to do your own audit which you can repeat every single year. Get it here.
• Take a shortcut. I've developed a collection of tried-and-tested templates, checklists and how-to guides for the key processes you'll need in your role as an internal communicator. You can download my Internal Comms Cheat Sheets here.​

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