Deconstructing Product Design

Post-It Note

Art Fry and Spencer Silver for 3M, 1980

1. The Post-It Note began as the proverbial solution in search of a problem. Spencer Silver, a senior chemist at 3M, had developed a reusable, low-tack adhesive, but a marketable form of the product proved elusive. Art Fry learned of the adhesive at an internal 3M seminar, and realized it would solve a problem he experienced every Sunday: when he stood and opened his hymnal to sing at church, the bookmarks in his hymnal would fall out. The Post-It Note was born. Focus groups were conducted without samples, and consumer reaction was tepid. However, when follow-up studies were conducted with samples, consumers couldn’t get enough of them, underscoring the divide that so often exists between ...