notes from the focus group

my notes from the focus group... most surprising thing I think would be the fact that the excel sheets the regional coordinators currently use aren't really that appreciated but rather cause quite a lot of trouble, and they have to still manually check the statistics when they have to give reports. what was also (positively) surprising was that they wanted a web based interface, and also that they wanted things to be as automatic as possible.
never got to any actual sketching, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem...


background info
right now the coordinators use the phone and computer, depending on what kinda of communication they want. phone for mutual (usually with negin), and computer for just reports (to me).
the excel sheets were not really appreciated, and many comments were given about them. here are some quotes:

• "what am I going to use them for?"
• "we shouldn't have to fill this list!"
• "it doesn't feel comfortable"

the problems

• the necessary information isn't there
• had to cut things together manually
• made their own sheet
• very long list, more than one page
• has people who aren't interesting, as they haven't gone any course
• unsure whether to keep different versions
• hard to keep track of the tutors
• how to mark non-bahá'ís, what happens when they become bahá'ís?
• tutors from a cluster tutoring in another cluster
  

future interface
one participant even mentioned that they wanted it web based without me bringing up any suggestions about it. the general consensus was that it should be as automatic as possible, that it should work with a "swoosh". the coordinators prefer to do as little manual work as possible.
quotes:

• "preferrably no trouble"
• "swoosh!"

functions

• how often does a course meet? the frequency
• contact information to the tutor
• see number of tutors in the area
• the amount the group has done the exercises in the book (not a "describe your activities")
• the language of the course
  

reports/diagrams to view ("diagrams are fun, they make us happy")

• the pyramid
• how many in cluster x have done book y?
• how many are active? (percentage)
• how many are involved in the process right now?
• possibility to see historical curves, the development
• the statistics should include a date when generated
  

other
there were some questions and suggestions for the report system (reporting start and finish of study circles)
a problem is that people come and go to courses, it's not 100% set when they start who is going to be part of it. there are also courses that either lose speed or fall out and simply don't finish, they should also be managable. courses sometimes change tutors as well half-way through.
there was also a suggestion that each course should have a special code, so one could filter and such on it, or search for a specific course and change some of its information.
there was also suggested specific reports for each books, so they could be more specialized depending on which book it is
there was also a request that the interface becomes such that the coordinators won't have to generate reports each time a request comes, but that they rather are automatically made as tutors report their study circles. the coordinators also agreed on the fact that they'd have to be more clear about the necessity for all the tutors to report their study circles.

conclusion

all in all, I am very happy with the focus group. I got some very interesting results, and the dynamics of the group was very interesting to behold. they were really building upon each other's experiences and thoughts, and except for a few suggestions, it's hard to single out things that belong to one specific person; they are more suggestions from the group as a whole.
naturally, there were some things I wished to happen (eg them agreeing on a web interface), but there were a lot of ideas I had not thought of at all. it'll be interesting to see if I can incorporate all the things they want in a future interface.