Focus Group Discussion Guide: A 90-Minute Template for India

A focus group discussion guide for a 90-minute session has five timed sections that run from general to specific, with about nine main questions plus follow-up probes. The Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office (DMEO) toolkit, published by the Government of India, cites groups of 6 to 8 (Krueger and Casey), 6 to 10 and 10 to 12, and says 1 to 2 hours is the rule of thumb (DMEO toolkit). We plan for eight.

The sequence follows Krueger's five question types: opening, introductory, transition, key and ending. Warm-up is the opening question, current behaviour covers the introductory and transition questions, and the close holds the ending questions.

Section 1 script (fill in the brackets and read it aloud):

Sample key questions in the same style:

• Past behaviour: "Tell me about the last time you replaced [category]. What happened, step by step?" Probe: "What made you decide at that point?"
• Stimulus exercise: Hand out [concept card / pack / screen]. "Take two minutes alone and write the first thing you notice. [Then:] What did you write? What do you think this is for?" Follow with a sorting task: three cards into "would try", "unsure" and "would not try", then one participant explains a choice to the group.

Add a bank of probes under every key question, a moderator checklist (recording on, consent read, each "yes" heard), and a second person taking notes. The DMEO toolkit advises independent notes as a backup if the recording fails.

Four key questions fit when eight people share a 44-minute question time, because each person then speaks for about 4.1 minutes in total. This is the sum that decides the guide.

Our model: question minutes × (1 − moderator's share of talk) ÷ participants. We assume the moderator speaks 25% of the time, which is an assumption, not a measured figure. That gives 44 × 0.75 = 33.0 participant minutes. We treat one minute per person per key question as the minimum for a considered answer, which is our rule of thumb.

At eight people, a fifth key question gives 33.0 ÷ 8 ÷ 5 = 0.8 minutes each. These are averages: one talkative participant takes minutes from the rest, so read the table as a ceiling, not a target.

The DMEO toolkit says larger groups suit non-sensitive topics and smaller groups suit sensitive or in-depth ones. The table shows the price of size: every extra person costs a key question.

Cut by decision, not by topic: a question stays only if its answer would change something the client will do. In our experience, long question lists come from clients not having decided what they will do with the answers.

Run this before sign-off:

Ask about what people did, one idea per question, in words the participants use. "Did you like it and would you buy it?" is two questions, and only the second gets answered.

• Past behaviour before opinion. "Tell me about the last time you chose [brand]" produces specifics. "Would you ever switch?" produces politeness. Krueger's advice is the same: take people back to an experience, not forward to a guess.
• Open, not yes or no. "What was your first reaction?" works where "Did you like it?" ends the answer.
• Unaided before aided. Ask what comes to mind before you show the stimulus or name the brand.
• One question at a time. Participants cannot see your list, so a long, layered question loses them.
• One exercise in the key section. Ranking and sorting surface views direct questions miss, but a second exercise costs a key question.

Language, group composition, moderator fit and attendance are the four Indian decisions, and each belongs in the guide brief before fieldwork starts.

Language. Run the group in the language participants think in, and write the key questions in that language beforehand. The moderator and note-taker must speak the participants' language well (DMEO toolkit). Recordings are transcribed, then translated if the report language differs. In our experience, a second speaker should check the written questions, because a literal translation of "What did you make of it?" can land differently in Hindi, Tamil or Bengali.

Composition. Groups work best when participants are alike in ways that matter to the topic, usually with similar socio-economic characteristics, as the DMEO toolkit describes. Our recommendation: do not mix seniors with juniors, or men with women, on topics where one side will defer. In our experience, deference shows up as agreement and is hard to spot afterwards.

Moderator fit. For women-only groups and sensitive topics, we recommend a woman moderator and a venue where other household members cannot overhear. This is our judgement from fieldwork practice, not a rule.

Attendance. Recruit more people than seats: to seat 8, recruit 10, which assumes about 80% turn up (our planning assumption; adjust it for your audience). Confirm by message the day before and again on the morning. The extra two raise your incentive bill, so budget for them (what to pay focus group participants). Online groups also change the guide, because physical stimulus does not travel (online vs in-person focus groups in India).

Screen out recent participants. The DMEO toolkit's sample screener terminates anyone who has attended a focus group in the past 6 months; we recommend the same. In our experience, practised respondents answer like moderators. The same screener also checks that the person speaks the session language.

The consent opening should say what the research is for, that taking part is voluntary, what is recorded, who sees it and how to withdraw, before anyone answers a question. That is the Section 1 script above, read aloud, with each participant saying "yes".

The Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025 were notified on 13 November 2025 (Gazette notification G.S.R. 846(E)) and apply in phases. As of 10 October 2026, the consent-manager rules start on 13 November 2026, and the duties on notice, consent and children's data start on 13 May 2027 (Rule 1 of the DPDP Rules, 2025). We advise writing the consent opening to that standard now, because a recorded session is personal data either way.

Two points carry into the guide:

• Under Section 5 of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, a request for consent comes with or after a notice. Rule 3 requires that notice to be presented and understandable independently of other information, in clear and plain language.
• Under Section 9 of the Act, a child's personal data (anyone under 18) needs verifiable consent from a parent or lawful guardian. Recruit teenagers only with that in place.

The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and ESOMAR (the European Society for Opinion and Market Research) publish the ICC/ESOMAR International Code, the professional standard for how market research treats participants, including consent and confidentiality. For longer consent wording, see our informed consent form and Indian rules.

Give your recruitment partner the target profile, location, language, group size, session length and stimulus before the guide is final, because the guide decides the screener and the screener decides who turns up.

At Qualfacto, the participant panel run by Think Design Research Services, you share a brief and we check feasibility, then send a tailored proposal and quote. Once scope, price and timelines are agreed, we recruit and screen participants, coordinate them, and schedule the session. After the session and validation, we process participant incentives. Pricing is set project by project, because it depends on method, audience, geography, sample and recruitment difficulty. A pilot or introductory first project can be offered, case by case, so you can judge participant quality before a larger study. We handle participant information as set out in our privacy policy.

Include in your brief:

• Objective. The decisions the research must inform.
• Profile. Who qualifies, who is excluded, and the age and gender mix.
• Place and language. City, and the language of the session. We recruit across metros, Tier 1 and Tier 2 towns (the market-research grouping of Indian cities by size), and urban, semi-urban and rural areas, and we assess language needs project by project.
• Format. Online or in person, number of groups, group size, session length.
• Materials. The stimulus and anything participants must bring.

Send your research brief (support@qualfacto.io) and we will tell you whether your audience is feasible and what a quote would involve.