The story outlined there is pretty accurate. 3M has a policy they call "15 Percent Time" which encourages employees to spend up to 15 percent of their time trying out ideas they think might lead somewhere. Post-it was a result of one of these hunches. A common misconception is that it was an unintentional mistake, an accident gone right. Really it was the persistence of several scientists who eventually inspired each other.

Just about everyone who used them loved them, but the company wasn't initially swayed to produce them. So the scientists took the remainder of the samples from their experiments and distributed them to all the secretaries in their department, who found Post-it notes incredibly helpful. Then, with production cut off, the secretaries were told to contact marketing to order more. This overwhelming demand convinced 3M to start commercial production.

Yes, I've read the history of it (even studied that particular invention in business school at Oregon State) and that's a brief slide -- but accurate.