No Branches?! Ron Cohen Breaks Down Trunk Based Development and Feature Flags (For Real)

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’s not just “no branches”)

• Why TBD isn’t just a Git strategy, but a safety mindset often backed by solid practices like Pair Programming, Mob Programming, and TDD (Test-Driven Development)

• Gitflow vs. TBD — which one sets your team up to move faster and safer?

• The myth that TBD = chaos, and why short-lived branches might still play a role

• How mobbing and pairing can make TBD not just possible, but powerful

We also dive deep into Feature Flags (a.k.a. Feature Toggles):

• Why Ron became obsessed with them — and how they changed how his teams ship code

• How to use toggles for faster releases, safer experiments, and smoother collaboration between devs, Product Owners (POs), and marketing

• The difference between feature flags that require a deployment and those that don’t

• The value of “dogfooding” your features in production before a full rollout

• Why not all toggles are created equal — from simple UI switches to ops-level controls

• How to avoid the mess of long-lived toggles and clean up after experiments (Austin, we're looking at you 😅)

Plus:

• How flags can power A/B testing and internal beta programs

• Fowler’s definition of Feature Flags — and how it is in action

• Using toggles to build internal and external trust

• Ron’s framework for different kinds of flags in different contexts

Whether you're deep into CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery), trying to tame your branching strategy, or just want to ship smarter — this episode’s packed with insights you can use immediately.

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👉 https://www.mobmentalityshow.com/

Video and Show Notes: https://youtu.be/4PZN1yO8l2c