From Pub Night to Production Code: How a TDD Board Game Transforms Teams with John Wilson, Janis Kampe, and Ted M. Young

The Mob Mentality Show

🎲 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