3 tools I uninstalled this year that everyone says are essential
Notion: we used it for everything, which meant it was organized for no one. Docs lived in 4 different structures depending on who created them. We moved back to Google Docs for anything collaborative.
Slack: we kept it but killed 80% of the channels. The "tools" channel, the "inspiration" channel, the "random" channel. Nobody used them except to post things that didn't need a response. Now there are 6 channels. It's quieter and somehow we're more on top of things.
Intercom: great product, genuinely. But at our stage we were paying $400/month to do things we could do in email. We moved to a simple shared inbox and response times actually improved because the tool wasn't in the way.
None of these are bad tools. They just weren't the right tools for a team our size at our stage.
I think there's a version of "tool debt" the same way there's technical debt - you add things when you're optimistic, and they're still there two years later when the reason you added them no longer exists.
What have you uninstalled that you expected to miss but didn't?
Replies
Funny enough, we still use Notion and it works fine for us. I think it really depends on team size and how disciplined people are about structure. But the "tool debt" idea is spot on either way.
Snipplet
This really resonates. I had the same experience with how I saved travel recommendations... Google Maps stars, Notes app, screenshots, saved Instagram posts, texts. Five different places, none of them talking to each other, and the moment I tried to share my recs with a friend it all fell apart.
That's actually what pushed me to build Snipplet. It's all one place to save your favorite spots with all the context (your photos, tips, order modifications, the stuff you'd forget) and share it as a clean visual guide instead of a wall of text.
Tool debt is real. Sometimes the best thing you can build is the one simple thing that replaces five half-used ones.
For me, I uninstalled Google Maps lists and Notion. I had hundreds of starred places with zero context, just pins on a map with no notes about why I saved them. I'd open it and think "why did I star this restaurant two years ago?". Notion was also a bit too complicated. It's supposed to help you stay organized but made me overwhelmed at the same time and difficult to share with others easily.