In a large, fast-moving organization, information isn’t usually scarce, but it is often fragmented. During my time at Red Hat, I produced Open By Default, an internal podcast designed to bridge the gap between high-level corporate strategy and the day-to-day reality of senior engineers and managers.
The project filled a specific niche: it handled ideas that were too complex for a global email, but too specific for a general all-hands meeting. Over 99 episodes, it became a consistent resource for people who wanted to understand how their work connected to the company’s broader direction, or who wanted to learn from the initiatives of other teams.
Objectives and impact
My approach was built on three main goals:
- Building a shared understanding: I wanted to take scattered resources and internal initiatives and pull them into a coherent narrative. This helped listeners see the “why” behind major strategic shifts.
- Creating a knowledge product: By archiving these conversations, we built a library of context that stayed relevant long after an initial announcement. It was a way for employees to self-serve the information they needed to feel aligned with the company’s goals.
- Providing a platform for expertise: The podcast gave subject matter experts and leaders a direct engagement point with an interested audience. It provided visibility for their work and allowed them to explain nuanced topics in their own voices.
With over 10,000 downloads and consistent listener feedback, the project demonstrated a significant appetite for high-density, technical storytelling grounded in real strategic context.
The production process: From context to content
Producing a consistent, long-running series over several years required an editorial workflow that prioritized accuracy and strategic relevance.
Identifying the narrative
I maintained situational awareness by staying plugged into internal channels and broader market themes. This allowed me to identify which initiatives were gaining momentum and which teams were doing work that others needed to hear about. Guests weren’t chosen at random; they were selected because their work represented a critical piece of the company’s broader story.
The discussion guide
To ensure every episode had high information density, I developed a specific briefing process:
- Research: I researched the technical or strategic topic to ensure I could ask questions that were actually useful to a senior audience.
- Collaboration: I drafted a discussion guide and sought input from SMEs to verify the technical grounding.
- Preparation: I shared the guide with guests and asked them to include their own bullet points and key takeaways.
The most successful episodes came from guests who actively engaged with the outline beforehand. It gave them the confidence to speak freely while ensuring we didn’t miss the nuanced details the audience cared about.
Brand and voice
The tone of the podcast was an extension of “The Open Source Way”—transparent, collaborative, and grounded in the company’s core values. By providing a platform for experts to explain complex topics in their own voices, we maintained a sense of authenticity that a standard corporate memo could not replicate.
The episode archive
I am publishing this archive for several reasons. First, it serves as a personal record of a body of work I am proud of. Second, the titles and topics provide an interesting historical perspective; looking back through the list, you can see the shift in industry priorities from the early days of hybrid cloud and RHEL 8 to the emergence of edge computing, quantum, and AI. Finally, this list demonstrates the range of subjects I was able to credibly interview subject matter experts about.
| Number | Title | Abstract |
| 1 | Open By Default ep1: Building the new application platforms | Matt Hicks from OpenShift, and Mícheál Ó Foghlú and James Mernin from Red Hat Mobile (formerly FeedHenry) talked about what “Private PaaS will enable DevOps adoption” and “Mobile applications lead the move to private PaaS environments” mean to the teams that are building our PaaS and Mobile platforms. |
| 2 | Open By Default ep2: Building the new application infrastructure | Mike McGrath from AppInfra, and Mark McLoughlin from OpenStack Engineering explain what “Containers will begin to transform application delivery, eating away at legacy virtualization” and “OpenStack goes mainstream and enables software-defined everything” mean to the teams that are building some of our next generation infrastructure products. |
| 3 | Open By Default EP003: Lars and Gunnar – The Handover | In this, the third episode of Open By Default, Lars Herrmann and Gunnar Hellekson give us an inside look at the new ISBU and RHEL / Virtualization strategy going forward. |
| 4 | Open By Default EP004: Katrinka and Denise talk challenges, culture, and leadership | The 4th episode of the Open By Default podcast is a recording of a conversation with Katrinka McCallum and Denise Dumas not long after they’d won Stevie awards. They shared their thoughts on their own leadership styles, how Red Hat’s culture keeps the company nimble, and what we need to do to protect it. |
