This special episode of The Mob Mentality Show is a cross-post from Tuple’s podcast/videocast Distributed, where Chris and Austin join host Jack Hannah for an in-depth conversation about mob programming, agile leadership, and the evolving role of AI in software development.

Originally recorded for Distributed, this discussion brings a fresh outside perspective to topics Chris and Austin have explored in over 300 episodes of The Mob Mentality Show—but here, they dive even deeper into the origins of mob programming, how it spread across the organization, and what it takes to protect team culture while scaling.

Listeners will hear stories about early experiments—like rearranging office spaces to make pairing/mobbing possible—navigating challenging product owner relationships, and using “cellular division” to grow teams without losing their collaborative spirit. The conversation also covers AI in social coding, from generating code in domain-specific languages to treating AI as another member of the mob, plus honest thoughts on whether AI could ever replace pair or mob programming.

Key Topics in This Cross-Post Episode:

• How one team’s mob programming experiment became an org-wide practice

• Lessons from creating and sustaining 300+ agile/XP episodes

• Office and workflow changes that enable collaboration at scale

• Maintaining team culture through growth and change

• Where AI fits (and doesn’t) in mob and pair programming

• Practical advice for teams without internal XP mentors

• The future of AI in collaborative software development

If you’re interested in agile leadership, developer experience, extreme programming, or the human side of software engineering, you’ll get proven strategies you can apply immediately—plus inspiration from seeing how practices spread beyond their starting point. Video and Show Notes: https://youtu.be/Cd0L4jyaUIg

What does it really look like when Agentic AI systems are integrated into some modern software teams? In this episode of the Mob Mentality Show, we sit down with David Hirschfeld—founder and CEO—to unpack real-world experiences with Agentic AI, prompt engineering, and workflow automation in dev environments. This is not a theoretical discussion. David brings firsthand stories of building and deploying AI-powered agents. We explore the hands-on challenges and breakthroughs that come with treating AI like a junior developer, giving it structured workflows, and designing systems that can improve with feedback. Highlights include:

• Is “prompt engineering” dead?

• What Agentic AI is doing right now to reduce busywork and boost flow and what are the current shortcomings

• How AI agents can integrate with tools like Jira and Slack

• The cultural shifts needed to make AI part of your agile team

• Pitfalls of over-reliance on AI and the importance of confidence thresholds (e.g., big bang AI slop vs. small batch AI with verified output)

• How voice and vision AI are expanding what’s possible in software development

• When to automate, when to augment, and when to stay manual

• The surprising power of “smart laziness” in engineering productivity

• Lessons from real teams automating their development processes

Whether you’re a dev, product manager, or just AI-curious, this episode offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at how agentic systems are being used today—not in the future—to transform engineering work. Video and Show Notes: https://youtu.be/cMhnIeGu3Js

How do you scale an agile team without sacrificing collaboration, flow, or developer experience?

In this episode of the Mob Mentality Show, we’re joined by Brice Ruth—engineering leader at Flexion and ensemble programming advocate—for a deep dive into what it takes to build high-functioning, adaptable software teams through a concept he calls “mob meiosis.”

We explore Brice’s journey from solo coding to full-time mob programming, and how his experience in the industry and in government contracts shaped his philosophy on team dynamics, learning cultures, and system design. If you’re looking for actionable insights into building fast feedback loops, enhancing developer onboarding, or evolving your mob into multiple autonomous mobs, this is the episode you don’t want to miss.

🔍 What you’ll learn:

• What “mob meiosis” is and how it enables team scaling without silos

• How to engineer feedback loops that operate across code, communication, and team structure

• Why ensemble programming improves developer flow, learning, and job satisfaction

• Lessons from transitioning into mobbing full-time—and how to make it sustainable

• Tips for fostering a culture where pairing, mobbing, and continuous improvement thrive

Whether you’re an agile coach, engineering manager, or developer looking to elevate your team’s practices, Brice brings a sharp, experience-backed perspective on what it means to lead with feedback, prioritize team health, and scale with purpose.

