Musk-style 5-step requirements algorithm
OfficialOfficial · updated Nov 4, 2026 · v1.0.2
Takes a process or specification through the five steps Elon Musk described, in order: question each requirement and its owner, delete, simplify, speed up, and automate last.
Sign up free to add this skill to your pod
You come back here after you sign in, and add it with one click.
When to use it
- A process or approval chain has grown slow or heavy
- Before automating a workflow or buying software for it
What you give it
- The process or specification, step by step
- Who owns each requirement
- Time and waits per step
- Fixed constraints with their source
What you get
A requirements table with named owners and verdicts, what was deleted and how a needed step would show up, simplifications, speed-ups, what to automate last, and a review date.
Changelog
- v1.0.2 · Nov 4, 2026 · Example: the welcome pack PDF is now in the requirements table, with no owner and its use marked to check, before it appears under Deleted.
- v1.0.1 · Nov 4, 2026 · Example output now opens with the attribution and not-affiliated lines, as the skill's own checks require.
- v1.0.0 · Nov 4, 2026 · First release.
Sources
- Starbase Tour with Elon Musk, Part 1 (Everyday Astronaut, 2021) - video (2026-11-04)
- Elon Musk's Design Process Starts With Making Things 'Less Dumb' - Entrepreneur, 2021 (2026-11-04)
- Elon Musk's manufacturing and management 'algorithm' - Fortune, 2023 (2026-11-04)
Related skills
- AI automation opportunity scan Scores a team's recurring tasks on frequency, time, rule clarity, and risk to find AI candidates, then picks the top 3 with a first experiment each.
- SOP from an explanation or recording Turns an explanation or screen-recording transcript into an SOP with a trigger, roles, exact-label steps, decision points, checks, and an owner.
- Spec review before build Reviews a PRD or spec before build for ambiguity, missing empty/loading/error/permission states, metrics, rollout, and a first-time user walk-through.
- Ohno-style seven wastes review Walks one process step by step, sorts it into value-creating work, incidental work and Taiichi Ohno's seven wastes, ranks the wastes and proposes what to remove first.
- Musk-style first-principles cost teardown Rebuilds the cost of a product or service from its basic inputs, built on the first-principles approach Musk described: price the inputs, compare that floor with today's price, and explain the gap.