Great Place to Work: turning ideas into technology at "The Garage"
My name is Liz and I’m a Talent Sourcer for Microsoft’s Online Services Division (OSD). This is my first post as a JobsBlogger and today I want to talk about The Microsoft Garage. Ever heard of it?
No, it’s not a place to park or fix cars. The Garage is where we Microsofties get together to incubate our passion projects and entrepreneurial ideas.
In the Garage, we have over 3000 people from across Microsoft who are eager to hear each other’s ideas, provide feedback and, quite possibly, help turn those ideas into reality. The Garage also offers a collection of useful tools to put ideas into action including access to hardware, source control, testing instrumentation and even hosting for server- or cloud-based apps.
Last year, we in OSD started our own Garage chapter to provide community and infrastructure to accelerate grass-roots innovation across the team. The OSD Garage community meets twice a month to kick around new ideas, learn from each other and crank out some cool prototypes.
The OSD innovations coming out the Garage are still confidential, but a good example of a recent success to be born out of The Garage is the Lync Conversation Translator. This real-time translator lets two people who speak different languages have an instant messaging conversation in their native tongues.
Harry Emil, a Senior Test Lead in the Lync group, conceived the original prototype in his spare time at The Garage. With the support of other creative Microsoft minds, Harry’s idea is now part of our enterprise software and translates into to some 35 languages.
The Garage also mixes serious innovation with fun by hosting "Science Fairs," where employees put together poster-board presentations to showcase their last inventions. The judges wear white lab coats, award “Science Fair” winners with trophies and let them ignite a homemade volcano dubbed “Mount St. Awesome.” It’s… well… awesome.
Microsoft Advertising (part of OSD) held their first Science Fair in January. The goal of their science fair was to encourage innovation, facilitate feedback and concept generation between colleagues, and provide an outlet to showcase ideas. “Code speaks louder than words” was the mantra and over 30 startup projects were presented to a panel of judges compromised of the MS Advertising leadership team. The competition was fierce, the vibe was fun, and the innovation factor was high. The result of the first science fair?
Again, can’t tell you… yet.
But, I can say that that when our smartest minds from across the company get together and think outside of the box, the results are extraordinary.
Want to contribute your ideas to The Garage? Check us out here for jobs and your chance to ignite a homemade volcano.
-Liz
9 Comments
leo said:
Very informative post Liz!
Its very nice that microsoft have that kind of project wherein people can share their ideas about certain things and you company is ready to back you up to make your ideas become reality... Honestly there are lots of people that have this wonderful ideas about certain things like marketing concept, new games apps, new search engine, new company rule.. lol But since their company is lacking support, most of the time their ideas eventually get stuck in their minds up until they completely forget it.
Randall "Texrat" Arnold said:
This reminds me of my stint at Nokia and sounds like something I would really enjoy! It's frustrating working in a traditional setting with no opportunities like this-- hopefully Microsoft and others using these employee engagement techniques can inspire other companies to take the plunge. Delighted employees are your best employees!
Thanks for sharing!
Louis said:
Very cool! I am scheduled to start in September at Microsoft in Seattle and I will definetely look into the Garage. Thank you!
Dennis Hasenfang said:
So is this open to the public (non-Microsoft employees)? Are all inventions incubated for Microsoft? If outsiders have ideas, can they incubate and have exposure to Microsoft for purchase/licensing? How about resource sharing?
Thanks,
Dennis
admin said:
Thanks for your interest Dennis. The Garage is currently open to Microsoft employees. We have a variety of projects underway in this incubation space. The best way to share your ideas is to apply to a job at Microsoft and have the opportunity to join the team!
Stephen Rowlison said:
Is the Garage open to Micorosft Cloud partners that sell Office 365 and Azure? Can we open an online supermarket together instead?
Thien Nguyen said:
That's interesting. Great way to spur creativeness.
admin said:
Hi @StephenRowlison Thanks for your interest! The Garage is currently open to FTE Microsoft employees.
arunkumar said:
Hi, I am Arun.
I have done MBA in Project Management & Persuing MS in Software Engineering (Expected to complete in 2013-june).
I am Passionate about technology, like alot to learn & experiment cutting edge technologies.
Looking to join MS as intern, i have some confusion, that is i have work experiance as software test engineer, but no hands experiance in programming, but good in programming concepts.
- Can i try for "Program Managemer" intern???
- I am working professional & persuing MS in S/W Engg in weekend class, is am eligible for intern ???????
- I am located in Bangalore - India, can i try internship in other countries like US-seattle etc...????
- I am looking for help / guide on this, please help me....
Thanks in Advance - Arun