🎙️ Subscribe to the Mob Mentality Show for more episodes on ensemble programming, agile culture, and modern software team dynamics. Video and Show Notes: https://youtu.be/W0eJFMzbBME

In this eye-opening episode of the Mob Mentality Show, we sit down with software engineer and consultant William Bernting to explore a radical approach to hiring, teamwork, and technical leadership.

William walks us through his real-world experience with mob programming interviews—a collaborative hiring process where candidates join the team in an ensemble coding session, not a contrived solo coder test. He shares the surprising benefits of evaluating candidates through communication, alignment, and problem-solving over individual technical trivia.

We dive into:

• Why mob programming is a great way to assess team fit and long-term success

• How to structure collaborative interviews that reduce anxiety and reveal true strengths

• What happens when you ditch traditional project-led methods and focus on predictability through steady flow

• How the Cynefin framework helps make sense of complex team dynamics and guides leadership decisions

• What freelance engineering looks like when trust, autonomy, and collaboration lead the way

William also discusses how he's made his work more stable and sustainable—for both clients and team members—without relying on estimates or rigid plans. Instead, he uses continuous delivery, test-driven development (TDD), and mobbing to achieve results that are both reliable and adaptable.

Whether you're a hiring manager rethinking your interview process, an engineer looking to join better teams, or a leader trying to move beyond chaotic delivery cycles, this conversation offers practical takeaways and fresh perspective. 🧠 Topics covered: - Mob Programming Interviews - Collaborative Hiring - Cynefin Framework in Tech - Predictability Without Projects - Freelancing in Software Engineering - Team Fit Over Resume Skills - Agile Leadership Without Estimates Video and Show Notes: https://youtu.be/nnR3_V8FrMQ

In this episode of the Mob Mentality Show, we sit down with Taimoor Imtiaz—CTO at a fast-moving, bootstrapped startup—for a raw, insightful dive into how his small dev team applied mob programming, trunk-based development, and GitHub Flow to accelerate delivery without sacrificing code quality. Taimoor shares the journey of how his team transitioned from traditional PR-based workflows to real-time collaboration in mobs. Along the way, they faced timer-switching friction, monorepo challenges, and the trade-offs of scaling extreme programming practices in a production environment. If you’ve ever wondered how mob programming plays out in a high-pressure startup setting—or whether trunk-based development is viable outside of big enterprise environments—this conversation is for you. What you’ll learn in this episode:

• How GitHub Flow can be adapted for trunk-based development

• Why mob programming improved debugging and reduced defects

• Where mob timebox timers went wrong—and what the team did about it

• The real impact of developer experience and culture on delivery speed

• Lessons learned from using a monorepo in a fast-growing codebase

• Using extreme programming when resources are tight

Whether you’re a startup CTO, team lead, or individual contributor looking to evolve your team’s workflow, this episode offers real-world insights into modern software development practices that actually work under pressure. Video and Show Notes: https://youtu.be/yTbzycv9qw4

📚 How does Mob Programming really work in the college classroom? In this episode of the Mob Mentality Show, we reconnect with Professor Ben Kovitz to explore the raw lessons, surprising wins, and tough challenges from a full semester of mob programming in a college software design course. Ben shares what happened when he replaced traditional lectures with real-world collaboration. The results? Students developed practical coding skills, improved their communication, and learned to work together as a true software team—less ego, more shared ownership. From early wins with small group design exercises to complex struggles with C++ memory management and GUI libraries, Ben walks us through what worked, what bombed, and what he’d change next time. We break down:

• Why mob programming created stronger learning and better teamwork than expected

• How structured rotations got everyone participating and avoiding common pairing pitfalls

• The highs and lows of using C++ and Qt in a classroom setting

• The unexpected power of students struggling through real software challenges together

• Lessons on undo implementation, design patterns, and memory management from hands-on mobbing

• How a semester wasn’t enough time to fully teach long-term code stewardship and habitable design

• What might scale—or fall apart—if mob programming were applied to larger classes

• How this classroom experience mirrors the real world: legacy code, fast feedback, technical debt, and learning as you go

Whether you’re a software engineer, an educator, or someone passionate about team learning, this episode gives you actionable insights into mob programming as both a teaching tool and a real-world development practice. We also explore questions like:

• Can mob programming work with 30+ students?

