Make Requirements Less Dumb Accept that your requirements are definitely dumb; ensure every requirement comes from a name, not a department.

  1. Delete the Part or Process Step The best way to optimize a process is to remove it; if you are not adding things back to your process, then that means you are not deleting enough.

  2. Simplify or Optimize Once you remove dumb requirements and excess parts or processes, optimize; a big mistake is optimizing a thing that should not exist.

  3. Accelerate Go faster.

  4. Automate Leverage the power of software and machines to build an automated way to complete the part or the process at scale.

Adapted from the Elon Musk biography by Walter Isaacson.