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AI focus groups

Hear the room before you’re in it.

Tell Solon what you want to learn. It recruits a panel of people built on real, anonymous Census records, and a moderator runs the discussion while you watch. Then an analyst writes up what was said, and what was only thought.

See plansfrom $29How it works

One paymentNo subscriptionProjects don’t expire

Drawn portrait of a Southeast Asian woman in her forties with her hair tied back, in a blazer.
Drawn portrait of a white man in his sixties with short grey hair, in a collared jacket.
Drawn portrait of a Black woman in her thirties with short curly hair, in a zip jacket.
Drawn portrait of a Middle Eastern man in his thirties with a beard and glasses, in a sweater.
Drawn portrait of a Native American woman in her seventies with short grey hair, in a cardigan.
Drawn portrait of a man of Black and white heritage in his forties with a moustache, in a sweater.

Faces from Solon’s portrait library. Each person on a panel gets one, matched to their age, sex and background as closely as the library allows, and no two people in a room share one.

00The idea

Start from real lives. Don’t invent them.

Every person on a Solon panel is built from one real, anonymous record in the Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey. Their age, where they live, their household, work and work hours, commute, income, housing costs, disability, language and origin all come from that record, so they fit together the way they do in real life.

Their pay is set against federal wage figures for their occupation. Only then does Solon write their life story, in their own voice, to fit those circumstances.

3–8people on a panel, each built on a real Census record
5starting attitudes, dealt on purpose, from fans to rejecters
4group styles, all of them in any room of four or more
10background groups to recruit from, with East, South and Southeast Asian kept apart

01Brief

What you want to learn

Write it the way you’d brief a researcher: the decision it informs, what you’re testing, who it’s for. Mark what the panel mustn’t be told. The panel never reads your brief; they hear only what the moderator says.

Add up to 12 materials for the room to react to: PDF, Word, text or Markdown files, images, and video, which your browser turns into stills before anything is uploaded.

02Panel

Who’s in the room

A recruiter reads your brief and suggests who should be there, the way a professional writes a screener: what they buy, how old, where, what they earn, and how they feel about the category coming in. Change any of it, then recruit.

Each person arrives with a face, a life story, a way of talking and a way of behaving in a group. Swap anyone for someone else who fits.

03Session

Watch them talk. Read what they don’t say.

The moderator writes a discussion guide from your brief, and you read it before anything runs. Then the session plays out in front of you: people answer each other, not just the moderator, and the moderator probes what’s interesting, brings in the quiet ones, and looks for dissent when the room agrees too quickly.

  • Private first reactions. When something is shown, everyone writes a card before anyone speaks.
  • Inner thoughts. Turn them on to see what each person keeps to themselves.
  • A room that disagrees. Some people go along out loud and doubt in private; the record keeps both.
Moderator

You’ve all seen the refill pack now. Mark, you shook your head when it came round. Say more?

Mark (arms folded)

I’ve bought the same stick for twenty years. Why would I pay more to do the refilling myself?

ThinkingThe case is nicer than mine, to be fair. Not saying that in front of everyone.

Ana (leaning in)

Mark, I’d pay more if it lasts. My two go through a stick a month each.

Keisha (nodding slowly)

Same. As long as the refills are in the store and not only online.

ThinkingI’d forget to reorder it online. I know myself.

Moderator

Keisha, what would happen if the refills were online only?

An illustrative example, written for this page to show the format. It isn’t output from a real session, and the names exist only here.

04Report

Counts, quotes and the gaps between them.

An analyst reads everything, including the private cards and thoughts, and writes it up in five parts. Every finding says how many people it came up with, never a percentage. Download it as a PDF, with the transcript if you want it.

The headline and key findings

What the room told you, each finding with how many people it came up with, which way they leaned, and how clearly the session supports it.

Themes across the room

What kept coming back, in people’s own words.

Each person’s view, and how it moved

Where each person started, where they ended, and why. Including where what they thought differed from what they said.

What was thought but not said

Objections, doubts and good ideas that stayed in people’s heads.

What to test next

Hypotheses worth testing with real people, why the session suggests each one, and how to check it. Then how the session was run, and its limits.

05Ask

The conversation after the conversation

Ask the moderator anything about the session, up to 25 questions a project. When the answer needs it, the moderator goes back to the people who can give it, one at a time, away from the room, and tells you what each said.

My People

Real people beside the panel

Describe someone you know, in their own answers, and seat their twin on any panel. Then check it: the twin answers questions you held back, and you compare what they said with what their twin said.

The honest bits

A rehearsal, not a replacement.

  1. The people are synthetic

    They’re built on real records, but nobody on a panel is a real respondent. Use Solon to explore an idea and sharpen it before you put it in front of real people.

  2. A panel isn’t a survey

    3 to 8 people can surface reasons, objections and language. They can’t tell you what share of a market will buy.

  3. Findings are hypotheses

    The report ends with what to test next and how, and says plainly how the session was run and where its limits are.

Who it’s for

One idea, or a client a week.

A project is one focus group: a brief, a panel, a session, its report and its follow-up questions. How many you need is the only difference between the plans.

Founders and product teamsOne product, one launch, one ideaYou know it too well to hear it fresh. Hear how a room of strangers takes it before you spend on the real research.Solon 1$29Brand and marketing teamsSeveral concepts, campaigns or claimsSee which idea lands, which confuses, and which people agree with out loud while doubting it in private.Solon 5$125AgenciesA client, a pitch, a piece of workPressure-test the idea before the pitch, or the work before the client sees it, and hand over the report.Solon 10$220Research and insight teamsBefore the real fieldworkFind the questions that go flat and the stimulus that confuses, then take a sharper guide into real groups.Solon 10$220

Plans

One payment. No subscription.

Every project includes everything on this page. Projects don’t expire, and you can buy any plan again to add more.

Solon 1

$29one payment

1 project

For one product, campaign or idea

Buy Solon 1$29

Solon 5

$125one payment

5 projects

For a team testing several ideas

Buy Solon 5$125

Solon 10

$220one payment

10 projects

For agencies and research teams

Buy Solon 10$220

A project whose session hasn’t run can be deleted and used again. How plans and projects work.