Manifesto
Just a few things we believe about product teams and the magic of focused work.
This is not a strategy deck, not a whitepaper, and not a mission statement. This is what we believe. About product teams and the magic of focused work.
It was written for teams drowning in busy-work. The one team it was specifically written for.
That team is yours.
1. Our Vision – the Ideal Future
We imagine a world where product teams spend zero mental energy on busy‑work and 100 % on invention.
Duster becomes a real teammate—understanding goals, spotting friction, and acting proactively so ideas move from sketch to shipped with near‑magical coordination.
2. The Problem We’re Solving
- Hours lost to repetitive ops that add no customer value.
- Feedback scattered everywhere—no single source of truth.
- Visibility gaps between people, teams, and priorities.
- Endless noise from notifications and context-switching.
3. The Opportunity & Our Promise
We cut the noise so product thinkers can design, build, and launch faster.
Duster fuses chat, tasks, and insights into one opinionated flow—turning conversations into action and action into measurable impact.
4. Scope — What We Are
- Communication glue: marry informal chat with formal issues.
- Clarity engine: surface the moving parts that actually matter.
- Proactive copilots: automate the rote, spotlight the strategic.
What We Are Not
- We don’t replace Slack or become a new chat app.
- We’re not a support ticketing system.
- We’re not Excel, Forms, or a CRM.
- We never swamp users with configuration‑hell; we decide so they don’t have to.
5. Principles That Guide Every Decision
| # | Principle | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The PM isn’t a stenographer | Strategy > bureaucracy. Duster captures notes so product leads chart direction. |
| 2 | The team is the product | Our software reflects our culture of ownership, craft, and care. |
| 3 | Opinionated tools build visionary teams | We encode best practices so users move fast without manuals. |
| 4 | Let the robots do the boring stuff | Automation handles repetition; humans focus on insight and empathy. |
| 5 | Communication is construction | Every conversation becomes an artefact that advances the roadmap. |
| 6 | Impact is the first KPI | Shipping less that matters beats shipping more that doesn’t. |
| 7 | Question dogma | We revisit assumptions—even our own manifesto—regularly. |
| 8 | Saying no is product design | What we don’t build keeps the experience sharp. |
| 9 | Data is a compass, not a cage | Metrics guide, but judgment decides. |
6. How We Keep the Manifesto Alive
- Public & editable: lived in
/docs/manifesto.mdx, change‑logged via pull requests. - Lean list: capped at ten principles—easy to learn, hard to forget.
Duster exists so product teams can think boldly, build bravely, and ship what truly moves the needle. If these principles resonate, you’re already one of us.