• How can solo work and group collaboration coexist in the best learning environments?

• What does it take to create code that’s not just correct—but actually pleasant to maintain?

If you’re interested in agile learning, collaborative coding, and pushing the boundaries of how we teach and work as software teams, this episode is for you. Video and Show Notes: https://youtu.be/kbNEfAcfmeo

🎲 In this episode of the Mob Mentality Show, we dive into a unique and game-changing (literally) approach to learning Test-Driven Development (TDD) with Ted M. Young (JitterTed), John Wilson, and Janis Kampe.

Discover the origin story of the TDD board game that started as a simple teaching aid and evolved into a powerful learning experience for developers, teams, and even product managers. Hear how this game went from casual pub nights to becoming a staple for some in team training sessions, meetups, and Agile coaching toolkits.

We break down:

• ✅ How the TDD board game helps teams internalize the deeper steps of TDD beyond the basic "Red-Green-Refactor" mantra.

• ✅ Why the game’s focus on prediction, risk management, and working in small steps transforms the way people think about writing code.

• ✅ The surprising ways the game builds psychological safety, making it accessible even to people new to TDD or nervous about exposing gaps in their knowledge.

• ✅ How the game naturally leads to ensemble (mob) programming and seamless transitions into hands-on coding platforms like CyberDojo.

• ✅ Practical tips on using the game to onboard, coach, and improve team collaboration—whether you're remote, hybrid, or in-person.

We also explore the importance of failing safely, incremental learning, and how the game allows players to experience both the thrill of success and the consequences of cutting corners—without the high stakes of real-world code.

Whether you're a developer, Agile coach, product manager, or just curious about TDD, this episode will give you actionable insights on:

• 🛠 How to enable continuous learning in your teams.

• 🎯 Why predicting outcomes matters more than just getting green tests.

• 🎮 How gamification makes TDD fun, social, and sticky.

Key Topics:

• TDD Board Game Mechanics & Variations

• Psychological Safety in Learning

• Risk vs. Reward in Software Development

• Ensemble Programming (Mob Programming)

• Transitioning from Game to CyberDojo

• Practical Coaching Tools for TDD and XP

• Building Stronger Developer-Product Manager Collaboration

Video and Show Notes: https://youtu.be/GjcUdoS5K6I

👨‍💻 Legacy code isn’t just old untested code—it’s a symptom of deeper problems in your organization. In this no-fluff episode of the Mob Mentality Show, we’re joined by Agile and technical coach Wouter Lagerweij to break down why legacy issues persist and how shared responsibility between product and engineering is the key to meaningful change. 🎯 What we cover in this episode: - Why legacy systems are just as much about organizational baggage as they are about outdated code - How true Agile teaming—swarming, pairing, mobbing—can unlock speed, learning, and fun - Why your bug tracker is a graveyard, and how a zero bug policy can reset your team’s quality bar This is a grounded, experience-rich conversation packed with practical insights for developers, team leads, product managers, and anyone serious about improving delivery without adding more process theater. ✅ You’ll come away with: * A broader definition of legacy and how to confront it * Concrete examples of effective team collaboration models * A new perspective on software quality and defect tracking * Proven ways to foster stronger cross-functional ownership 👤 **About the guest:** Wouter Lagerweij is an independent Agile Coach based in The Netherlands and operating throughout Europe. He loves spending time with teams and organizations to figure out how to improve the way they make software, and make it more fun. To make that happen he uses the knowledge and skills gathered in over eighteen years of experience applying Agile processes and practices from XP, Scrum, Kanban, Continuous Delivery, DevOps, Lean and Systems Thinking. To turn those improvements into real business opportunities, he has added Lean Startup/Lean Enterprise approaches. Occasionally, he even uses common sense. 😅 Video and Show Notes: https://youtu.be/me9CSgmIRk8