Report: Microsoft Has Laid Off its Modern Life Experiences Team
- Laurent Giret
- Aug 10, 2022
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Microsoft has reportedly laid off its Modern Life Experience (MLX) team that has been working on consumer-focused features for a couple of years. According to Business Insider, Microsoft recently asked the team of roughly 200 employees to find either another position within the company or take severance pay.
“To all my colleagues who faced hard news today, please let me know if there’s anything I can do. The culture we created inside a giant company on our small Modern Life Experiences team was so special. Thinking of you all today,” a Microsoft Senior Design Manager shared on LinkedIn in reaction to the news.
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Microsoft’s Modern Life Experiences team was behind the Family Safety apps for iOS and Android, as well as Money in Excel, a personal finance tool. Overall, the team’s goal was to create new products and experiences that would appeal to consumers living in the Microsoft ecosystem. This certainly isn’t an easy task when Microsoft no longer has a mobile platform, and when the competition from Google and Apple is so good.
These latest layoffs happen after Microsoft announced in May that it would restrict hiring for its Windows, Office, and Teams Groups. The company also announced some layoffs at the beginning of its new fiscal year last month. At the time, though, the company explained that it will “continue to invest in our business and grow headcount overall in the year ahead.”
If Microsoft remains a true juggernaut in the enterprise world thanks to Office 365, Azure, and other cloud products, the company probably isn’t about to become the next IBM. Microsoft is a driving force in gaming with services like Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Cloud Gaming, while Surface went to become a billion-dollar business in less than 10 years.
Overall, Microsoft now seems to see “prosumers” as a very important part of its userbase. The company offers a great collection of productivity apps and services with its Microsoft 365 Personal and Home subscriptions. Last year, the company also emphasized that Windows 11 was the first version of Windows designed for the hybrid work era.