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
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.
@isabelzav Thanks for sharing this, Isabel, it's wild how similar the pattern is. The "why did I star this two years ago" thing hit hard, I've done the exact same with Google Maps pins that mean nothing to me anymore.
Honestly this makes me wanna check out Snipplet. The context problem is real, a saved place without the why behind it is basically useless data. Curious how you handle the tagging/categorizing side once the list starts growing past like 50 spots.
Snipplet
@nolan_vu You should definitely give Snipplet a try! Right now each snipplet is its own guide, so you can organize however makes sense to you. "LA Coffee Spots," "Tokyo 2026," "Date Night Ideas," whatever. Each place gets geotagged automatically when you add it, plus you can add your own notes, photos, ratings, and tips so you never lose the "why" behind a spot.
And honestly, the categorizing problem you're describing is exactly what we're building toward next. We want it to feel effortless to log a place in the moment and have everything organize itself. Some really exciting stuff coming soon on that front. Would love to hear what you think once you try it out!
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.