At DevLearn 2025 we asked attendees: If you could have one L&D superpower what would it be? Their answers weren’t about flashy technology or unlimited budgets, but instead they pointed to where learning professionals feel friction, and what they believe would make the greatest difference in their work.
Strategic clarity and influence
Many attendees wished for the ability to quickly define strategy and, just as importantly, see their ideas fully implemented within their organizations. This reflects a common challenge: learning and performance improvement professionals often know what should be done but struggle with alignment, time constraints, and stakeholder buy-in. The real superpower they’re seeking isn’t just strategy, it’s influence and execution power.
Deeper impact
Another theme centered on influencing not just behavior, but mindset and motivation. Attendees described wanting to influence not only what people do, but why they do it. This signals an ambition to move beyond compliance and surface-level metrics. Many learning professionals want their work to shape culture and belief systems, not just check boxes, with the goal of creating meaningful and lasting change.
Personalization at scale
Attendees also expressed a desire to deeply understand every learner and deliver the right experience to each individual. In large, diverse organizations, that level of personalization can feel impossible. The aspiration highlights a tension between scale and connection as learning teams are asked to reach many but still value the intimacy of designing for the individual. It brings light to something fundamental: even in a tech-enabled world, learning remains deeply human work.
Capturing and clarifying expertise
Several responses focused on the challenge of working with subject matter experts and translating complex, technical content into clear, engaging learning. Extracting tacit knowledge and simplifying complexity remains one of the field’s toughest tasks. The wish here is for clarity and the ability to turn dense information into accessible understanding.
Sustaining creativity
Creativity surfaced repeatedly, especially the desire for fresh, engaging ideas that make learning come alive. Under tight deadlines and heavy content demands, innovation can be difficult to sustain. Yet these responses reinforce that engagement isn’t optional, but rather essential for impact.
The responses from DevLearn 2025 show a field that is ambitious and impact-driven. Today’s learning and performance improvement professionals don’t just want to deliver content, they want to shape strategy, influence culture, personalize learning, and turn expertise into meaningful experience.
