A friend complained about his research being unreliable. But his focus group didn’t fail him.
It did exactly what focus groups do: gave him a performance.
Eight strangers in a conference room. Free sandwiches. Clients watching through glass. Everyone optimizing to be liked.
That’s not consumer insight. That’s improv with snacks.
We tested the same product concept two ways:
- Traditional focus group claimed they loved it
- Synthetic research with digital twins: consumers highlighted major concerns
Focus groups don’t ask people what they’d do. They ask people to perform what they think you want to hear while strangers watch and take notes.
Synthetic research doesn’t have that problem. It simulates what people would do when nobody’s watching.
When someone in a focus group says they’d “definitely buy this,” what they mean is “I want to seem like someone who would buy this.” When a digital twin says they’d buy it, it’s based on calibrated behavior patterns, not social performance.
The food is good though. I’ll give focus groups that.
But if you’re making million-dollar decisions based on what people say in front of strangers while eating free sandwiches, you’re not doing research.
You’re funding theater.