| 5 | Open By Default EP005: What FeedHenry Has Learned from Red Hat (and vice versa) | In this episode, Cathal McGloin, former CEO of FeedHenry and now VP of Red Hat Mobile, shared some thoughts on what docking with the mothership has been like, and Red Hat’s glorious mobile future. |
| 6 | Open By Default 006 – 2005 to 2015, a Red Hat time capsule with Ken Reilly | Recently retired VP of Engineering and respected Red Hat storyteller Ken Reilly shared with us the perspective he developed through 11 years in Red Hat engineering and 40 years in the computing industry. |
| 7 | Open By Default EP007 – Evolutions in OpenShift, with Diane Mueller and Clayton Coleman | Director of Community Development Diane Mueller-Klingspor and Lead Engineer Clayton Coleman share their thoughts on how the Commons model differs from other open source community models and the difference between being open source and going through the motions. |
| 8 | Open By Default EP008 – The Distro is Dead (Long Live the Distro) – DevConf.CZ | Featuring Daniel Riek, Landon White, and Colin Walters, who each presented different perspectives on the idea that the distro as we have known it is changing drastically. |
| 9 | Open By Default EP009 – Red Hat and Microsoft; Oil and vinegar, or salad dressing? | Mark Heslin and Mike Ferris cover five key elements of the partnership, what was done to protect our open source DNA, and how to get 42,000 sales reps for free. |
| 10 | Open By Default EP010 – How to not become a just another software company with Jan Wildeboer | Jan Wildeboer explores what happens next now that “open source has won.” When there is no way you can live your life without encountering open source, what then, and are we ready for it? |
| 11 | The PNT Kickoff Edition – Open by Default EP011 | Katrinka McCallum, Matt Hicks, and Mark Little lay out the 7 initiatives that are guiding Products and Technologies in the coming years. |
| 12 | Containers: not stateless after all? Open By Default EP012 | Stephen Watt from Emerging Technologies and Mike McGrath from Atomic OpenShift talk about the intersection between containers and storage. |
| 13 | The Annotated Jim Whitehurst Keynote Edition – Open By Default E013 | An audio version of Jim Whitehurst’s Red Hat Summit keynote about the 4th industrial revolution with my own annotations. |
| 15 | Peeking inside the Office of Technology with Chris Wright – Open By Default EP015 | Christopher Wright and I covered the thinking behind “Vision”, “Voice”, and “Conduit” in the Office of Technology (OOT) Charter and the 9 technology pillars around which the OOT is organized. |
| 17 | Teaching our customers the Red Hat Way at Open Innovation Labs – Open By Default EP017 | Michael Walker and Oeystein Bedin talk about Red Hat’s Innovation Labs, a consulting engagement that teaches customers how to build a cloud-native application using our products and open source principles. |
| 18 | Why you should care more about design (All Things Open Rachel Nabors) – Open By Default EP018 | This episode brings together Rachel Nabors’ All Things Open keynote with insights from Red Hat designer Ju Lim and brand manager Andy Fitzsimon on why technical people should take design seriously. |
| 19 | How not to get pwned in a social engineering attack (A PSA from InfoSec) – Open By Default EP019 | Rob Lowe from the Information Security team walks through the basic premise behind all social engineering attacks and simple precautions to protect yourself and Red Hat. |
| 20 | “Not your father’s RHEL” with Denise Dumas and Tim Burke @ Devconf.CZ 2017 – Open By Default EP020 | Denise Dumas and Tim Burke share what they’re looking forward to in FY18, including a preview of the 2 areas PNT is focusing on and why RHEL7 was the most innovative RHEL so far. |
| 21 | Blockchain: Not just for criminals anymore – Open By Default EP021 | Rich Feldmann, Mark Wagner, and Mike Bursell break down Red Hat’s early explorations in the blockchain space and its potential to do for the exchange of value what the internet did for the exchange of information. |
| 22 | What keeps our customers up at night (and a health check on Red Hat’s APAC business) – Open By Default – EP022 | Colin McCabe, Director of Consulting in Australia, discusses what culture, exponential growth, and digital disruption have in common. |
| 23 | Matt Hicks on why now is the time for building a culture of change at Red Hat – Open By Default EP023 | Matt Hicks addresses the platform engineering team about change, customer value, and our individual capacity to adapt to decide whether or not Red Hat succeeds. |
| 24 | The 11 guiding principles of RHEL8 | Brendan Conoboy and Siddharth Nagar explain the 11 principles guiding RHEL development and why quality became everyone’s responsibility. |
