Microsoft ignored focus group feedback about 'leering' Clippy

What was wrong with Clippy? Well, where to start. Microsoft's now-defunct digital assistant has long been a byword for disastrous software design, but it seems there are still new lessons to be learned from the anthropomorphic paperclip's demise. One problem identified in the recent documentary Code: Debugging the Gender Gap and reported by The Atlantic, is that Clippy was the product of an unthinkingly male environment.

Roz Ho, a former Microsoft executive who was at the company during Clippy's conception, said that early focus group feedback from female users on Clippy and other Office assistants was "kind of negative." In the documentary Ho says:

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