Introduction: The use of the Focus Groups technique in nursing is present in the literature, however, gaps are highlighted in relation to guides or scripts that can guide their conduct in the area of ​​identifying managerial competences. Objectives: To present the researchers' experience with the elaboration of a guide to guide the conduct of FG related to the identification of management skills that are priority to the development of nursing students. Methods: Experience report carried out in a Brazilian Public Higher Education Institution. The guide was built based on articles available in the literature, reference proposed and the experience of the authors in a course offered by Spain. This guide has been validated and tested by four PhD specialists. After construction and validation, three focus groups were held with professors from the management area of ​​the selected institution, who had worked for more than two years in the function. The collection took place from March to April 2020. The groups were had an average duration of 55 minutes. An inductive thematic analysis was performed. Results: The construction of a guiding guide for driving must follow rigorous steps evidenced by the referential, and proved to be a strategy capable of identifying relevant aspects for the training of nurses with regard to the identification of managerial skills. Also can serve as a basis for conducting other groups. In addition, from the guide built and its implementation, priority managerial competencies were identified: leadership, communication, interpersonal relationships and managerial decision making. Conclusions: The strategy of focus groups with nursing professors accompanied by a guiding guide proved to be positive in identifying managerial competencies that are a priority in nursing education, enabling the formation of a better prepared professional to face the job market.