| 25 | What every engineer should know about marketing | Lis Strenger and Kimberly Craven from Red Hat’s Product Marketing team share how marketing contributes to engineering and some ways you can know if what you’re working on might be good marketing. |
| 26 | Tim Burke’s philosophy of goal setting (aka how to walk 2200 miles in 4 months) – Open By Default – Episode 26 – September 2017 | The Appalachian Trail is a 2200 mile walking track that connects Georgia to Maine. Of the 4000 or so people who set out to hike the whole thing every year, only about 10% actually finish. Tim Burke was one of the 10% that finished. In this episode, you’ll hear about whether Tim ever thought about not coming back, what to do if you come across a black bear, and the question you need to answer “Yes” to before you consider any big goal. |
| 27 | Measuring the quality of Red Hat’s products with PQI – Open By Default – Episode 27 | Shai Revivo and Nathan Levenkind talk about moving from gut feeling to data-driven decisions about quality and what PQI is and isn’t. |
| 28 | Simple things you can do to understand our customers with Marco and Jay | Marco Bill and Jay Ferrandini provide actionable tips to be more customer-focused, even in non-customer-facing roles. |
| 29 | The Trials and Tribulations of Agile Conversion with Leigh Griffin – Open By Default – Episode 29 | An honest account of how Agile can go bad and what the RHMAP team learned from their conversion. |
| 30 | Persuasive engineers (and other people) are happier – Open By Default Episode 30 | Based on an All Things Open presentation by Sandi Metz; applicable to any knowledge worker trying to improve their communication. |
| 31 | Understanding Red Hat’s product strategy (AKA a trip report from the PNT Leadership Exchange) – Open By Default Episode 31 | Insights from 300 PnT leaders gathered to understand and evangelize Red Hat’s hybrid cloud strategy. |
| 32 | RHEL8: A case study in digital transformation from our own backyard – Open By Default Episode 32 | Exploring how the RHEL organization transformed its own processes to prepare for the launch of RHEL 8. |
| 33 | Real life examples of DDR in action – Open By Default Episode 33 | Paul Lyons and Brian Hamrick share examples of how Data Driven Releases (DDR) are driving product development. |
| 34 | Every way that Summit 2018 moved the product strategy forward – Open By Default Episode #34 | Margaret Dawson and Matt Hicks show how the announcements at Summit fit into the three-pillar hybrid cloud strategy. |
| 35 | Organising around our product strategy (AKA June BU re-org explained) pt 1 – Open By Default EP035 | Product managers from the infrastructure groups discuss what the BU reorganization means for Red Hat’s products. |
| 36 | Help customers, grow your network, develop your career: Join a CoP – Open By Default EP036 | Phyllis Westerman explains how Communities of Practice (CoPs) allow Red Hatters to organize around specific customer problems. |
| 37 | Organising around our product strategy (AKA June BU re-org explained) pt 2 – Open By Default EP037 | A look at the cloud-native application platform pillar and the Business Unit tasked with its development. |
| 38 | Inside the storm of side channel exploits – Open By Default Episode 038 | The Product Security team shares the inside view on side-channel attacks like Spectre and Meltdown. |
| 39 | How to increase your chances of Summit success – Open By Default EP039 | Practical advice on how to improve the chances of having a session proposal accepted for Red Hat Summit. |
| 40 | RHEL: The metronome of Red Hat (RHEL8 Beta) – Open By Default Episode 40 | Mike McGrath and Siddharth Nagar discuss the birth of RHEL 8 and the predictable release cadence. |
| 41 | The problem is the solution with DP Van Leeuwen – Open By Default Episode 41 | VP of Sales in APAC DP van Leeuwen talks about Red Hat’s prospects in the region and the evolution of the company. |
| 42 | Introducing Foundation: The future of Red Hat – Open By Default Episode 42 | Steve Gordon and Nick Barcet cover the mission of the Foundation team to build the “RHEL of the hybrid cloud.” |
| 43 | Strategy in action (AKA trip report from the PnTLX 2019) – Open By Default Episode 43 | A summary of the 2019 PnT Leadership Exchange and the strategic priorities for the coming year. |
| 44 | Win the platforms – Strategic Imperative #1 – Open By Default Episode 44 | Ashesh Badani and Stefanie Chiras discuss what it means to win the platforms and become the “Amazon of hybrid cloud.” |
| 45 | Sell the portfolio to complete the platforms – Strategic Imperative #2 – Open By Default Episode #45 | Michael Piech and Ranga discuss how the broader portfolio complements the platform strategy. |
| 46 | Extend the platforms to multicloud – Strategic Imperative #3 – Open By Default #46 | Mike Ferris and Andrew Hecox cover the extension of Red Hat platforms to multicloud environments. |
