Operational Decisions
22+ recent decisions
Sensitive Decision
Enforced Product-owns-prioritization process with Greg
Feb 6, 2026 · operational · high93% confidence
Pushed back directly on Greg when he tried to route engineering work outside the established prioritization process. Insisted Product owns the priority list and work requests must flow through the proper channel. Simultaneously reminded Chris Baek that his team owns signoff authority and should use it rather than escalating through Greg.
People: Greg Kurtzer, Justin Haynes, Chris Baek, Brady Dibble, Brian Dawson
Travel SLA Commitment to Max - 2 Weeks Notice Minimum
Feb 5, 2026 · operational · medium92% confidence
Committed to Max that he will have at least 2 weeks notice before any required travel, unless the company is in crisis. This gives his family (Christina) the ability to plan around his absences.
People: Max Spevack, Bjorn Hovland
Infrastructure Cost Savings Approval
Feb 3, 2026 · operational · low78% confidence
Approved a $10K infrastructure savings proposal from Steve Wallace with the condition that it does not burden development work.
People: Steve Wallace
Shared AI development velocity guidance with Max
Feb 2, 2026 · operational · low72% confidence
Forwarded the MultiversX 20x Development Velocity article to Max with specific direction to apply its agent testing approach to NARF.
People: Max Spevack, Bjorn Hovland
Protected Max from meetings for NARF focus
Feb 2, 2026 · operational · medium85% confidence
Pulled Max out of meetings for three days so he can focus exclusively on streamlining NARF.
People: Max Spevack
Recommend partial bounty payout for Fuzzball single-binary work
Jan 31, 2026 · operational · medium75% confidence
Recommended paying out half of the originally established bounty to the team members who completed the Fuzzball single-binary work. Want to use bounties as a repeatable, low-friction model across engineering and ensure all of engineering knows about the payout.
People: Greg Kurtzer, Chris Wolford
Stop coaching product, move to SLAs
Jan 30, 2026 · operational · medium92% confidence
Stop trying to teach product managers (Brady, Brian, Dawson) how to do their jobs better. Instead, provide prescriptive SLAs - clear timelines and direct questions. If they dont like the dates, they can restructure their requirements. Leave it on the floor and walk away.
People: Max Spevack, Peter Nelson, Brady, Brian Dawson, Bjorn Hovland
Trustless processes over building trust
Jan 30, 2026 · operational · medium90% confidence
Focus on building contracts and processes that work without trust, not on building relationships. Good fences make good neighbors. Trust becomes a bonus, not a requirement. Contracts are what matter - relationships are nice to have.
People: Max Spevack, Nathan Blackham, Justin, Peter Nelson
PRD contract process - stop teaching product
Jan 30, 2026 · operational · medium92% confidence
Stop trying to teach product how to write PRDs. Define acceptance criteria for PRDs, respond within 24-48 hours, rearrange and cut scope ourselves, and hand back a contract. They can accept or negotiate, but no endless back-and-forth. Engineering restructures the work and presents how we will deliver.
People: Max Spevack, Nathan Blackham, Justin, Brady, Brian Dawson
AI ownership standard - own everything you submit
Jan 30, 2026 · operational · high92% confidence
Engineers must fully own everything in documents and code they submit, regardless of whether AI generated it. Using AI is expected and assumed. Submitting AI output you dont understand or endorse is not acceptable. Quality and accountability matter, not authorship.
People: Max Spevack, Nathan Blackham, Peter Nelson
WBR restructuring to outcome-based commitments
Jan 30, 2026 · operational · medium85% confidence
Restructure the Weekly Business Review (WBR) to be outcome-based. At the end of the meeting, everyone has publicly committed to what they will deliver by Friday. The meeting should create social accountability through public commitment.
People: Max Spevack, Nathan Blackham, Justin Haynes
Leadership meeting cadence - need-based, not scheduled
Jan 30, 2026 · operational · medium85% confidence
Leadership meetings will happen every 4-6 weeks based on need, not a fixed schedule. Buy refundable tickets ahead of time and cancel if there is not a full agenda worth discussing.
