Justin Haynes

TPS Report Visibility — Expand Justin's Reporting Scope

Directed Justin to update TPS reports to reflect current reality and add missing workstreams (Portal, Depot, Releases). Goal is independent progress tracking without needing Justin's verbal context.

Mar 10

Zorina LOA — Grant Extended PTO to Retain

Decided to grant Zorina 5 weeks of PTO (May 4–June 5) if her FMLA application is denied. FMLA application goes first for compliance, but the fallback is already decided. Remote work from Bulgaria for 2 weeks is also approved pending IT security check. Delegated execution details to Justin and Mariah.

Mar 10

RESF Operational Security — Compartmentalize Until Board Action

Directed that Brian must not be told anything until after the RESF board notification. Emphasized extreme caution about leaks to Lewis. Approved Joseph being read into the initiative but warned about leak risk. Sequenced information flow: board action first, then notifications, then credential recovery.

Mar 10

Sensitive Decision

Sensitive

Westley Transition — 70% Fuzzball, Maintain Depot Support

Westley will start transitioning to Fuzzball at 70% allocation while maintaining depot support work for Justin team until fit is confirmed.

Mar 6

Damen — Action-First Title Policy

Set clear position on Damen's request for an AI ownership title: titles are granted AFTER impact is proven, not as a motivator to drive it. Directed that Damen should escalate issues with other teams publicly rather than absorbing work and complaining privately. Asked Justin to get Damen to define specifically what 'owning AI' means and what title he wants.

Mar 5

Michael — Create-a-Hole Performance Framework

Coached Justin that the goal with Michael's performance management is to create a 'hole' for a high performer (like Ben), NOT to raise Michael to 'barely acceptable.' Framed 'barely acceptable' as worse than low performance — a barely-acceptable employee is hard to remove, creating permanent drag. Told Justin to leverage startup advantage (no HR handcuffs) to set higher bar, and shift mindset from 'fair for Michael' to 'fair for the team.'

Mar 5

Team Building Mandate — 6-Month Priority Over Features

Directed all engineering managers to prioritize team building over feature delivery for the next six months. Includes permission to swap out low performers, with Peter providing air cover for the risks involved.

Mar 4

Committed to RESF day-of execution planning meeting next week

Committed in #internal-resf-escalation to organizing a meeting next week to build an execution plan for the RESF day-of lockdown. Directed Sarah to invite Nathan, Max, Justin, and Dieter. Bjorn is finishing messaging drafts this weekend, so technical execution planning must be ready to match the communication track.

Feb 27

Coached Justin on Michael performance management with net-good framework

In Justin 1:1, directed Justin to deliver direct performance feedback to Michael next week with Andrew-level success metrics. Framed PIP as high-bar exercise to confirm exit decision. Differentiated Michael (low performer, manage out) from Brady (high potential, wrong role, coach/move). Used weeding the garden and Expedition 33 metaphors to help Justin reconcile empathy with accountability.

Feb 27

Rocky project contingency war room - infrastructure security planning

Committed to scheduling a war room meeting to create a detailed, step-by-step contingency plan for securing Rocky infrastructure (AWS, FreeIPA) against potential hostile action by former members. Plan assumes an outage will be necessary to revoke access. Technical cutover to be planned before legal letters are sent.

Risk tolerance recalibration - push and be wrong for low-risk releases

Established new release philosophy: 'push and be wrong' for low-risk changes, prioritizing speed over perfection. Directed Nathan to ship two approved CVE fixes for unused packages immediately as a precedent-setting test case, bypassing the usual review process.

Release artifact ownership assignment - Nathan RPMs, Justin images

Assigned clear ownership of release artifacts: Nathan is the final approver for RPMs, Justin for images. Each owner defines their own validation process and has autonomy to improve it without seeking permission. Creates a 'throat to choke' accountability model for release quality.

Personnel action plan from effort/impact matrix review

Conducted comprehensive effort vs. impact performance review of ~20 engineers across kernel and platform teams, resulting in specific personnel actions: underperformers on short improvement timelines or face replacement, one engineer to be replaced with a high-impact hire, one engineer requires direct performance conversation about ownership and visibility, one to be reassigned to simple packaging tasks.

Mandated Engineering double delivery pace in 6 months

Directed Justin Haynes and Nathan Blackham to double their teams' delivery pace within 6 months. Method: hire new talent to build a team capable of that pace; some current members may not be a fit. In-person planning session in San Jose on Feb 25 with Justin, Nathan, Max, Peter.

Feb 25

Sensitive Decision

Sensitive

Sensitive Decision

Sensitive

Directed Nathan to surface eng-product communication gaps

After Department Heads meeting, spent 30 minutes coaching Nathan 1:1. Praised his handling of the meeting despite frustration. Directed Nathan and Justin to be proactively transparent with product, and specifically to surface instances where engineering communicates clearly but product claims ignorance.

