Strategy Decisions
16 decisions
Google Scope Change - Hold the Line on Commercial Terms
Jan 12, 2026 · strategy · high90% confidence
Decided to personally join the Monday lunch meeting with Tissa to lead negotiation on Google scope change. Google was trying to bundle Rocky 8 and 9 into one version (reducing from 8 to 5 versions) and push release next format without updated commercial terms.
People: Kelly Hall, Jamie Brooks, Max Spevack, Tissa, Aditya
OSPO Restructure - New Mandate and Leadership
Jan 12, 2026 · strategy · high70% confidence
OSPO moved under Customer Engineering (Ryan Smith). Chris Short removed as head. New leadership: Brian Clemons (VP, RESF) and Lee Hennig (former RESF MD). New mandate: govern ALL open source CIQ touches, not just RESF. Top priority: eliminate extinction event risks. RESF board resolution target by H1 2026. Self-sufficiency goal: enable CIQ to internally reproduce Rocky Linux.
People: Ryan Smith, Brian Clemons, Lee Hennig, Chris Baek
ICP Consolidation - RLCH and RLCAI into Fuzzball
Jan 12, 2026 · strategy · medium65% confidence
Consolidated RLCH (Rocky Linux Confidential Hardened) and RLCAI ICPs with Fuzzball ICPs to simplify GTM. RLCH targets regulated industries, government, power distribution. RLCAI targets AI-inferencing and compute-heavy industries. Rocky Pro kept separate for mid-market RHEL/SUSE/Oracle replacement motion.
People: Nathan Blackham, Justin Haynes, Kelly Wall, Brian Dawson, Chris Baek
Google Scope Change - Hold the Line on Commercial Terms
Jan 12, 2026 · strategy · high78% confidence
Google is pushing scope changes that bundle 8 versions into a 5-version contract, omit EOL dates, and include undefined dev streams. This creates scope creep risk and jeopardizes the Extended LTS revenue stream (~$300k/year per product). Decision to personally attend the Monday meeting with Tissa (with Max) to hold the line. Greg will NOT attend to preserve escalation path.
People: Kelly Hall, Max Spevack, Jamie Brooks, Justin Haynes, Brady Dibble, Chris Baek, Tissa
CVE Automation Prioritized Over EUS Daily Numbers
Jan 6, 2026 · strategy · high88% confidence
Decision to push the EUS catch-up deadline to prioritize automating CVE work. Automation is a higher priority than hitting daily EUS numbers manually.
People: Nathan Blackham, Brian Dawson, Max Spevack
H1 Planning Strategy - Aggressive Goals with Staggered Milestones
Dec 31, 2025 · strategy · critical88% confidence
Articulated H1 strategy: shift from hope to concrete plan with aggressive audacious goals. Achieve goals differently not just faster. Staggered milestones every 4-6 weeks for course correction. Missed milestones trigger retrospectives for process or personnel changes. Clear prioritization at Reno eliminating everything is P0 problem.
People: Nathan Blackham, Max Spevack, Justin Haynes, Brady Dibble, Chris Wolford, Ryan Smith, Steve Wallace, Chris Baek
CVE Remediation Mandate with Termination Consequence
Dec 31, 2025 · strategy · critical90% confidence
Mandated CVE remediation as top priority and made clear that Trinity or Jeff will have their employment terminated due to lack of progress on adopting automation tools. This termination is intended to signal to the rest of the team the grave importance of improving how this work is done.
People: Nathan Blackham, Trinity Quirk, Jeff Uphoff, Max Spevack
Build Environment Contingency Prioritized
Dec 31, 2025 · strategy · critical87% confidence
Aligned with Nathan that his top priority is secretly building a full build environment (Koji, Pungie) to create a concrete recovery plan in response to potential RESF sabotage threat.
People: Nathan Blackham, Jonathan Dieter
RESF Management Model Needed
Dec 29, 2025 · strategy · high72% confidence
Identified that RESF needs a clear management person or model as part of short-term response. The lord of the flies approach does not work. Does not matter if its Leigh or someone else, as long as they have personal energy/bandwidth. But it needs to be managed/run with clear accountability.
People: Leigh, Brian Clemens, Greg Kurtzer, Bjorn Hovland
Fuzzball SaaS - Defer Pending Technical Alignment
Dec 29, 2025 · strategy · medium75% confidence
Rather than making a call on Fuzzball SaaS viability concerns raised by Chris Wolford, directed Chris to align with Jonathan (who has pitched cloud-native ideas) to form a unified stance. If they reach opposing conclusions, escalate to Peter. H1 planning docs to proceed with caveat that SaaS initiative is pending alignment.
People: Chris Wolford, Jonathan, Chris Beck, Bjorn Hovland
Culture Document Feedback - Focus on PMF Over Morale Programs
Dec 24, 2025 · strategy · medium74% confidence
Gave negative feedback on culture document. Called morale initiatives (swag, customer presentations) rearranging deck chairs on Titanic. Only endorsed product training to build product-led company. Identified redundant work (H1 planning already happening) and premature planning (5-year plan).
People: Mariah Rippee, Bjorn Hovland
RESF Infrastructure Independence - Technical Execution
Dec 24, 2025 · strategy · critical89% confidence
Directed Nathan to mirror all RESF repositories and initiated build environment duplication. Created #internal-resf-escalation channel with strict confidentiality rules. Keeping technical circle small (Nathan, Max, Justin, Dieter) while moving quickly.
People: Nathan Blackham, Max Spevack, Justin Haynes, Dieter, Greg Kurtzer, Bjorn Hovland, Ryan Smith
RESF Crisis Response - Infrastructure Independence
Dec 23, 2025 · strategy · critical92% confidence
After learning of hostile plans by RESF board members (Louis, Neil, Brian Clemens) to publicly attack CIQ, dismantle Rocky Linux infrastructure, and damage the project, initiated emergency response to replicate RESF infrastructure for Rocky 8, 9, 10 with minimal team awareness.
People: Greg Kurtzer, Bjorn Hovland, Ryan Smith, Leigh, Nathan Blackham
Planning RESF Relationship Improvement Strategy
Dec 22, 2025 · strategy · high81% confidence
Initiated planning meeting with Greg and Bjorn to address concerns about RESF function and plan improvements to the relationship
People: Greg Kurtzer, Bjorn
Pushing OpenDrives POC Forward at Executive Level
Dec 19, 2025 · strategy · high83% confidence
Continued pushing the OpenDrives POC by confirming Bjorn will talk to Robert B. Originally elevated this to COO/President level to drive strategic partnership.
People: Bjorn Hovland, Alex Dunfey, Trevor Morgan, Robert B, Jason Scott
Escalating OpenDrives POC to Executive Level
Dec 19, 2025 · strategy · high82% confidence
Decided to drive the OpenDrives + CIQ POC at a higher level by bringing in the COO/President (Bjorn). Pushing Bjorn to connect with OpenDrives leadership to progress the partnership.
People: Bjorn Hovland, Alex Dunfey, Trevor Morgan, Jason Scott