Rewriting the Rules of Mob Programming: One Tiny Step at a Time with Kevin Vicencio and Alex Bird

What happens when you combine daily mini-retrospectives, Test-Driven Development in absurdly small steps, and Chess Clock Mobbing? You get a radically different iteration on collaboration, continuous improvement, and extreme programming—and that’s exactly what we explore in this episode of the Mob Mentality Show with guests Kevin Vicencio and Alex Bird.

Kevin and Alex are on a team who didn’t just mob the canonical way—they experimented with variations and discovered something that seems faster, tighter, and even more collaborative in many ways. From refining how teams use retrospectives to guide daily improvements, to pioneering a new high-intensity form of teaming called “Chess Clock Mobbing,” their approach is relentless in its pursuit of learning and team flow.

In this conversation, we dig into:
- How daily retros and real-time feedback can evolve your team culture fast
- Why working in smaller TDD steps can paradoxically lead to faster results
- The mechanics and mindset behind Chess Clock Mobbing 
- “Evil TDD Ping Pong” as a way to level up test design and shared understanding
- Building a culture of trust, safety, and continuous experimentation
- Techniques for maintaining momentum, engagement, and learning in remote-first dev teams
- The power of absurdly small experiments and the compounding effect of micro-improvements

Whether you’re an Agile coach, XP practitioner, software engineer, or just curious about pushing the boundaries of collaborative development, this episode delivers deep insights, real practices, and actionable takeaways you can try with your team tomorrow.

📌 Don’t forget to like, comment, and share if this episode sparked an idea or a conversation!

Video and Show Notes: https://youtu.be/w3vvpJ3VKew