5StepLabs

A software lab based in India, accelerated by AI, with Elon Musk’s 5-step algorithm at its core.

Five steps, in order.

The algorithm was written for building rockets. It works just as well on software, and the order is the whole point — most teams start at step five.

  1. 1

    Make requirements less dumb

    Every requirement is suspect, including the ones we wrote ourselves. Most of what a product “must” do was inherited, not decided.

  2. 2

    Delete the part or process step

    If we don’t end up adding back about a tenth of what we removed, we didn’t remove enough. A deleted part is the most reliable part.

  3. 3

    Optimize

    Only after deleting. Optimizing something that shouldn’t exist is the worst kind of work there is.

  4. 4

    Accelerate

    Speed up what survived the first three steps. Never speed up something that should have been cut.

  5. 5

    Automate

    Last. A process automated before it was simplified is just a mistake running faster.

A black sign on a workshop wall listing the five steps: make requirements less dumb, delete the part or process step, optimize, accelerate, automate.
The original, bolted to a wall at SpaceX.

5 Step Algorithm Applied

Three generations of one engine.

Fewer parts each time. More thrust each time. Step two, held to for five years.

  1. 185 tfthrust3,630 kginstalled mass

    Every line, sensor and shield sits on the outside, where a hand can reach it.

  2. 230 tfthrust2,875 kginstalled mass

    Parts merged into castings, most of the plumbing gone. Lighter and stronger at once.

  3. 250 tfthrust1,720 kginstalled mass

    Nothing left on the outside. The heat shield wasn’t redesigned, it was deleted.

Raptor 1, 2 and 3 rocket engines standing side by side, each one visibly simpler than the last.

Fifty-three percent lighter. Thirty-five percent more thrust. Fewer parts to build, fewer parts to fail.

The three Raptor engines photographed together for comparison.