#230 - Technical Coaching in the Age of AI with Samman (Ensemble) - Emily Bache

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Aug 25, 2025

Emily Bache, an independent consultant and technical coach, shares insights on elevating software engineering through coaching. She discusses the Samman Method and ensemble programming, emphasizing their roles in enhancing team collaboration and code quality. Emily explains how AI can reinforce, rather than replace, fundamental engineering practices. She advocates for structured learning within work hours and cautions against common pitfalls in mentoring, showcasing the need for hands-on, collaborative coding as essential for modern development.

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INSIGHT

AI Amplifies Fundamentals

AI amplifies good engineering practices rather than replacing them.
Skills like small increments and tests make AI outputs far more reliable.

ADVICE

Use Ensemble On Production Work

Run ensemble sessions in production code with a coach guiding the team through real tasks.
Use ensemble to practice skills and level up team capability while doing real work.

ADVICE

Try Small Ensembles Regularly

Try ensemble (mob programming) with 3–6 people to share knowledge and reduce bus factor.
Rotate roles to expose everyone to design, shortcuts, and production practices.

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Struggling with technical debt and code quality? Learn how a technical coach can help your team level up.

In this episode, Emily Bache, a Samman technical coach, shares her proven method for building better engineering teams through structured learning and collaborative coding. We explore ensemble programming, learning hours, and why AI makes fundamental engineering practices more important than ever.

Key topics discussed:

The role of a Technical Coach and the Samman Method explained
How AI amplifies good engineering practices instead of replacing them
How to use ensemble programming to achieve single-piece flow
Running effective ensemble sessions and avoiding common failure modes
Why learning is part of the work, not only a side activity
Why pull requests should not be the primary tool for mentoring junior developers
The dangerous trend of “vibe coding” with AI tools

Timestamps:

(00:00) Trailer & Intro
(02:22) Career Turning Points
(03:23) Being Part of Modern Engineering YouTube Channel
(04:27) The Role of a Technical Coach
(05:42) The Impact of AI on Technical Coaching
(08:20) Sofware Engineering is a Learning Process
(09:55) Optimizing Learning With Samman Method
(11:40) The Samman Method: Ensemble (Mob Programming)
(14:59) The Main Benefit of Ensemble: Single Piece Flow
(17:26) How to Do Ensemble and Avoid Common Failure Modes
(20:27) The Types of Coding to Ensemble On
(22:12) The Importance of Trust, Communication, and Kindness
(23:52) Common Things Development Teams Are Struggling With
(25:37) Prompt Engineering
(27:16) The Samman Method: Learning Hours
(29:08) Learning is Part of the Work
(31:32) The Practice of Learning as a Team
(34:39) The Constraint When Learning from Pull Requests
(36:30) Putting Aside Time for Learning Hours
(39:14) Becoming a Technical Coach
(41:23) How to Measure the Effectiveness of Technical Coaching
(43:52) Danger of AI Assisted Coding
(46:59) The (Still) Important Skills in the AI Era
(49:56) Why We Should Not Refactor Through AI
(52:41) The Samman Method & Technical Coaching Resources
(53:29) 3 Tech Lead Wisdom
(54:56) Finding Mentors for Career Progression

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Emily Bache’s Bio
Emily Bache is an independent consultant, YouTuber and Technical Coach. She works with developers, training and coaching effective agile practices like Refactoring and Test-Driven Development.

Emily has worked with software development for 25 years, written two books and teaches courses on platforms including Pluralsight and O’Reilly. A frequent conference speaker, Emily has been invited to keynote at prestigious developer events including EuroPython, Craft and ACCU. Emily founded the Samman Technical Coaching Society in order to promote technical excellence and support coaches everywhere.

Follow Emily:

LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/emilybache
X – x.com/emilybache
Mastodon – sw-development-is.social/web/@emilybache
GitHub – github.com/emilybache
Website – emilybache.com
Samman Coaching – sammancoaching.org
YouTube – youtube.com/@EmilyBache-tech-coach
Modern Software Engineering – youtube.com/@ModernSoftwareEngineeringYT

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