3m Post-It Notes: Innovation and Invention

1) What are the critical elements of the evolution of Post it Notes from idea to implementation? Please describe in adequate detail – all inclusive of key events leading up to final product launch.

The critical elements in the evolution of the Post-It Notes are an image of 3M’s innovation chain. The creation of the Post-It Note however was an accidental development and not a result of a problem that needed to be solved. There are many critical elements associated with the evolution of the Post-It Note.

Research began with Spence Silver. His creativity and ability to pursue continuity and change allowed for the creation of a new adhesive product. Instead of following 3M’s usual approaches, he diverted away and was able to develop a process that created the new adhesive. His result only occurred because he chose to deviate away from the existing processes associated with mixing molecules. Although Silver created this new adhesive, it had no purpose or application under 3M’s existing product line.

Next was innovation on the part of Art Fry. Fry is attributed with discovering a potential application for Silver’s adhesive; a sort of adhesive and paper that will create a better bookmark. Fry’s ability to segregate localized context of meanings allowed him to apply Silver’s adhesive to a piece of paper.

Henry Courtney and Roger Miller encompassed the domain in which the Post-It Note product was developed and specifically worked on the paper coating technology. The work done by Courtney and Miller allowed for the adhesive to work as is commonly known presently.

Since Art Fry conceived the idea for how to use the adhesive, he was thus also in charge of product engineering. Fry had to apply outside of the box thinking for the development and production of the Post-It Note. The challenging task was to locally apply the adhesive to one side of the paper. In order to accomplish his task, he built a small-scale assembly machine in his own basement. Without the small...