Most organizations understand the importance of soliciting employee feedback. But while an all-employee survey or content focus groups might be preferable, there are many occasions where there simply isn’t enough time to take this comprehensive of an approach. When it’s essential to conduct employee research to accomplish business goals but time and resources are limited, fast focus groups can be a tremendous benefit. These groups are an effective way to gather employee feedback to explore an issue, test a concept, or follow up on a program’s launch. To save time in the planning and execution of these fast focus groups, they can be conducted virtually or at least in the same geographic area. For these groups to be successful though, planning is important. To get started, a central thesis should be established. This thesis should be a single statement that summarizes what management is trying to accomplish or learn. This will help focus the outcomes in the future. Logistics also need to be managed. In traditional focus groups, the makeup should be representative of the entire organization, but if speed is necessary, the criteria can be narrowed down. Depending on the initial thesis, it might be more beneficial to hold focus groups only among managers, or salespeople in a particular region. Questions relevant to the thesis need to be developed, and a plan should be in place to summarize the findings.