Strategies to Overcome the Unique Challenges Faced in Conducting Focus Groups in Extension

Focus groups are commonly used in extension. Extension professionals can encounter unique challenges when conducting focus groups. Extension literature is replete with best practices for conducting focus groups, but there is a lack of systematically documented practical challenges and strategies for overcoming them. We share the challenges we have faced over the past 13 years while conducting focus groups with different participant groups in extension globally and strategies that can be used to overcome or navigate these challenges. The ideas presented in this paper can provide valuable assistance to extension professionals who utilize focus groups for research and evaluation purposes.