What is The Garage?

The Microsoft Garage delivers programs and experiences to our employees, customers, and partners that drive collaboration, creativity, and experimentation. Our motto “doers, not talkers” continues to be the core of what we are. The Garage attracts people who are passionate about making a difference in the world. They are relentlessly curious and lifelong, hands-on learners. By actively participating in the creative process, regardless of success or failure, each person gets the opportunity to gain valuable insights, increase their knowledge, and learn diverse perspectives.

In the early days of The Garage, the focus was on employees and mobilizing Microsoft’s cultural ambitions. The Garage helped employees integrate these cultural priorities – Growth Mindset, Customer Obsession, Diversity & Inclusion, One Microsoft, and Making a difference – into everyday work. As The Garage grew and the culture shift actions gained critical mass, entire teams and organizations began driving their business forward using these actions. An additional focus of The Garage was helping teams and organizations integrate growth mindset activities into team workflows. More recently, The Garage has continued to evolve by bringing in Microsoft customers to team up with employees for high speed growth mindset activities.

Garage Global Sites

The Garage provides spaces for hacking and making for employees, interns, and the local ecosystem and customers. There are Garage sites at Microsoft locations around the world: Redmond, Vancouver, Bay Area, Atlanta, Reston/DC, New England, New York City, Dublin, Israel, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, East Africa, West Africa, and Beijing. The Garage team develops online and in-person programming at each location tuned to the needs of the global and local community. Talks and workshops help hackers explore and cross-pollinate technology.

Hacking at Microsoft

The Garage is a portal to hack culture at Microsoft. We believe hacking is for everyone, technical and non-technical. Everyone has unique skills, experiences, and interests to contribute. We recognize good ideas can come from anywhere. Regardless of role or discipline, everyone is challenged to give it their all, to experiment with technology and turn ideas into real projects, in a fun, supportive atmosphere. There is no shortage of good ideas, and with many dependencies on project viability, team motivation, and relevance, results vary. Some ideas end before there is a working prototype. Others are inspired to continue the journey and iterate on their solution, hoping to bring it to market. A smaller set take their idea all the way to a high quality working solution ready to test in the marketplace.

The flagship Global Hackathon, the largest private hackathon on the planet, attracts more than 70,000 employees and interns from around the world. It offers a fast way to team up, hack, and move an idea forward. Winning teams earn the opportunity to pitch to senior leaders, and many teams continue to work on their projects throughout the year. Projects are evaluated for patent potential, viability, and alignment to the business. Ideas and prototypes may be selected for further review or funded to continue development. Internally facing projects may have great impact and improve existing policies, processes or services. Amazing synergies and connections across technologies and silos are made, and many return to their day job inspired and re-energized. The Garage Wall of Fame showcases projects that went the distance to become a Microsoft branded product or feature.

Garage Gallery

The Microsoft Garage Gallery welcomes its first exhibition, Spirit of Being. This initial exhibit features six leading artists who have found ways to embrace technology as a key element of their stories. Originally intended to be an in-person exhibition open to the public at Microsoft’s new research and development facility in Lower Manhattan (which has been delayed until it’s safe to do so), the exhibit now includes an immersive online experience—viewable by phone, laptop, or VR headset—so that all the creative works can be seen and experienced by people around the world.

The Garage plans to continue using this experimental gallery to showcase the latest works from pioneering artists and employees who imagine a better tomorrow, and build upon the curiosity, ingenuity, and creativity found throughout Microsoft.

Experimental Outlet

The Garage is Microsoft’s official outlet for experimental projects from small teams across the company to test a hypothesis, receive early customer feedback, and determine product market fit. Project teams get expert guidance, and a lightweight release process to help teams get their experiments out quickly. Teams move fast, connect directly with customers, and iterate based on feedback. The teams are as unique as the projects, which you can find on the Workbench and try for yourself.

Meet the Garage Team

These high-impact programs offer opportunities for anyone to unleash their ideas, follow their instincts, take risks, and exercise their creative muscle. They also offer opportunities to learn new technologies, work closely with people of different backgrounds, and help foster a culture – on a team, in a division, and at the company – in which people are empowered, self-directed, and nimble.

To connect with the people who power these programs, meet the Garage team