Group Interview

A group interview involves an interviewer discussing a topic with between 4 and 12 people [Page 178]simultaneously, thereby enabling a different perspective on an evaluation problem not possible through individual interviews. The interaction can be directed in a structured or unstructured way, depending on the purpose of the interview. This can be to explore a phenomenon, pretest facets of survey design, triangulate with other methods used in an evaluation, or determine attitudes and behaviors.

The skills needed by a group interviewer are similar to those required for a one-on-one interview, but in addition, the person requires group process skills such as not allowing one person to dominate and bringing in shyer participants. The advantages of the technique are that it is cost effective, creates rich data, ...