The Cambridge office building that houses Microsoft Corp.’s New England Research and Development Center has two garages. The one downstairs is for cars. The one upstairs is for people and machines — and ideas.
The NERD Center is the latest Microsoft facility to feature a Garage — a freeform work space where Microsoft employees, interns, schools, and community groups can find the tools and training they need to launch products and learn skills. Microsoft operates seven such Garages worldwide.
Linda Thackeray, who manages the Cambridge Garage, is a 20-year Microsoft veteran who has spent much of her career at the company’s headquarters, providing support for her colleagues in the software-writing end of the business. Now, at the Garage, she’s helping to perform a personality transplant at Microsoft, a once-stodgy behemoth that’s learning some new dance steps under chief executive Satya Nadella.
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