Executive overview
Duly is a civic engagement platform that verifies constituent identity, turns natural-language input into structured insight for staff, and publishes anonymized district trends so the public can see where issues stand.
- Verified voices: residency check + one-time code; district routing.
- AI summaries, not decisions: topic, sentiment, urgency, deduplication; staff stay in control.
- Transparency: a public portal shows anonymized issue trends and official responses.
- Privacy by design: no public PII; redaction and audit trail across the pipeline.
Problem
Offices are swamped with unverified, unstructured messages. Real constituent voices are diluted; staff rely on filters and scripts; the public can’t see if concerns led to action.
- Fragmented channels: email, web forms, calls, social DMs — no unified intake.
- No verification: offices can’t trust residency or constituency at scale.
- Low signal-to-noise: mass campaigns/bots bury everyday residents.
- Opaque outcomes: citizens rarely see if/when an issue is addressed.
Who it serves
Constituents
- One verified place to be heard by the correct office.
- See how your input contributes to district trends.
- Opt-in follow-ups when leaders respond or act.
Politicians & staff
- Noise-free inbox: verified messages, clustered by topic/sentiment/urgency.
- Dashboards to detect emerging issues and track response SLAs.
- Publish official responses to the public portal with one click.
General public
- District-level, anonymized summaries of what people raise.
- See responsiveness over time without exposing personal data.
Product principles
- Verified voices only: input counts after residency verification.
- Privacy-first: PII is redacted; public data is aggregated and anonymized.
- Transparency without partisanship: issue- and data-driven, not editorial.
- AI as a tool: assists with summaries; humans decide and publish.
- Build for trust, not engagement metrics: fast, respectful UX — finish in under 5 minutes.
What ships in the MVP
Included
- Constituent verification (ZIP + email/SMS; optional higher assurance).
- Message intake (structured prompts, free text, voice-to-text).
- AI summarization: topic, sentiment, urgency; deduplication and spam guard.
- Staff dashboard: clusters, filters, message review, “needs reply/escalate”.
- Public portal: anonymized trends, published responses.
- Notifications: follow-ups on topics users care about.
- Accessibility (WCAG 2.1+), mobile-first layout.
Out of scope (Phase 2+)
- Mass outreach campaigns, real-time chat.
- Advanced analytics beyond core trends.
- Full voter-roll integrations; multilingual beyond English.
How it works (pipeline)
Verify the sender → structure the message → route by policy/SLA → staff act → publish anonymized outcomes.
For staff
- Verified, deduped inbox with safe-handling lane for threats.
- Clusters show volume, sentiment, subtopics, and urgency.
- Publish official responses to close the loop publicly.
For constituents
- Simple input; clear confirmation; optional follow-ups.
- See how your message contributes to district-level trends.
Success metrics (pilot targets)
↑ verification
% verified users submitting monthly
< 24h
Time-to-first-response
−50%
Time-to-resolution
30–60%
Automation/deflection on common requests
↑ transparency
% feedback summarized & published
Additional measures: NPS (constituents & staff), model accuracy vs. human review, public dashboard engagement.
Architecture & feasibility
High-level design (NDA-safe)
- Multi-tenant: strict tenant isolation; scoped access; per-district config.
- Verification: ZIP + email/SMS; optional higher-assurance integrations later.
- AI pipeline: topic clustering, sentiment/urgency, dedup/spam; human-in-the-loop for pilots.
- Governance: PII redaction, hashed IDs, immutable audit/export; WCAG 2.1+.
- Public data: anonymized aggregates streamed to the transparency portal.
Risks & mitigations
- Identity & integrity: start simple; explore voter-file partnerships; log metadata for audit.
- AI accuracy: human review in pilots; confidence scores; flagging to improve models.
- Adoption: begin with willing offices; deliver clear value (weekly trend briefs).
- Spam/abuse: verification, rate limits, heuristics; safe-handling lane for threats.
- Legal/ethical: privacy counsel; opt-in transparency; third-party audits where applicable.
What I owned
- Product thesis, principles, and MVP scope; stakeholder interviews.
- Architecture and data governance; verification strategy; AI prompting & evaluation.
- UX for intake, cluster review, public transparency, and audit logs.
- Delivery leadership: CI/CD, security posture, incident playbooks, pilot success cadence.
Interested in civic tech?
Duly is seeking pilot municipalities ready to transform constituent engagement. If you're building in the civic space or exploring similar challenges, I'd welcome the conversation.