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Jul. 6th Focus groups: to test or not to test? Or is it what to test?

Have I already mentioned that in today’s working environment the world does not seem to take a break. Yes, I am on vacation for a few days. And, yes, it is Sunday. But those are not good enough reasons for the occasional serious email from a client who urgently needs an answer to what appears to be a life or death question.

Today, an email from a client whose project is almost ready to be launched. “Mario,” he writes, “we have decided to conduct focus groups, after all, and we need you to send us a list of what you think we should test out of this prototype, to make sure we don’t leave anything out.”

Indeed, in today’s environment for newspapers—a martini composed of a little panic, heavy participation by marketing experts, and a clock ticking too fast to allow for serendipity, afterthoughts and that crazy idea from the new art director—-the focus group has become the tool de jour. Don’t take me wrong. I believe in focus groups.

Yes, indeed, we would have put pink on the nameplate of El Nuevo Herald in Miami, had it not been for that construction worker from Little Havana who stood up and shouted: Pink? Yes, pinko communists at the Herald.

Oooooooops! So we switched to blue,and all went well.

Not to mention the big metropolitan daily whose managing editor fancied “naming” things by any name but what they really were. Thank God there was that middle-aged homemaker in the focus group that night who, when she saw “Adventures of the Palate” as the name a column, raised her hand and asked the moderator: “What does that mean?”

“It means restaurant review, madam,” he answered.

“Why don’t they just call it that?”

Oh, the readers. Usually smarter than the editors. Wiser. Calling things by their names. These are the moments that give focus groups meaning for me. I have sat thru hundreds of focus groups, and a tiny moment where the reader scores a touchdown or two makes it all worthwhile.

However, one does not have to TEST the entire concept of a prototype. Not at all.  Test conocepts that define change. Test things that alter radically how habitual readers navigate the newspaper. Get a sense of how they perceive look and feel, content organization, navigation. But don’t let some of the good ideas disappear because three readers in the group don’t understand it and, thus, repel it.

Recently, in an interview in The Wall Street Journal Europe (June 26, 2008), the chief designer of the well known Bang & Olufsen AS, makers of home entertainment systems, said: “I think you can’t go out and ask people what they need or want because they don’t know. The whole trick is to come out with a product and say, “Have you thought of this?” and hear the consumer respond, “Wow! No, I hadn’t.” If you can do that, you are on.”

I am a firm believer that many of the “wows” disappear like the clouds in a hot Florida summer afternoon during the course of focus groups to test newspaper prototypes.

Good moderators know how to spot the red flags while circling around the “wow” territory. Those are the focus groups that work.

THINGS I HAVE LEARNED ALONG THE WAY WITH FOCUS GROUPS:
Don’t waste your time presenting FIVE different serif fonts and asking readers how they feel about them. Make your own choice, analyze it, and live with it.

Do test the size of type, but if it is bigger than NINE points, chances are everyone will like it. And, you can bet your new car that when the new design comes out, there will be hundreds of calls complaining about how the text type got smaller, EVEN if you made it 1.5 points bigger.

Do test the flow of content; new sectioning; placement of columnists, the weather, the horoscope and classifieds. This is more important to most readers than your choice of Detroit Bodoni over Baskerville, believe me.

At the end of the day, take all the information from the focus groups, discuss it, but don’t make it your Bible. Gut feeling should be part of how you look at the information from the readers, your own knowledge of the project, and be prepared to get a few negative reactions at first, until readers get used to a good idea.

ANECDOTAL: When I was involved with the redesign of The Wall Street Journal in 2007, David Pybas, associate design director, and I created a front page prototype with a six-column architecture, as well as one with five. We tested both with readers. The five-column front page emerged as the preferred.  A few months ago, the new publisher of the WSJ, Robert Thomson, and his team, thought that a six-column front page would be more newsy. The change was accomplished overnight. No focus groups. Gut feeling prevailed. When I met with Robert in his office recently, we discussed this, and he mentioned that there was no adverse reaction to the change. Just as I thought. I applaud this attitude. I encourage more editors and publishers to think this way.

WHERE IS MARIO? In Maspalomas, Canary Islands. Today one of the many pigeons that give this place its name simply sat on my legs as I took the sun and remained there for about 10 minutes, not doing anything. One of those little moments that you would like to reach for the camera and record.

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