When it comes to focus groups and surveys, I thought the Wikipedia articles were excellent.  They should probably be your first read to get up to speed on these research methods.  As with most of the terminology in Growth through Governance, there are many good online resources freely available, but when it comes to surveys and focus groups, search results tend to be littered with a lot of ads from automated survey software products and consultants who want you to hire them to do focus groups.  Those may be fine choices, but if you want to get started, I suggest starting with Wikipedia on focus groups and surveys.  For a lot of additional detail, Wikipedia’s article on survey methodology is thorough and accessible, while including links to additional reading that delve into the mathematics of ensuring sound results.

One key issue to consider is the value of quantitative vs. qualitative data.  I address that question at some length in Chapter 10, and apply data science to communication and organizational strategy in Chapter 11 of Growth through Governance.  Focus groups offer qualitative data, while surveys offer mainly quantitative data that can sometimes be of a qualitative nature.  I do caution against the temptation to use greater quantitative precision than the situation justifies.  Surveys give us a lot of numbers, but we can’t afford to forget to consider the reliability of those numbers.  Suppose you ask people to rate something on a scale of 1 to 7.  In statistics, there is no such result as 4.  But there is such a result as 4±1, and these is such a result as 4±0.1 — and those two results are not the same at all.  If your sample size (number of people participating) is too small to justify the use of precise numbers, then you might really be better off collecting qualitative data.  Personally, I think we sometimes get too enamored of numbers and tend to forget the elastic, simple, honest value of qualitative data.  Just something to think about.  At the very least, I think every organization should be collecting data that consists of ABCs as well as 123s.

Do turn to chapters 10 and 11 for more on this topic.