App · Apply the Algorithm

Run your project through the Algorithm.

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

What the Algorithm is. Elon Musk's five-step method for fixing any product or process, worked out on the SpaceX and Tesla factory floors and documented in Walter Isaacson's biography. The steps, always in order: question every requirement, delete every part you can, simplify what survives, speed up the cycle, and automate last.

Why it works. Most processes fail by accumulating requirements nobody questions and steps nobody deletes. Running the five steps in order attacks that root cause first, so you never waste effort perfecting, accelerating, or automating something that should not exist at all.

Apply it to your own work. Answer the five prompts below and download a personalized two-page plan. The single most important rule: run the steps in order, and automate last.

What product, process, or project are you improving?

Question every requirement

Every requirement needs a person's name attached, not a department. Requirements from "legal" or "safety" are often softer than they look. Make the person who set each one 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?

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