What Is Untools and What Does It Offer?

Updated

Untools is a curated collection of thinking tools and frameworks designed to help you solve problems, make decisions, and understand systems. If you're looking for a single place to browse structured thinking methods—rather than scattered articles across the web—it's worth a visit. The site organizes tools by purpose and gives each one a short description, so you can quickly find a framework that fits your situation.

How the collection is organized

Every tool on Untools is sorted into one of four categories, which makes browsing more purposeful than scrolling through an alphabetical list:

  • Systems thinking — for understanding relationships, feedback loops, and root causes
  • Decision making — for choosing between options and prioritizing
  • Problem solving — for breaking down and structuring complex problems
  • Communication — for conveying ideas and feedback more clearly

If you already know what kind of challenge you're facing, you can go straight to the relevant category instead of reading through everything.

Examples of tools included

The collection covers well-known frameworks alongside less familiar ones. A few examples from the site:

Tool Category What it helps with
Six Thinking Hats Decision making Looking at a decision from different perspectives
Ishikawa Diagram Problem solving Identifying root causes of problems
Eisenhower Matrix Decision making Prioritizing actions by importance and urgency
Second-order thinking Decision making Considering long-term consequences of decisions
Iceberg Model Systems thinking Uncovering root causes by looking at hidden levels of abstraction
Ladder of inference Decision making Avoiding jumping to conclusions
Minto Pyramid Communication Making communication more efficient and clear
Inversion Problem solving Approaching a problem from a different point of view

The full list also includes tools like the Decision matrix, Impact-Effort Matrix, Connection circles, Conflict Resolution Diagram, Cynefin framework, First principles, and OODA loop, among others.

What you get beyond the tool descriptions

Each entry gives a brief explanation of what the tool is for, so you can decide whether it applies to your situation before diving deeper. The site also offers a way to get started with templates: you can sign up to receive 3 free thinking tool templates and join a newsletter that delivers practical frameworks every two weeks. According to the site, over 19,500 people receive these updates.

Who this is for

Untools suits people who want a reference library of thinking methods—whether you're a product manager weighing trade-offs, a student structuring an argument, or anyone trying to make a decision with more clarity. It's a browsing and discovery resource rather than a deep course, so it works best when you have a specific problem in mind and want a framework to approach it.

If you're deciding whether to spend time on it: the categorized structure and concise descriptions make it easy to scan in a few minutes and bookmark the tools relevant to you. The free templates offer a low-commitment way to try a few frameworks in practice.