A month ago, Ben Yoskovitz and I visited Barcelona to run a Lean Analytics workshop for Schibsted Classified Media, one of the world’s largest classified publishers. We were initially contacted by Valerie Coulton, whose official title is Innovation Catalyst, about joining their worldwide meeting. Valerie and her team had read Lean Analytics, and wanted us to get involved in their internal frameworks for innovation and metrics.

We had a great time, and loved both Barcelona and the folks from Schibsted that we met. Once the dust had settled, I asked Valerie if she’d be willing to dive deeper into her role at the company.

In this interview, we touch on a few things:

• Why innovation isn’t just creating new products or entering new markets, it’s also readying the organization for periods of change once disruption occurs.
• What backgrounds innovators need to have (or don’t need) to be effective.
• Design thinking, and how it’s at the core of creating great businesses with user experiences that delight and captivate a market.
• Why art—as well as design—is needed to create something unique, and how all art holds an element of risk

It’s a wide-ranging discussion, and Valerie tells a great story.

Here’s the video:

And here’s the audio of our interview: