Document History: Version 1.0 – 14

th June 2009

Version 1.1 – 9th July 2013

Version 1.2 – 3rd

October 2013 Version 1.4 – 13

th November 2014

Version 1.5 – 27th August 2015

Prepared by – J. Ramsay VisionsLive Limited © VisionsLive Ltd 2009-2015

Creating Your First Focus Group

Prepared For:

First time users of VisionsLive V+ Focus

Groups

1. Creating your first focus group

This is a short guide to setting up your first focus group.

2. Getting started

Log in to the management portal at https://portal.visionslive.com (if you can't remember your

password, use the forgotten password link to be sent a password reset email – remember to

check junk/spam inboxes).

3. Creating a new project

Once you have a full account with us, nominated moderators can be given permission to

create new projects. If you still have a demo account, you may have to use the demo project

created by us; if this is the case, select that project and skip ahead to “Selecting your

research project”

The first page you see is “Load project”.

To create a project, complete the following steps:

> Click the “Create new project” button

> Enter the project client

> Enter the project name

> Select the default language

> Finally, click “Create project”

4. Selecting your research project

Select the project that you want to run your activity in.

The moderator icon indicates that you are a moderator of a particular project

> External moderators can only see and select projects that have been assigned by an

administrator

> Company moderators can see all projects within a company and can join any project

5. Your project dashboard

The project dashboard summarises all the activities that have been run in a project. The

dashboard is the go to place for managing and running different activities.

> On the dashboard, a moderator can:

> Create and edit the content of a focus group

> Reschedule a focus group

> Edit the participants for an upcoming focus group

> View participant status for a focus group

> Resend notifications to participants

> Retrieve a list of focus group access links

> Access reports for a completed focus group

6. Creating your focus group

To create a new activity from the project dashboard, select the “New activity” button.

You can then choose between running an IDI or a focus group, upon making your selection,

you will be taken through the setup wizard to finalise the creation of the focus group.

I. Focus Group details The first step is to specify the initial details of the focus group

> Activity title – This is the title of the activity that is displayed to participants in

notifications and during the focus group.

> Private description – This is the description that moderators and administrators can

see on the dashboard and elsewhere in the management portal.

> Language – Select the language that the focus group is being run in.

> Server location – Select the appropriate server location depending on your

participant’s locations.

> Copy content from – Choose a previously created focus group to copy whiteboards

and discussion guides from.

II. Focus Group Scheduling Here, you can select the time, date and the planned duration of the focus group. The

estimated duration is a guideline only, focus groups may over or under-run.

You will also need to select the number of respondents you would like in the focus group.

This will limit the number of respondents that can join the session and participate, but you

will still be able to over-recruit. This does not affect the number of moderators or observers

that can join.

If the focus group is only for test purposes, the moderator should check the “Test activity”

check box. You will not be charged for test activities, pending staff confirmation.

III. Adding Respondents As a moderator, you will be able to select the various participants for the focus group.

You can now select respondents from the project to invite to your focus group

> If you do not wish you add your respondents now, you can invite them to the session

at a later time.

> To add further respondents to your project, click the “Add respondents” button.

> Participants can be added one by one and filling in the relevant details.

> Please make sure to tick the boxes of the participants you want to include.

For live projects where a spreadsheet has been provided by recruiter, respondents can be

copied and pasted with simple mandatory details in the “Import from excel” option when

adding respondents.

All fields selected must contain data to be copied in successfully. Alternatively, participant

data can be copied and pasted in to the text box.

If the system doesn’t automatically pick up the column names, these can be set manually.

You can select “-- Do not import --”, if data is picked up that you do not wish to include.

It is essential to note that respondents must have unique email addresses to be

successfully added to the project. It is not possible to have two respondents in the same

project with the same email address.

IV. Moderators Moderators are the next to be added and this can be done on the following screen, by either

selecting the moderators that are already loaded into the project, or by assigning existing

company users through selecting the “Add moderators” option. As mentioned earlier, when

adding more moderators, ensure any desired participants are selected before proceeding.

If the moderator you need is not listed, the moderator may have to be added as a new user

to the company. You will need access to the “Account” tab to do this, if you don’t you’ll need

to contact your account administrator.

You will need to open the “Account” tab in a new window, visit the “Users” link in the menu

and click the “Add User” button. You can then return to the wizard and follow the steps for

adding a moderator to the project again.

Observers can then be added in the same way as respondents.

V. Notifications Once all the participants have been selected, you will need to select which notifications are

required.

> Invitation emails are always sent to all participants, each with a unique focus group

access link.

> Availability email can be selected, which allows respondents to confirm their

attendance to a focus group. Respondents will be sent an invitation email after they

have confirmed their availability.

> SMS reminders can also be selected which will be sent to the respondent at a

designated time before the start of the focus group. Respondents must have a valid

mobile/cellular phone number on their profile to be sent SMS notifications.

Once the notifications have been selected, you will be shown the previews of each of the

notifications.

Please be aware that access links for each participant are unique, so the same link or

access to a particular session must only be used by one person at any time. If two people

attempt to access using the same link, one of them will be disconnected from the session.

While previewing, you have the opportunity to edit the text for various notification types.

VI. Editing Invitation Emails As the moderator, you will then be given the opportunity to construct your invitation emails.

There will already be a proposed email for you to send, however this can be edited by

selecting the “Edit email” option.

Tags can be inserted or removed to personalise the email, fonts, styles, sizes and layouts

can also be used to customise the appearance of the email.

Tags are placeholders used by the system, they are automatically substituted with the

relevant information for each respondent when the emails are sent. Tags such as

{ActivityStartTime} (based on the respondent’s time zone) and {ActivityAccessLink} can

be unique to each respondent and thus should not be manually entered.

Any edits made will be saved as the default for that notification type used by other activities

in the project.

VII. Confirmation Once all notifications have been previewed, you can review the focus group setup before

any notifications are sent out.

At this point, you can navigate back to any of the steps and make modifications. Some

settings (such as selected notifications) cannot be changed later, so be sure these settings

are correct before confirming. You will still be able to add or remove participants later.

Finally, you need to agree to the terms and conditions before the notifications are sent and

the new focus group is displayed on the dashboard.