Lessons from 300+ videos on mob programming with Chris Lucian and Austin Chadwick
Distributed.24 Heinä 2025

Lessons from 300+ videos on mob programming with Chris Lucian and Austin Chadwick

In this episode of Distributed, host Jack Hannah talks to Chris Lucian and Austin Chadwick, the creators of the Mob Mentality Show and longtime engineering leaders at Hunter Industries. Chris, Director of Global Software Development, and Austin, Distinguished Engineer, reflect on mob programming and how practices spread. They open up about what it takes to protect team culture while growing, discuss lessons from their 300+ videos on mob programming and agile, and how AI is just another member of the mob.


Highlights:

  • How mob programming went from one team’s experiment to org-wide practice
  • What Chris and Austin learned from publishing 300+ episodes on agile and XP
  • How AI fits into social coding and the future of pairing and mobbing


In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) – Kicking things off with Chris Lucian and Austin Chadwick

(01:52) – Rearranging cubicles to make pairing possible

(03:09) – The first mob and why it worked

(05:01) – Repairing a wonky relationship with the product owner

(06:14) – Austin’s first mob and learning a new language on the fly

(07:41) – The Mob Mentality Show origin story

(09:22) – How Chris and Austin keep their episodes lean and sustainable

(12:17) – Diffusion of innovation and spreading practices

(15:18) – AI-generated code with domain languages

(18:41) – Growing the mob through cellular division while keeping culture

(24:49) – What to do when there are no internal XP mentors

(28:12) – Using AI like another member of the mob

(32:26) – Will AI replace pair and mob programming?



References

The Mob Mentality Show

Human & AI Collaboration in Mob Programming with Aaron Griffith and Parker Barrett


Where to connect further:

Connect with Chris Lucian on LinkedIn

Connect with Austin Chadwick on LinkedIn

Follow Tuple

Want to hear more? Check out distributed.fm

Connect with Jack Hannah

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(42)

Why faster coding doesn’t mean faster delivery

Why faster coding doesn’t mean faster delivery

Antony Marcano is the founder of RiverGlide and an engineering leader known for building teams that reach the Elite tier of the DORA metric for software delivery performance. In this episode of Distri...

19 Helmi 55min

The new engineering skill no one was trained for

The new engineering skill no one was trained for

In this episode of Distributed, Jack Hannah speaks with Scott Jones, Head of Engineering for Service Delivery at Stash, about building complex systems in a remote-first environment and why real-time c...

5 Helmi 45min

The hidden skill behind every high-performing engineering team with Andrew Stellman

The hidden skill behind every high-performing engineering team with Andrew Stellman

In this episode of Distributed, host Jack Hannah sits down with Andrew Stellman, a longtime software engineer, author, and engineering leader who has written multiple widely used software engineering ...

22 Tammi 40min

Why fewer meetings lead to better products with Steve Schoeffel (Whimsical)

Why fewer meetings lead to better products with Steve Schoeffel (Whimsical)

What does craftsmanship look like in an async-first, remote company?In this episode of Distributed, host Jack Hannah sits down with Steve Schoeffel, co-founder of Whimsical, to talk about async-first ...

8 Tammi 41min

Craftsmanship, apprenticeship, and getting the most from AI with Scott Hanselman (Microsoft)

Craftsmanship, apprenticeship, and getting the most from AI with Scott Hanselman (Microsoft)

Why does so much software still feel broken, even after years of new tools and processes?On this episode of Distributed, host Jack Hannah sits down with Scott Hanselman, Vice President of Developer Co...

18 Joulu 202542min

Why some engineers never get promoted (and how communication fixes it) with Ivett Ördög

Why some engineers never get promoted (and how communication fixes it) with Ivett Ördög

On this episode of Distributed, host Jack Hannah sits down with Ivett Ördög, a 35-year software veteran and creator of Lean Developer Experience (aka Lean Poker), to talk about what it really takes fo...

4 Joulu 202545min

The joy of doing it right: lessons from 50 billion downloads with Jesse Wilson (Cash App, Google)

The joy of doing it right: lessons from 50 billion downloads with Jesse Wilson (Cash App, Google)

In this episode of Distributed, host Jack Hannah talks with Jesse Wilson, a longtime open-source contributor and Cash App engineer, whose work underpins much of the Java and Android ecosystem. Jesse s...

20 Marras 202545min

Machine learning expert on the 3 skills that matter most in the AI age with Chelsea Troy

Machine learning expert on the 3 skills that matter most in the AI age with Chelsea Troy

As AI reshapes how software is built, what does it actually mean to be a good engineer? Chelsea Troy, who leads Machine Learning Operations at Mozilla and teaches computer science at the University of...

13 Marras 202547min