What we learned at DeliverCon 2025

It was fantastic to return to DeliverCon 2025 this week – a brilliantly organised, volunteer-powered 'unconference' hosted by Defra in York. Many of us have attended since its 2018 debut, coming together to learn from one another, tackle gnarly problems, and forge lasting networks and friendships. What began as a small gathering has grown into a thriving community of delivery managers across the public sector.

Here at Public Digital, our delivery-skilled practitioners partner with organisations to demonstrate the strategic value of test-and-learn approaches for navigating complexity and delivering human-centred services. As the importance of agile, user-focused delivery rises, the role of the delivery manager has become central to our diverse client engagements.

Here are our five key takeaways from the event:

AI: The delivery manager’s new best friend

Unsurprisingly, AI was a hot topic. Some delivery managers have woven it into their daily workflows – automating admin, drafting user stories and prototyping alphas – while others are still on the sidelines. The appetite to experiment is unmistakable. Beyond those obvious wins, a few pioneers are even exploring AI-driven sprint-capacity estimates and role-playing tricky stakeholder conversations. Enthusiasm, however, is tempered by caution: concerns about hallucinations, ethical pitfalls and environmental impact mean many are proceeding carefully rather than diving in headfirst.

The key takeaway? AI isn’t just a tool, it’s a new team member: helpful, occasionally unreliable, but always learning fast. Like any new joiner, AI needs onboarding, clear expectations, and regular feedback. Prompting is just the latest addition to the delivery manager’s toolkit – if you can build a team of humans, you’ve already got what it takes to bring AI into the fold.

The problems that won’t go away

As with any enduring classic, certain themes in the delivery world – challenging stakeholders, conflict management, agile versus waterfall – remain ever-relevant. When selecting sessions, we noted that delivery managers consciously downvoted those familiar debates, instead championing more curious and niche topics. In sessions where these issues inevitably surfaced (because they are constant challenges faced by delivery managers), the answers were largely already in the toolbox. Regular retros, working in the open, one-to-ones, daily scrum/standup meetings all featured. Recurring problems have recurring solutions – if things aren’t clicking, it’s always worth revisiting the fundamentals.

Optimism is alive and well

How do we stay optimistic? How do we overcome cynicism? The session exploring how to bring optimism into teams was truly energising, as was being surrounded by people dedicated to bringing joy to their teams. The best insights, however, were found in honestly and compassionately leaning into pessimism. Delivery management can sometimes feel lonely – and often frustrating – especially when you’re on the front line of driving cultural and behavioural change. So what might be discovered if we give people space to explore their cynicism and inquire as to what is behind it? 

By consciously exploring pessimism, and acting on genuine concern rooted in experience, we can often get ahead of potential problems. It’s an effective way to help team members give value in ways not obviously perceived, increasing trust in the short term and generating joy in the long term.