People: Max Spevack, Nathan Blackham, Justin Haynes
Reinforced Product-Engineering handoff process with tighter SLAs
Jan 28, 2026 · operational · high78% confidence
Reinforced existing handoff process between Product and Engineering: simplified 2-page PRDs with clear Exit Criteria, one-business-day feedback SLA from Engineering Managers, and all communication in Jira (not Slack) for audit trails.
People: Brady Dibble, Brian Dawson
Approved transfer of Depot operations from Justin to Steve team
Jan 26, 2026 · operational · medium85% confidence
Approved transferring Depot operations from Justin team to Steve team as a test of Steve team SRE capabilities. Justin team will define the architecture for moving Depot to object storage, then hand off execution to Steve team who will own provisioning, infrastructure, and monitoring.
People: Justin Haynes, Steve Wallace
Empowered Justin to own RLC 9.7/9.6 LTS ship criteria
Jan 26, 2026 · operational · high91% confidence
Directed Justin to define and own the ship criteria for RLC 9.7 and 9.6 LTS releases, bypassing Product inability to provide a clear definition of done. Justin will draft a 5-line definition and present it to Brady. Peter will provide air cover for any product fallout.
People: Justin Haynes, Brady Dibble, Brian Dawson
Approved Greg-Cedric engagement starting Monday
Jan 23, 2026 · operational · low75% confidence
Approved Greg beginning conversations with Cedric on Monday to provide context on upcoming PIC work. Cedric will continue participating in epic scoping sessions to stay connected to the tactical work.
People: Greg Kurtzer, Cedric, Chris Wolford
Established escalation protocol for Product blockers
Jan 23, 2026 · operational · medium85% confidence
When Product (specifically Dawson) does not respond to meeting requests blocking engineering work, Nathan should explicitly request the meeting, then escalate to Peter and Bjorn via Slack if no response within 1-2 days. This creates a documented pattern of Product blocking Engineering.
People: Nathan Blackham, Brady Dibble, Bjorn Hovland
Redirected Brady to use prioritization tools instead of pushing hard
Jan 22, 2026 · operational · medium85% confidence
Directed Brady Dibble to use the order of operations (prioritization list) as his tool for influencing engineering priorities, rather than pushing uncomfortably hard on individual teams. Emphasized that the prioritization list is his lever to move all of engineering, and if the order of operations is wrong, the fix is to change it formally with Peter, Bjorn, and Justin.
People: Brady Dibble, Bjorn Hovland, Justin Haynes
Value Drivers document cannot be automated from Jira - fills a gap Jira lacks
Jan 21, 2026 · operational · medium90% confidence
Clarified that the Value Drivers Release Plan document cannot be automated from Jira. The document was created specifically to fill a gap in Jira - linking engineering deliverables to GTM deliverables around WHY certain work is being done. Since Jira does not contain this linkage data, automating from Jira would just reproduce the gap.
People: Chris Baek, Max Spevack, Sarah Almaraz, Mnovicio, Bjorn Hovland
COGS data access unblocked for Ryan - Bjorn to grant via Kelly
Jan 21, 2026 · operational · medium90% confidence
Convened Bjorn and Ryan to resolve Ryans 6-month block on accessing official COGS data. Ryan had been forced to recreate the data independently, which conflicted with Bjorns H1 directive to use a single official source. Bjorn agreed immediately and will email Kelly Marlin today to grant Ryan full access.
People: Ryan Smith, Bjorn Hovland, Kelly Marlin
Estimation philosophy: move dates early, hold them late
Jan 19, 2026 · operational · medium78% confidence
Project dates should be moved when new information is learned, rather than just dropping confidence when dates pass. Early SWAG dates should be updated once actual scoping begins. Red patterns in dashboards reflect engineers being trained not to move goalposts - this needs to change.
People: Max Spevack, Chris Baek, Sarah Almaraz