1. Create a query in Maniphest with the stuff you want to show.
2. Save it as a named query.
3. Create a new Dashboard panel with that query.
4. Embed the view with {W...}. For example, here's {W402} on this install below (which shows a few recent tasks in Phriction):
5. You can delete the named query now.

{W402}

Steps (1), (2), (3) and (5) will get easier after T5307, which will add a "Create dashboard panel from query results..." action to query results.

Does that solve things?

Alternatively, you could use a dashboard to provide the "executive dashboard" view, and bring text into that with text panels:

{W1}

There isn't currently a way to embed a Phriction page in a dashboard, but you could have a smaller panel with a few sentences and some links into Phriction, and we might let you bring Phriction stuff in wholesale sooner or later.

That gets me close enough! There wasn't anything in the Maniphest documentation I found about being able to create a panel and then link it. This is pretty much what I needed, though.

That said, using the dashboard as the executive view would be even more fantastic if I could link in more detailed Phriction stuff. Of course now that you've told me it's a possibility in the future, that's what I'll keep an eye open for with our new featuresets going forward.