War Room Delivery Strategy

Elon Musk assembled a war room team at Twitter after acquisition to drive rapid changes and transformation. Here's how it worked.

War Room Assembly & Structure

• Created immediately after Twitter acquisition
• Core team composition:
  • Elon Musk
  • Chief Legal Counsel from other Musk companies
  • Jason Calacanis
  • Sriram from a16z (former Twitter PM)
  • Engineers from Boring Company/Neuralink
  • Musk's cousin
  • Other trusted associates

Initial Focus Areas

• Verification program overhaul
• Logged out page experience
  • Debating forced sign-up vs allowing tweet reading
• Setting aggressive 5-day delivery deadlines
• Reviewing existing engineering output
  • Initially requested printed code reviews
  • Switched to digital review process
• Evaluating staff retention decisions

Engineering Review Process

• Required engineers to present code from past 3-6 months
• Initially demanded printed code (later reversed)
• Focused on evaluating productivity and output
• Used review process to make retention decisions

Key Challenges Identified

• Platform was 5x larger than other major social services
• Core product only addressed needs of power users
• Main issues (bots, verification, algorithm) weren't blocking mass adoption
• Platform struggled with providing value to casual users
• Growth and engagement metrics lagged behind competitors

Operating Style

• Aggressive timelines for deliverables
• Direct involvement from leadership team
• Quick decision-making and pivots
• Focus on rapid transformation
• Emphasis on immediate action over long-term planning