Insight to Action: Designing Focus Groups for Facilitating User-Centered Change Webinar Series

The College of St. Scholastica Center for Professional Training and LIfelong Learning invites you to participate in our upcoming four-part interactive workshop series designed to equip you with the essential skills for facilitating impactful focus groups. You will learn how to gather valuable feedback and insights from your key constituents to drive meaningful change and develop services that resonate deeply with your users.

You will have the opportunity to practice and apply your learning through small and large group discussions with other participants and the facilitators. You’ll explore topics such as empathetic listening, crafting focus group questions and structures, gathering feedback, and making sense of constituent data and insights to create informed and thoughtful actionable plans.

By the end of the workshop series, you will be able to:

• Understand and apply empathetic listening to focus group protocols in various contexts.
• Understand the importance of considering constituent perspectives to create solutions that meet your users’ needs and preferences.
• Develop probing questions to deepen understanding and clarify concepts.
• Develop group facilitation and moderating skills
• Create and implement focus group protocols effectively.
• Translate constituent insights and feedback into concrete action plans. Upon request, participants will be provided a certificate of completion, which may be used for professional development continuing education requirements or to advance professional skills.

Your workshop facilitators are Drs. Amy Murzyn and Chery Lucarelli.

Dr. Chery Lucarelli and Dr. Amy Murzyn, faculty members within the Stender School of Business, Leadership, and Professional Studies, are passionate about bringing diverse perspectives together to support effective planning for services and products committed to prioritizing user-centric approaches. With a wealth of experience in hosting unhurried conversations, facilitating workshops, conducting focus group sessions, and leading listening sessions, they bring a depth of expertise to their work. They are dedicated to challenging assumptions and are committed to user-centered design principles.

Drawing from years of experience in both onsite and remote team leadership, they have actively engaged with constituents to cultivate welcoming and safe spaces. Their workshop approach is rooted in creating an engaging, supportive, and inclusive environments that embrace individuals from diverse experiences and backgrounds. They believe in embracing the power of collaboration to craft inclusive spaces where everyone’s voice is valued and respected.

Questions? Contact us at learn@css.edu