| 47 | Deliver hybrid cloud business models – Strategic Imperative # 4 – Open By Default #47 | Alexis Monville and Stephanos Bacon discuss using managed offerings and SaaS to improve business models. |
| 48 | How well do you know developers? – Open By Default Episode 48 | Brad Micklea addresses misconceptions about developers and how to improve Red Hat’s standing in developer communities. |
| 49 | When you say “synergy”… – Open By Default Episode 49 | A look at what “synergy” with IBM looks like from both a PnT and Sales perspective. |
| 50 | What is a “connected customer”? – Open By Default Episode 50 | Jan Zeleny and Radek Vokal explain how the Connected Customer Experience team uses data to reduce support burdens. |
| 51 | How 3 people automated Red Hat’s Performance and Scale testing infrastructure – Open By Default Episode 51 | Will Foster and Gonza Rafuls on the “Quick and Dirty Scheduler” and transitioning from sysadmins to service providers. |
| 52 | The evolution and future of middleware at Red Hat – Open By Default Episode #52 | Mark Little and Phil Simpson on how middleware is evolving for cloud-native and the origin of Quarkus. |
| 53 | Articulating community opportunities as market problems to solve with RHEL – Open By Default Episode #53 | Brian Exelbierd on the CentOS Stream role in the RHEL ecosystem and navigating community vs. business. |
| 54 | Technology trends in 2019 and how they’ll play out in 2020 – Open By Default Episode #54 | Clayton Coleman and Tracy Rankin discuss Kubernetes adoption and the health of the open-source ecosystem. |
| 55 | The future of computing with IBM’s Dario Gil – Open By Default Episode #55 | A special edition featuring Dario Gil on the future of quantum computing and artificial intelligence. |
| 56 | A common language to serve our customers and beat our competitors – Open By Default Episode #56 | James Mernin and Livnat Peer on “operate first” and telco edge as a fifth footprint for Red Hat. |
| 57 | The Exit Interview with Tim Burke – Open By Default Episode #57 | An 18-year retrospective on leadership, trust, and Red Hat’s transition to a portfolio company. |
| 58 | An engineering approach to diversity and inclusion – Open By Default Episode #58 | Stef Walter and Denise Dumas apply engineering principles to address diversity and mitigate bias. |
| 59 | Embracing digital transformation within PnT – Open By Default Episode #59 | Jen Krieger and Brendan Conoboy on the evolution of change and why better conversations lead to better products. |
| 60 | Inside the shadowy world of open source software foundations – Open By Default Episode #60 | Deb Bryant and Ruth Suehle on standards bodies, governance models, and their impact on technology. |
| 61 | The untold story of the fall and rise of Satellite 6 – Open By Default Episode #61 | Sureshkumar Thirugnanasambandan and Mike McCune on the evolution from Satellite 5 to 7. |
| 62 | How Telemetry creates a more open organization – Open By Default Episode 62 | Nick Stielau and Rob Szumski on how telemetry quantifies priorities and breaks down internal silos. |
| 63 | Customer Priorities – A Tale of Two Cities – Open By Default Episode 63 | Stefanie Chiras and Ashesh Badani on meeting customers where they are versus where they are going. |
| 64 | Meeting our customers where they are through COVID and beyond – Open By Default Episode 64 | Adam Spencer of Deutsche Bank joins to discuss speeding up application delivery during the pandemic. |
| 65 | How RHEL and OpenShift collaborate with IBM – Open By Default Episode 065 | Peter Martucelli and Ron Pacheco on the history of the Red Hat/IBM relationship. |
| 66 | The CentOS Stream episode – Open By Default Episode #066 | Mike McGrath and Gunnar Hellekson answer questions about the shift to CentOS Stream. |
| 67 | The mechanics of becoming a portfolio company – Open By Default Episode #067 | Natty Saddler and Jay Greguske on coordinating product teams for telco and automotive edge. |
| 68 | Protecting the supply chain – Open By Default Episode #68 | Vincent Danen and Yesenia Yser on baking security into the software supply chain. |
| 69 | The making of OpenShift.TV – Open By Default Episode #69 | Chris Short shares how live streaming is used to connect with customers and the DevOps philosophy behind it. |
| 70 | Red Hat in the cars of the future – Open By Default Episode #70 | Mike McGrath, Josh Boyer, and Ian McLeod on the technical challenges of RHEL in automotive. |
| 71 | Designing the open hybrid cloud experience – Open By Default Episode #071 | Liz Blanchard and Dash Copeland on the UXD “experience vision” and prototyping portfolio solutions. |
| 72 | Simple steps to improve cross-team collaboration – Open By Default Episode #72 | Paolo Antinori and Renato Sartorio share advice for improving relationships during realignments. |
| 73 | Everything that goes into bringing a managed service to market – Open By Default Episode #073 | Jenn Giardino, Emmanuel Bernard, and Karanbir Singh on the work behind OpenShift Streams. |
