What Kinds of Problems Can Untools Help You Solve?

Updated

Untools is a curated collection of thinking tools and frameworks for three broad problem types: solving problems, making decisions, and understanding systems. It also includes a smaller set of tools for communication. If your difficulty is that you don't have a structured way to think through a messy situation, Untools is likely relevant. If you need domain-specific technical help, project management software, or a step-by-step course, it is not.

The three problem areas Untools covers

The site organizes its tools into four categories: Systems thinking, Decision making, Problem solving, and Communication. The first three map directly onto the kinds of problems the collection is built for.

Problem solving: when you don't know the cause or the path forward

These tools help you find root causes, reframe a problem, or generate options.

  • Ishikawa Diagram — identify root causes of a problem.
  • Abstraction laddering — reframe your problem at different levels of abstraction.
  • Conflict Resolution Diagram — find win-win solutions to conflicts.
  • Zwicky box — generate unique solutions to complex problems.
  • Productive Thinking Model — solve problems creatively and efficiently.
  • Inversion — approach a problem from a different point of view.
  • Issue trees — structure and solve problems systematically.
  • First principles — break complex problems into basic elements and build solutions from there.

Use this group when the problem is defined but the cause or the solution path is unclear.

Decision making: when you have options and need to choose

These tools help you compare options, prioritize, and account for consequences.

  • Six Thinking Hats — look at a decision from different perspectives.
  • Eisenhower Matrix — prioritize actions by importance and urgency.
  • Second-order thinking — consider long-term consequences.
  • Decision matrix — choose the best option across multiple factors.
  • Impact-Effort Matrix — prioritize by weighing impact against effort.
  • Ladder of inference — avoid jumping to conclusions and base decisions on reality.
  • Hard choice model — figure out what kind of decision you're actually making.
  • OODA loop — make faster decisions with incomplete data.
  • Cynefin framework — make sense of a situation to choose an appropriate response.
  • Confidence determines speed vs. quality — determine the trade-off between speed and quality when building products.

Use this group when you already have candidate options or tasks and need a defensible way to rank or select among them.

Systems thinking: when the problem keeps recurring or has hidden structure

These tools help you see relationships, feedback loops, and underlying causes rather than surface events.

  • Iceberg Model — uncover root causes by looking at hidden levels of abstraction.
  • Connection circles — understand relationships and identify feedback loops within systems.
  • Concept map — understand relationships between entities in a concept or system.
  • Balancing feedback loop — understand stabilizing dynamics in a system.

Use this group when a problem repeats, when fixing one part creates problems elsewhere, or when you need to explain how a system behaves over time.

Communication: when the problem is how you convey something

  • Situation-Behavior-Impact — give clearer feedback without judgement.
  • Minto Pyramid — make communication more efficient and clear.

Use these when the underlying analysis is done but the message isn't landing.

Matching your problem to a tool

Your situation Category to start with Example tool
Something keeps going wrong and you don't know why Problem solving Ishikawa Diagram
You have too many tasks and can't decide what to do first Decision making Eisenhower Matrix
A decision looks fine now but you worry about later Decision making Second-order thinking
The same issue returns after you "fix" it Systems thinking Iceberg Model
You need to give feedback that someone can act on Communication Situation-Behavior-Impact
You're stuck because the problem is framed wrong Problem solving Abstraction laddering

What Untools is not for

Untools provides frameworks, not finished answers. It won't tell you which candidate to hire, whether to take a job, or how to fix a specific technical failure. It also doesn't replace domain expertise — a decision matrix still requires you to supply and weight the criteria. The value is in the structure it imposes on your thinking, not in automated output.

Getting the templates

The site offers three free thinking tool templates and a newsletter that, per the page, has over 19,500 subscribers receiving practical frameworks every two weeks. If you want to try the tools before committing to any workflow, that is the lowest-friction entry point.