Mandated accelerated cadence with coordination accountability

In Department Heads meeting, mandated announcements every 2-4 weeks as non-negotiable. Drew accountability line: engineering protected for speed mistakes but NOT for coordination failures (status updates, product priorities, public channel decisions). Framed as make-or-break period driven by $30B revenue goal and Middle East partnership success.

Accepted priority churn during RLC Pro/Plus pivot

Explicitly approved Justin's explanation that priorities and confidence levels will shift as his team pivots to Pro/Plus work. Told Justin 'And that churn is fine.'

Leveraged TPS report visibility to drive accountability with Justin

Proactively messaged Justin that the Release All Things section of the TPS report looks bad, with a 2.5-hour deadline before C-Suite Sync presentation. Gave Justin a window to update Jira tickets to reflect reality.

Mobilized team for Saudi meeting prep and escalated NVIDIA DOCA blocker

Peter personally intervened to prepare team for critical Saudi Arabia partner meeting on RLC-AI. Posted in #product-rlc-ai asking about CUDA/DOCA availability, discovered NVIDIA written approval for DOCA OFED still pending. Emailed Scott Hara (NVIDIA) directly to advance the approval. Tagged Nathan, Justin, Jeff Uphoff, and Damen Knight demanding they answer Max's detailed technical questions within 24 hours. Set hard deadline: '24 hours from now.' Bjorn committed to calling Scott to reaffirm DOCA modification rights.

Feb 11

Demanded war-room or date ranges for RLC Pro release dates

Marketing (Lindsay Aamodt) published release dates in #department-heads: Feb 19 RLC Pro, Feb 26 RLC Pro AI, Mar 5 RLC AMD. Justin Haynes responded that dates were 'written in light pencil.' Peter directed Justin: if dates aren't confident, either commit with a war-room to hit them, or provide GTM with ranges now so they can plan. Justin acknowledged and scheduled time with leads.

Feb 11

Sensitive Decision

Sensitive

Enforced Product-owns-prioritization process with Greg

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.

Feb 6

AMD RLC Plus Strategy: Speed-to-Market with Minimal Scope

Decided to prioritize speed-to-market for the RLC Plus AMD co-marketing launch. The initial build will use upstream AMD packages (pre-built ROCm), the kernel driver (not upstream DKMS), and enable EPEL. Deferring the more robust in-house rebuild until market traction is proven. Justin Haynes to draft proposal and decision matrix.

Feb 4

Rocky Security Updates Urgency - Competitive Gap

Flagged to Max, Justin, and Nathan that Rocky security update tagging is a critical competitive gap needing urgent attention. Shared community post recommending Alma over Rocky because Alma correctly tags security updates and has timelier updates.

Feb 3

New Engineering Mandate - 2x Velocity in 6 Months

Set new mandate for Justin and Nathan: top priority is building a team that can deliver twice as fast in six months. This is a shift from the previous coaching model to a performance-driven one - setting ambitious targets, holding people accountable, and replacing underperformers.

Feb 3

WBR restructuring to outcome-based commitments

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.

Focus CVE automation on top 5 priority packages first

Stack-rank the CVE priority package list and start automation with just the top 5 packages. Drive open CVE count for those 5 as close to zero as possible before expanding scope. Report closed-by-automation separately from will-not-do.

LTS roll-forward policy - small stable core, roll everything else

Define a small core set of packages (~5) that stay stable in LTS releases (kernel, glibc, gcc, and a few others). Everything else can be rolled forward aggressively. Customer-specific additions can be negotiated as needed.

CVE automation architecture - simple state machine, 1 CVE per commit

CVE automation should be built as a simple state machine with clear exit criteria at each step. Each commit addresses exactly one CVE. The orchestrator should be stupid-simple - just moving between states. Steps: Research -> Rebase -> Build -> Test -> MR -> Final Build -> Integration Test -> Promote to Beta -> Integration Test -> Production.

Redefine wins to only celebrate step-function improvements

Reset the definition of wins across engineering teams to only celebrate step-function improvements and exceptional contributions, not completing expected work. Use recognition strategically as a management lever to train teams toward higher performance.

Leadership meeting cadence - need-based, not scheduled

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.

Approved transfer of Depot operations from Justin to Steve team

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.

Jan 26

Empowered Justin to own RLC 9.7/9.6 LTS ship criteria

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.

Jan 26

Committed to ensuring Greg technical direction reaches Justin

Committed to redirecting Justin to follow Greg architectural guidance on object storage/depot, and to be the conduit ensuring Greg technical direction reaches engineering clearly. Greg flagged that depot work was not in line with past directives.

Jan 26

Transfer Depot operations from Justin team to Steve team

Depot operations will transfer from Justin team to Steve team. Justin team will define the architecture for moving Depot to object storage, then hand off execution to Steve team for provisioning, infrastructure, and monitoring.

