Friendship triads, focus groups & families

Friendship triads, focus groups & families: a fieldwork success story

For this project, we worked with Kids Industries to explore perceptions of a popular entertainment brand through online sessions, aiming to understand how families feel about the brand, how it could grow, and what they’d like to see more of in future.

We recruited a mix of women aged 25–40 for focus groups, alongside parent-child duos and triads. With strict screening criteria and a structure that relied on respondents sourcing their own friends, it was a complex brief.

To meet the challenge, the Angelfish team created a bespoke online ‘friend screener’ and over-validated extensively, an approach that proved time-efficient in the long run. Thorough validation allowed us to handpick a spec-perfect sample and avoid last-minute replacements, especially important when working with children, who can be less predictable in terms of availability and commitment.

The friendship triads were particularly complex, requiring each respondent to recruit two other parent-child pairs, coordinate directly with them, and ensure the whole group stayed committed and involved. A key challenge was that each individual child had to meet all the recruitment criteria – not just the parents or the pair as a whole. This made validation much more intensive and added logistical pressure. However, thanks to our clear instructions, detailed planning and ongoing support, we successfully delivered a full, on-spec sample.

We also managed pre-task completion, distributed consent forms via a live link, and ran our usual comprehensive reminder process to keep everything on track. The result was a seamless experience and a delighted client.

This project is a great example of how the Angelfish team doesn’t just recruit—we partner with clients to solve problems, think creatively, and bring even the most complex methodologies to life.