Focus Groups

So...this past Tuesday and Wednesday were spent mostly in Secaucus, New Jersey working with focus groups. I know it may not sound that exciting, but it was. I got to work with Laurie, one of the Senior Planners here where I'm interning. It was a fun learning experience to see her moderate the groups we had.

We left the agency around 2:00 (we had a car service pick us up), and headed over/under the Hudson to New Jersey and to the facility. At the facility we made sure everything was set up and good to go. Focus Groups started at 4:00 pm and went like clockwork till 9:00 pm. We had 4 groups a day and each group (ranging from 4th, 5th, and 6th grade) consisted of 4 kids and lasted an hour. There were 15 minute breaks between each group, with a half-hour long dinner break between groups 2 and 3. During the 15 minutes between groups I would go out into the waiting room and meet with each pair of kids (we had 6 kids show up for each time slot). I would ask them question, etc to determine which 4 kids would be the best for Laurie to interview/work with in the focus group.

It was a lot of fun; I'm really greatful for all the experience I've had these past few years working with kids (volunteering and working in the Provo School District in several different capacities, working with TOPS at BYU, and working with Amy Jensen at BYU with the younger kids in the Hands on a Camera project), they've really molded me and helped put me in a position where working with these kids came fairly naturally.

As natural as it may have felt at times during my re-screenings of these kids, I still felt SUPER nervous working with the first group. I guess that's only natural. On the way back to New York, Laurie said to me that I didn't seem green at all, and that I did a great job. It made me feel really good. I think it would have been awesome to moderate, but I don't think I'm quite ready for that train-wreck just yet. It's just such a great experience to learn from watching people like Laurie do what she does and seeing how she does it.

PS - can I just say how cute some of those kids were. haha...and how funny. I wish I would have taken a picture of this one kid. He was seriously like this old man trapped in a 5th grader's body. His hair looked like he was wearing a football helmet and he had this great Jersey accent. All of us in the backroom got a kick out of him. Oh, what greatness comes out of the mouth of these kids at times.