Jan 23

Empower Justin to own RLC 9.7/9.6 LTS ship criteria

Justin will define and own the ship criteria for RLC 9.7 and 9.6 LTS releases. He will create a 5-point launch checklist and share it with Brady for approval, bypassing Product inability to provide a clear definition of done.

Jan 23

Redirected Brady to use prioritization tools instead of pushing hard

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.

Jan 22

Mandate big leaps risk approach for H1

Directed Justin to take big leaps and calculated risks to meet H1 goals, especially with AI. Speed and learning prioritized over avoiding potential issues. Example: a vibe-coded Portal in one day is preferable to a 1.5-month architected build - worst case is a day lost, best case is massive time-to-market advantage.

Jan 17

Sensitive Decision

Sensitive

Empower Damon to execute on RLC-AI without being blocked by Jeff

Directed Justin to tell Damon that he should press ahead with RLC-AI/Basil work and not let himself be blocked by Jeff, who claims ownership but fails to deliver. Damon should inform Jeff what he is doing rather than wait for permission.

Jan 17

Depot Management Transfer to SRE

Decided to transfer Depot management (monitoring, maintenance) from Justin org to Steve SRE team. Committed to connecting Steve and Justin to define the work distribution.

Jan 16

Commit to increased visibility with engineering org

In response to employee feedback about low visibility creating a trust gap and fear-based culture perception, committed to: bi-weekly positive Slack updates, more 1-on-1s with key individuals, frequent positive feedback in public channels, weekly summary of focus areas, and an SF meeting with Nathan/Justin/Max.

Jan 14

Work intake must flow through managers, not directly to engineers

Established new process where small customer requests go to Engineering Managers (Justin, Chris W.) for approval. EMs will attend bi-weekly CECA board review to ensure they are in the loop on incoming work.

Jan 14

Justin Coaching - Ambiguity Tolerance and Explicit Pushback

Coached Justin on the Depot/Portal bounty disconnect. Addressed two issues: (1) Justin needs to get comfortable moving through ambiguity and letting his team explore before designs are fully baked - unlearning 10 years of Amazon training. (2) When Peter pushes for something, Justin needs to either do it or explicitly debate/push back - not quietly not execute.

Max Spevack Role Expansion - Formalized Authority

Announced to engineering that Max takes a dedicated leadership role spanning Linux Engineering and RAT, reporting directly to Peter. Max acts with Peters authority in meetings, serves as quality gate for major decisions, shapes engineering culture, and is an escalation point outside the management chain.

ICP Consolidation - RLCH and RLCAI into Fuzzball

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.

H1 Planning Framework - 3-Lane Model

Introduced a new 3-lane planning model to address GTM and Engineering misalignment. Top Lane (GTM): marketing campaigns, messaging. Middle Lane (Value Drivers): the why - market state change, ICP, business significance. Bottom Lane (Engineering): deliverables driven by Value Drivers.

Google Scope Change - Hold the Line on Commercial Terms

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.

Verify Justin Offered Bounty Work Broadly

Investigating whether Justin followed direction to offer bounty work opportunities to everyone. Greg believes it was not offered to Westley. Peter committed to verify this week.

Jan 11

Build Culture That Moves With Ambiguity

Committed to teaching the org to start moving with imperfect information rather than over-designing before committing. Will provide cover from Bjorn holding teams accountable for early SWAG estimates, enabling faster iteration and learning.

Bounty Program Design: Open Incentives Over Prescribed Work

Established that bounties at CIQ should be open to all engineers, not targeted at specific individuals. Rejected Bjorn approach of incentivizing Jesus and Alex specifically to work over holidays on Portal. Bounties should be available for anyone to claim if they want to accelerate delivery.

Bounty Program Design Principles

Outlined design principles for bounty program: transparency in logging, substantial compensation for well-scoped work, quick delivery incentives.

H1 Planning Strategy - Aggressive Goals with Staggered Milestones

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.

Andrew Jorgensen Hiring Approved

Approved hiring Andrew Jorgensen for an IC role reporting to Nathan Blackham. Offered flexibility on level - he can come in at senior or less senior position based on his comfort.

Product-Engineering Quick Estimation Process

Articulated position on providing quick, low-confidence estimates for Product prioritization. Engineering should provide 20% confidence SWAGs on demand so Product can do early prioritization - these are not commitments engineering can be held to. Distinguished between committing to work without a design (bad) vs providing a quick guess marked as such (good).

Dec 29

RESF Infrastructure Independence - Technical Execution

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.

Dec 24

RLC 9.7 Launch Path Decision

Participated in RLC 9.7 Launch planning meeting to decide path forward on release and rework priorities.

Dec 19

Championing AI Butler Internal Adoption

Hosted and recorded the AI Dashboard/Butler setup session to drive internal adoption of Claude-based personal productivity tools across CIQ. Shared personal use case of creating meeting prep notes from Slack/email/docs.

Dec 19