Moderating to the Max: A Full-tilt Guide to Creative, Insightful Focus Groups and Depth Interviews

They say you can't judge a book by its cover, but this is the exception to the rule. While the information in the book has genuine value, I found it to be lacking in depth. The descriptions of the various activities were rather like a cookbook; all the ingredients are listed, and there's a description of what to do, but for my money, that's not nearly enough, when you're talking about the complex psychology of digging beneath the surface, trying to determine the root causes of behavior, the emotional triggers for respondents' choices.I'm sure the authors are outstanding practitioners, creative and playful, and there are a number of very good exercises listed in the book. If that's all you need, this may suffice. But if you're looking for a deeper, more meaningful understanding of how to get beneath the surface with your focus group participants, I'm afraid you'll find the content comes up short. Kind of like comparing the stick figure drawings on the cover and throughout the book with a photograph or a well executed, highly detailed oil painting.

this book is a good, comprehensive, light-hearted treatment of various techniques available to the qualitative researcher.those looking for in-depth treatment or detailed experiential stories will be disappointed.it provides a good hands-on approach to developing the methods for the personal use of the researcher.

Thought this might have some stimulating new ideas for a seasoned moderator like myself, but it does not. Would recommend for developing the repertoire of young professionals.

I was fortunate to be able to attend RIVA's Toolbox class and go through this book with Jean herself. It is a wonderful collection of tools and techniques and will open the mind of even the most experienced qualitative researcher. One of the pieces I found most helpful for my team was the guide in the book that links "what you want to learn" to "what tools you should use to get there". Great book for beginning practitioners and experienced alike.

It is a very clear and easy to follow book full of tips of how to take your qualitative research to the next level and enabling you to really get deep insights from consumers.A most for Qualitative researchers. I really like the combination of theory and tools and techniques.

Waste of money when most of the information is so obvious you would basically know this without reading it. Don't bother buying.

I love this book! The moderating techniques are presented for market-research focus groups but can also be used in any group situation, to help teams think through complex decisions and feelings.

Bystedt, Lynn and Potts have created a rare guidebook for qualitative researchers: a user-friendly introduction to a repertoire of moderating techniques that help add colour, depth - yeah, and fun - to focus groups and depth interviews.At 142 pages, the book is short, quick and sassy. The authors have split the work into three main sections.1) Fundamental explorational tools. In which they discuss such things as mind-mapping, storytelling, sorting exercises.2) Laddering.3) Exploration of emotions - where they discuss metaphors, collages, projective photos etc.The main purpose of the book is to introduce qualitative researchers to the basic breadth of techniques they have available: beyond Q&A. Where it is billed as being useful for new researchers as well as the more experienced, I'd suggest that the target really is just the newer researchers: the book lacks the depth to really create a-ha! moments for the more experienced practitioner.That said, this is a good book that cuts through the jargon and talks to us person to person (a very nice writing style)and would help most younger quallies to sit down and plan their discussion guides. After all, is there anything worse than staring at a blank sheet of paper and thinking - what am I going to ask? How am I going to elicit what the client needs?The handy guide at the back helps researchers ask: I know what I want, but what technique can I use? It directs us to the right pages: quick and easy. This is a great book for the team. It saves time and helps with creativity. That's value I reckon.