Microsoft Garage, its 24-hour ideas factory, has cooked up a business app compining Ask.fm and Tinder
Microsoft's trendy alternative to Google X-Labs has released a new iPhone app for company employees to ask and answer questions.
Known as Forum, presumably because that's all Microsoft Garage has actually built, it allows employees to use Tinder-like swiping to vote up or down questions. This means that not only can employees pose questions to others, but what gets a response is decided by all instead of by a ballot box.
Interestingly, from the screenshots uploaded to the US App Store, Forum seems to allow for live Q&A sessions in-app. Currently it's not clear if submissions can only be made via the app, or if someone can chime in via desktop or web apps too.
Not only is it currently limited to the US, but it's also largely skewed towards answering the questions nobody really cares about. One question seen in screenshots is “What keeps you here? (Other than the pay check)”, that's a HR manager's nightmare if voted up and commented upon. It's essentially bringing Glassdoor into the workplace, instead of keeping it outside.
Call me pessimistic, but I just don't see Microsoft Garage's Forum going anywhere fast.
