The Mob Mentality Show

👨‍💻 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 organiz...

🎙️ What happens when software engineers and leaders don’t speak the same language? How do context-free Agile practices and technical dogma lead teams astray? And how do we create engineering cultures that deliver real business value without burning out?

In this Mob Mentality Show episode, we sit down with Kyle Rowland—leadership and software consultant, 20-year software engineering veteran, and author of Powerful Profitable Softwa...

What if your beliefs—about work, people, or even yourself—are quietly holding you back? In this episode of The Mob Mentality Show, we sit down with visual thinker, author, and accidental Mob Programming anthropologist Dave Gray to unpack the power of belief, clarity, and collaboration in tech and beyond.

Dave Gray is known for Liminal Thinking—a book about understanding the invisible beliefs that shape behavior and systems. But did...

In this thought-provoking episode, we sit down with Tobias Mayer—author, coach, and longtime voice in the Agile world—to explore the journey from his early discovery of XP (Extreme Programming) in 1997 all the way to today’s debate around the death of Scrum.

Tobias shares his personal transformation from developer to Scrum Master, his resistance to early XP, and how he learned great practices from developers he managed. We unpack h...

🎙️ In this episode of The Mob Mentality Show, we’re joined by Professor Ben Kovitz—a former software developer with 15 years of industry experience who went on to earn a PhD and is now teaching Computer Science at Cal Poly Humboldt. Prof Ben flips the script and brings his own real-world mob programming questions—challenges he’s faced while mobbing live with college students in the classroom.

This is not theory. These are hard-won...

🏈 Welcome to another episode of the Mob Mentality Show, where we explore the intersection of software development, leadership, and real-world lessons—from the unexpected to the game-changing. This time, we're talking Coaching Credits—as seen in the addictive mobile football game Retro Bowl—and how they map directly to trust, influence, and leadership in software teams.

🎙️ What are Coaching Credits? In Retro Bowl, Coaching Credits...

🎙️ Ever faced a product vision so massive it felt impossible to start? In this Mob Mentality Show episode, we tackle the art and science of Story Splitting — breaking down huge dreams into small, deliverable slices without losing momentum or clarity.

We explore real-world strategies, including:

• Asking the hard questions like Do we really need to release everything at once?

• Using SPIDR (Spike, Path, Interface, Data, Rules) ...

🎙️ What’s really happening inside your engineering org? In this episode of the Mob Mentality Show, we sit down with Philip Borlin, Director of Engineering and advocate for lean thinking, mobbing, and team capability building, to uncover how Gemba Walks, smaller batch sizes, and healthy team nudges reveal the actual state of your tech organization—not just what reports say.

We explore how leaders can stop flying blind and start lea...

What if your team didn’t need branches at all? 💥 In this episode of The Mob Mentality Show, we sit down with Ron Cohen, CTO and co-founder of Bucket, to unpack the real story behind Trunk Based Development (TBD) and the practical use of Feature Flags.

Ron stirred the pot online by challenging common assumptions around TBD — and now he’s here to clear the air.

We talk about:

• What Trunk Based Development really means (Hint: It...

What happens when a college software design course ditches traditional lectures and embraces Mob Programming?

In this episode of the Mob Mentality Show, we sit down with Ben Kovitz, a former software developer turned professor at Cal Poly Humboldt, to explore his innovative approach to teaching software design through mobbing.

✅ From Industry to Academia: Why Ben left software development to become a professor and h...

🔥 How do you actually build great software developers? How do you debug like a pro? And what happens when XP (Extreme Programming) makes a comeback after the Scrum backlash?

Join us as Garrick West—a seasoned XP practitioner, Agile coach, and software craftsmanship advocate—dives into: ✅ Building Agile Software Developers: From XP mentorship to industry-academia collaboration ✅ The Best Debugging Strategies: Unpacking The Debuggin...

🚀 How do Game Jams accelerate learning? Can mobbing make game development more effective? In this episode of the Mob Mentality Show, we dive deep into Game Jams, Mobbing, and Game Dev Collaboration with James Herr—a full-stack developer, game dev enthusiast, and published game creator on Steam.

🔹 What Are Game Jams and why they’re a must-try for devs? 🔹 The tech stacks and tools commonly use...

🚀 Why is there so much confusion around Test-Driven Development (TDD) and Automated Testing? Why do many developers struggle with testing, and what are they getting wrong? In this episode of the Mob Mentality Show, we sit down with Jason Swett—author, speaker, and a go-to expert on Rails testing—to unpack the most common misconceptions, challenges, and best practices in modern software testing.

🔍 Topics We Cover: ✅ Why Jason Swet...

How often should Agile teams reflect and adjust? Is your team on a road with switchbacks but they are not turning the wheel? In this episode of The Mob Mentality Show, we take a deep dive into Agile Principle #12, which states:

"At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly."

From a Mob Programming perspective, we explore what "tuning and adjusting" really l...

How do you balance small, iterative progress with the vast unknowns of research and development (R&D)? Can test-driven development (TDD) literally or "in spirit" still provide value when you're navigating uncharted territory? In this episode of the Mob Mentality Show, we dive deep into the intersection of R&D Mobbing and software development, exploring real-world scenarios, strategies, and challenges teams face when innovat...

Is the ultimate Domain-Driven Design (DDD) dream having a domain expert fully embedded in a Mob? Or does it come with hidden trade-offs? In this thought-provoking episode of the Mob Mentality Show, we explore the benefits, challenges, and real-world experiences of having a domain expert (or product owner) participate full-time in a Mob—not just as a consultant but as an active driver and navigator.

🔹 What We Discuss in This Episod...

Can a combo of Large Language Models (LLMs) and Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs) streamline development by automating repetitive patterns across teams? In this Mob Mentality Show episode, we dive deep into the intersection of AI-driven automation, code generation, and lean software development.

Join us as we explore: ✅ The "Generator for the Generator" Concept – How AI-powered tools and Mob Programming can create DSLs that automate...

Explore the exciting intersection of human collaboration and artificial intelligence (AI) in software development with this insightful episode of the Mob Mentality Show. Recorded for the 2024 UACon Winter: The Future of Product Development Summit on December 10, 2024, Aaron Griffith and Parker Barrett joins Austin to dive deep into how Mob Programming and AI are reshaping the way we build and test software.

This episode is packed w...

In this thought-provoking episode of the Mob Mentality Show, we dive into the world of extreme ownership within a multi-mobbing environment. What happens when a mob/team wants to make a decision, like extracting a method, refactoring to a new pattern, or reorganizing code boundaries? Should that decision wait for approval from outside teams? Or does extreme ownership mean trusting the mob to act autonomously for maximum flow effici...