App · Apply the Algorithm

Run your project through the Algorithm.

Five prompts in, a two-page PDF plan out. Automation always comes last.

The Algorithm is Elon Musk's five-step method for fixing a product or process, worked out on the SpaceX and Tesla factory floors and set down in Walter Isaacson's 2023 biography. The order is the most important rule: question every requirement, delete every part you can, simplify what survives, speed up the cycle, and automate last. Answer the five prompts below to download your plan as a PDF; answers of about 40 words or fewer keep it to two pages.

What product, process, or project are you improving?

Question every requirement

Every requirement needs the name of the person who set it, and a department name does not count. Elon Musk applies the rule to legal and safety requirements too: each one needs a named person who can defend it.

List your project's key requirements, and name the specific person who set each one.

Delete any part or process you can

If you are not forced to add back at least 10 percent of what you delete, you did not delete enough. The bias is always to add, never to remove.

Which parts, steps, or features could you delete entirely? Note what you are afraid to remove.

Simplify and optimize

Only simplify what survived the first two steps. The classic mistake is optimizing a part that should not exist at all.

What is still overly complex or over-engineered after deleting? Where are you polishing something that should be gone?

Accelerate cycle time

Speed up the loop, but only now. Accelerating a wasteful process just produces waste faster.

Which step is the slowest, and what cycle time do you want to hit?

Automate

Automate last. Automating a flawed or unnecessary step bakes the flaw in permanently. This is the most common and most expensive mistake.

What repetitive manual work is now safe to automate, given the steps above are done?

Generated in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.

Related: All Explainers · State of Elon · Net Worth Tracker · Glossary · FAQ · Search