Common Mistakes in Qualitative research A. Recruiting Recruiting regular participants Recruiting focus group participants that are usually transferred from one research institute to another and usually participate in many focus groups. Such participants are not the “common consumer” anymore, the one we are trying to question, and thus their participation in the research is problematic. In addition, such participants tend to be either too dominant or too quiet due to their familiarity with the techniques and subject matter. It is not necessary to prevent the participation of people who have been in focus groups in the past, however it is recommended to avoid those “regular” participants. Recruiting “expert” participants Recruiting participants who deal with the subject matter at hand. Such participants become opinion leaders in the group, because as soon as they are revealed as experts in the field, the rest of the group will refrain from expressing a different opinion. Furthermore, including participants from the field at hand might expose the subject matter being studied to colleagues. This is especially problematic when a creative or concept, that the client does not want to be revealed just yet, is presented to the group. B. Leading focus groups Leading/misleading questions Contrary to statistic-quantitative research, qualitative research does not usually look to prove a certain assumption, it seeks to deepen and learn and therefore one of the mistakes of inexperienced focus group leaders is to present leading questions. These are usually closed questions (yes or no questions) that their premise might or might not be the participant’s standpoint. C. Commentary Confusing findings and commentary The research report must distinguish between findings and conclusions. While the findings aim to be objective, the commentary is, in essence, subjective. Quantitative generalizations Qualitative research findings can never be statistical and generalizing regarding an entire population. Therefore, a qualitative research report that states the number of participants in the focus group supporting position A and the number supporting position B is of no consequence. If the majority of several focus groups supported a certain idea, it is reasonable to assume that the entire population studied will show the same findings, however we cannot conclude this for certain until it is statistically proven in a quantitative study.