Writing for fingers, not faces

How to create an effective online discussion guide for Board

Writing a guide for an online bulletin board discussion is quite a bit different than writing for a real time face-to-face or video group or interview. In a real time discussion, the moderator needs only that – a guide – to prompt ideas for discussion. He or she has the ability to “jump around” in terms of conversation flow, read participants’ facial expressions for clues about how well they’re following or understanding, and improvise on the fly.

In an online, asynchronous discussion, the guide itself needs to be an actual script, with a more deliberate approach in structure and clarity. Here, we’ll help you construct a discussion guide that will yield rich, engaging, complete answers from your participants. To do that, we’ve broken the process into two phases: first, PLAN. Then, WRITE. Let’s get started!

PHASE I: PLAN

First, consider the personality you want to portray to your participants.

Remember, a bulletin board focus group is a discussion. Yet, it’s hard for a discussion to take place when it feels like a rapid-fire, Q&A drill from the moderator. To avoid this, you’ll want to infuse personality into your discussion just as you would in a face-to-face group. This might take different forms (sometimes more formal, other times, more casual) depending on who your audience is. But regardless, you’ll want to type your guide in a conversational tone to disarm your respondents and encourage them to open up to you.

Think about the flow of your discussion. Specifically, take into consideration the topics you want to cover, the length of your discussion and the number of questions.

As mentioned earlier, face-to-face discussions afford you the liberty to “jump around.” If a topic comes up early in the discussion that was originally intended to be probed on at a later time, you can easily adjust to accommodate the conversation’s natural flow. In a bulletin board, it’s a bit different. You’ll want to spend extra time thinking about how people might respond to initial questions so that the topics that would naturally emerge next are placed in that order in the guide. This will avoid apparent redundancy in the questions, which frustrates and fatigues participants. Furthermore, think about where natural breaks in the subject matter might occur so that you can “chunk” your questions into daily assignments, allowing you to create seamless breakpoints from day to day.

Estimate the number of questions in your guide to match the expectations you have given to your participants. Normal questions take, on average, three minutes to complete. If you’ve instructed your participants to log in 30 minutes per day to answer questions, do not ask more than 10-12 questions per day. If some of the questions require a longer response (i.e. a diary type of question, a multi-part question, or a video/photo upload with a description), allow for more time. If the responses are minimal (i.e. requiring a “yes/no” or scaling response), you may be able to include a few more questions overall.

Participant drop-off can be a problem after the first day. One way to alleviate this is not to overwhelm participants with too much on the first day. Think of it as a bell curve: Day 1 starts off slow and easy, with warm- ups and introductory questions, slowly easing them into the subject matter. Day 2 provides the majority of the “meat” – exploring and digging in heartily to the main topics. Day 3 tapers off, with some room for clarification, wrap up, and “final thoughts.

Give strong consideration to the phrasing of your questions, keeping in mind the two “C”s – CONCISE and COMPLETE.

The content and structure of the questions themselves can resemble in-person groups. But, unlike in-person groups, you don’t have the ability to improvise the wording of questions on the fly or insert additional verbiage ad-hoc. Since questions are presented in sentence format, they must be written clearly and completely; otherwise, respondents will have to ask for clarification, using up valuable time and diverting group attention.

Think about the question “specs,” and determine how you want the participants to answer.

The system allows you to set certain parameters on each question. Determine beforehand what type of limitations you want to put on the participant before you build your guide. Various settings to consider include:

  • Type of question – open text, multiple choice (one or multiple answers?)
  • Influenced/uninfluenced (can they see others’ responses before typing their own?)
  • Sequential/non sequential (do they have to answer questions in order, or can they skip around?)
  • Time of question launch (when will each question, or set of questions, go live?)
  • Grouping/segmenting (are there certain questions you want only a portion of the board respondents to answer?)

PHASE II: WRITE

Introduce yourself and establish guidelines.

People like to know who they’re talking to, what they’ll be doing and why. They’re eager to find out what’s expected of them. To begin a group, the Moderator should state the purpose of the group and provide guidelines. This includes a personal introduction, purpose, timeline (i.e. when to log in and when to check back for follow-ups), instruction on entering responses, information on how the group is meant to proceed, and encouragement to be candid and honest. If you have complex instructions, consider providing a PDF that the respondent can print and refer to. Sample introduction text is provided at the end of this document.

