Part of the challenge of working with teams that are geo-distributed is having a tool to  work together and sketch or prototype new products or ideas together.

Microsoft is previewing a new service, Microsoft Whiteboard app. The tool (at the time only available for Windows 10 users) allows you to have multiple people work with notes, images and free form drawing, this experience is much better if you have a touch screen but you can use your mouse to draw, drag or select elements on the whiteboard.

Running a few tests I found the app to have some challenges zooming in/out and being able to exit the search menu. The main premise is there, so I expect this to be refined in a few months when they clear the preview label.

You can start using it on your own today provided you have a Microsoft account (like Hotmail, Outlook, etc.) or a work account with Office 365 enabled. Co-authoring is only allowed for Office 365 users.

If you plan to use it for work, during the preview, the app is disabled by default but your Office 365 admin can enable it for on your tenant. Keep in mind that at present, the data you generate will be stored in US soil (if you care about that kind of thing) but will be stored in other regions in the future.

My 2 cents here: try it out, but “let it simmer” for a couple of months before you try using it for something other than testing.

Want to learn more, check out the Microsoft Whiteboard help page