Sue Butzer struggled through the first six months of her career – she measured the amount of foam produced by soap pads. Again. And again. And again.

She was analyzing soap pads from competitors to see how they performed compared to Scotch-Brite Rescue Soap Pads. She’s moved on to more exciting ventures – improving existing items you’d likely recognize and inventing new ones that might land in your home or office.

Sue launched her career in 3M product development in 1980 – the same year the company introduced Post-it Notes. One thing she’s learned? Not to get too attached.

She’s helped launch a lot of successful products, but with the fast-moving consumer home and office markets, Sue sees a lot of them go quickly out of vogue, too. She’s worked on head cleaners for VCR’s, pop-up tape, office air filters and ergonomic devices.

She’s currently focused on people who work in today’s smaller, more open-environment, office space – what she calls the “office cockpit.” As she works to improve their workday and workspace, she always has an eye on the problems they face.