| 74 | Ten key moments from 20 years of prod-sec at Red Hat – Open By Default Episode #074 | Mark Cox and others share historical moments from the founding of Product Security to Spectre/Meltdown. |
| 75 | How Red Hat works with the defense industry – Open By Default Episode #075 | Mark Shoger and others on working with defense and intelligence customers and clearance requirements. |
| 76 | Why we are changing how Red Hat makes software – Episode #76 | Stephen Cuppett and others on the shift to managed services and using SLOs and error budgets. |
| 77 | Simple changes your team can make to put the portfolio first – Open By Default Episode #77 | Ronald Pacheco and Leigh Griffin on aligning incentives with portfolio outcomes. |
| 78 | Why some customers leave managed OpenShift trials – Open By Default Episode #78 | Sasha Rosenbaum and Paul Czarkowski cover adoption roadblocks and pain points in ROSA trials. |
| 79 | Making it easier for customers to give us money (Project Stratosphere) – Episode #79 | Katherine Dube and Ken Won on capturing committed spend and the complexity of cloud marketplaces. |
| 80 | How RHEL 9 became the most open RHEL so far – Open By Default Episode #80 | Aleksandra Fedorova and others on the more open participation model for RHEL 9. |
| 81 | Supporting our managed service customers – Episode #81 | Kent Lamb and Michael Napolis on meeting higher expectations in the cloud. |
| 82 | What “evolve customer success” looks like – Open By Default Episode #82 | Michelle Perz and Johnray Fuller on the role of Customer Success in managed services. |
| 83 | Differentiating Red Hat’s open source managed services – Open By Default Episode 83 | Jen Vargas and Jonathan Gershater on standing out against hyperscalers and niche players. |
| 84 | How Fedora 36 became a top-received release – Episode 84 | Matthew Miller and Ben Cotton on the shift in Fedora’s popularity and community health. |
| 85 | Accelerating our cloud services strategy in 2023 – Open By Default Episode #85 | Sarwar Raza and Andy Cathrow on rationalizing cloud services experiments and the ROMS process. |
| 86 | What open source means when it comes to services – Open By Default Episode #086 | Stef Walter and Emmanuel Bernard on delivering a service that honors open-source promises. |
| 87 | The trick to being good at infrastructure – Episode #87 | Steve Russell (Barclays) and Chris Wright on combining “old world” and “new world” environments. |
| 88 | If you care about product quality join the Quality Innovators – Episode #88 | Joe Amato and Jake Callahan on coordinating associates to exceed customer expectations. |
| 89 | Collaborating with Ford engineers on upstream Tekton – Episode #089 | Urvashi Bhargava and Siamak Sadeghianfar on turning customer escalations into upstream collaboration. |
| 90 | Meeting Mac and Windows developers with Podman Desktop – Episode #90 | Stevan Le Meur and others on the graphical container management tool released at Summit 2023. |
| 91 | Discovering the future with Red Hat Research – Open By Default Episode #091 | Heidi Dempsey and Hugh Brock on the 3-to-5 year time horizon for open-source research. |
| 92 | Preventing credential leaks in a regulated industry – Episode #092 | Dave Mair and Braxton Plaxco on reducing security risks and tools like LeakTK. |
| 93 | The making of a Magic Quadrant: Leader in container management – Episode #093 | Kylle Feddersen and Stu Miniman on the multi-year effort to be recognized by Gartner. |
| 94 | Relationship between Oracle and Red Hat since 2006 – Episode #094 | Ju Lim and others on the partnership and technical integration of RHEL and OpenShift on OCI. |
| 95 | Delivering AI-enhanced workflows in eXperience Engineering – Episode #095 | Mandy Elliott and others on using watsonx.ai in support workflows in just six weeks. |
| 96 | Backstage.io, Developer Hub, and developer strategy – Episode #096 | Christophe Fargette and Tom Coufal on internal developer portals and productizing Backstage.io. |
| 97 | IBM Tech 2024: A podcast trip report – Open By Default Episode #097 | David Airlie and Jaya Baskaran share takeaways from IBM Tech 2024 and how AI is evolving. |
| 98 | Cars, currywurst, and OpenShift at Volkswagen – Open By Default #98 | A technologist from Volkswagen shares how Red Hat and OpenShift fit into their internal landscape. |
| 99 | The making of a Sustainable AI Innovation Center in Singapore – Episode #099 | Tamar Eilam and Vincent Caldeira discuss the difference between AI innovation and sustainable AI innovation. |
A story that connects
Producing Open By Default was more than just a content project; it was an exercise in applying open-source principles to internal communications. By being transparent about strategy and giving a voice to the people building the technology, we were able to turn complex organizational changes into a shared narrative.
Whether for an internal audience or a global community, the goal remains the same: to find the story that connects the technology to the people using it.