It’s often best to present this introduction on the home page, outside of the actual discussion itself, so that it’s the first thing participants see when they log in. It also helps keep expectations top of mind, and makes it easy for respondents to navigate back to should they need to refresh themselves on anything.

Don’t underestimate the need for warm up questions.

It’s very common for those new to online groups to dive in head first and immediately launch into the subject matter – (“What do you think about the current state of health care coverage in the United States today?”) – but just as in face-to-face groups, people need some time to get acquainted and warm up. Be sure to include introductory questions that get the respondents talking about themselves, their basic demographics, and a bit about their lifestyle or general attitudes.

You can turn this into a projective exercise of sorts by having respondents fill out their Profile page and adding an avatar/photo of themselves, if you like. This will make it fun and engaging from the minute the respondents begin the discussion.

Make use of your digital body language.

Remember, participants don’t have the luxury of gaining any context from you other than by what they see on the screen. So, be sure to make your board engaging. Use pictures wherever possible (both in the introduction and in question sets) to reinforce concepts, ideas or emotion. You can also convey tone and emphasis by using varying font sizes, colors and spacing in your text. Be careful not to write a “wall” of text – be sure to break it up with spacing so that it’s aesthetically pleasing to the viewer, and makes it manageable for them to absorb.

Remember to be conversational!

Use language that encourages reflection in order to elicit robust answers from respondents. While it’s not inappropriate to start your questioning in a direct manner (leading with Who, What, When, Where, Why or How), sometimes that phrasing is better suited for questions getting into detail, or asking specifics. If you’re

introducing a new topic or subject, start off with “softer” verbiage that gets the respondent thinking, just as you would in an in-person group. For instance:

First, I’d like to know a little bit about… Tell me about a time…

Think back to a time when you were…

I’d like to understand more about your experience with… Considering how you typically go about…

Help me understand how you…

“Load up” your initial questions with inherent probes.

Yes, you’ll still be probing and following up throughout the discussion, but the more you can get from your participants in the initial response, the more detailed you can be in your probing. You can do this by asking your question in more than one way, or by laying out exactly what you’re looking for from participants. It may feel like you’re “over-explaining,” but the more specific you can be with your question, the more specific respondents will be with their answers. As an example, instead of simply asking “How do you decide where to go on vacation each year?” you could rephrase it to read:

Please briefly describe how you pick your vacation destination each year. In particular, let me know:

  • How far in advance do you start planning?
  • What sources you consult to get information? (And which are the most helpful?)
  • How you determine your mode of transportation? (Fly? Drive?)
  • What your process is for narrowing down choices?

Here’s another thing to consider: oftentimes, what we would typically list as probes under a single question in a face-to-face guide are better handled as several, different questions in an online guide. Suppose you are asking respondents about the various ways they use their smartphone. Your face-to-face guide might read:

In what ways do you use your smartphone for activities other than talking on it?

Probe:

  • Email
  • Text
  • Apps – which ones?
  • Games – which ones?
  • Other?

In an online guide, you might be better served asking an entirely new question about Apps, and another separate question about Games, if you need specific detail about those categories from the majority of respondents. This will help you avoid asking several follow-ups of each participant (which can get lengthy and tedious), and will increase the likelihood that everyone will answer the question.

Provide “topic titles” for each question to make navigation easy for yourself & respondents.

Each question allows for programming of a title. Instead of using just a number to indicate the question, type in a word that identifies the question, such as “Introduction,” “Favorite TV show” or “Positives.” This will make it easy for you and your observers to find certain questions as you moderate, particularly if you want to refer back to what someone has said earlier in the discussion.

Reinforce expectations and provide updates.

Allow for items in your guide that give direction to your participants. These can be concluding statements each day that instruct participants to log back in and/or look over others comments and respond. Thanking them for their participation at the end of each day goes a long way, and it also gives you the opportunity to provide

information about the next day’s topics. This will keep the participants excited and eager to see what’s next. These items all also make the group more personable.