Kim Stockley’s (Senior UX and Research Manager at Capital One) Co-Lab talk is a vibrant, practical call to reframe how we think about inspiration, innovation, and creativity at work. She opens by recalling how Co-Lab sparked her own curiosity and challenges the myth that innovation is a singular “lightbulb moment.”

Instead, Kim proposes that creativity is a lifelong practice—one that’s built on paying attention, staying open, and making space to be inspired. Through her own childhood obsession with catalog creation (aka early Pinterest), she illustrates that ideas don’t come from nowhere—they come to those who are paying attention and ready to act.

Drawing on lessons from her time at an innovation lab, Kim shares three ways to build a culture of continuous discovery: shaping the right process, fostering the right culture, and cultivating the right mindset. She offers lean, actionable tactics to get closer to customers, bring internal voices into research, and even use AI to pressure-test ideas with synthetic stakeholders.

But she also emphasizes that none of this works if your team is burned out. She encourages rituals that energize and inspire, from Spark Safaris to Silent Book Clubs, and reminds us that innovation doesn’t just require tools—it requires curiosity, connection, and moments of reflection. Whether you’re running retros or just wondering “what if?”, Kim makes a compelling case that inspiration isn’t rare—it’s everywhere, if we let it in.