Organizations everywhere are trying focus groups. People gather in small groups for 60 to 90 minutes to critique professional development plans, rate trainer materials, offer feedback on their experiences in a leadership academy, explain why they never participate in study groups, or register kudos and gripes about web sites or online courses. Participants’ ideas and opinions can be valuable to leaders conducting formative evaluations to improve programsas they are implemented. Their opinions also can be part of summative evaluations. Yet despite the buzz about focus groups, they don’t always produce enough insight to make them worth the effort.  Recently a district administrator described a district’s substantial effort to gather data from stakeholders throughfocus groups. Ten concurrent focus group discussions took place around the district within a two-week period. “It took much more work than we ever expected,