5/52 — Quickset

Recently, I’ve had to set up two computers. One at work and a new personal computer. The one that I had to set up at work was a real PITA. I was trying to upgrade my computer’s operating system when the computer froze and the IT helpdesk told me that they were going to have to wipe the computer and do a fresh install of the operating system. I lost everything. Luckily all my documents were backed up using Google Drive so I wasn’t having a panic attack.

The biggest pain though was remembering which applications I had installed on my computer and their specific configuration. I had to re-download all of my applications, find the license keys for programs like Sketch, Balsamiq, and the Adobe Suite, and configure some applications like Sublime and iTerm2 to my preferences. This took an entire work day.

A week later, I bought a new personal computer and spent at least 3 hours setting that computer up. Because I had just set up a computer a week before, the process was a bit faster. I also knew this computer was on its way so I wrote some things down in a Google Doc so that I’d remember the plugins that I wanted to install in Sublime and what all the license keys were.

After going through this process though for the second time, I started to think that there must be an easier way to do this. Thats when the idea for Quickset came about.

Product Idea

For an iPhone, it is pretty easy to set up a new device. You sign into the App Store with your iCloud account, find your previously purchased apps, and just install them. Unfortunately it isn’t that easy when you are setting up your Mac. Some applications are downloaded from the App store, but most of them are not.

Quickset knows all of the applications you’ve installed on your computer. It also knows if you have customized or installed plugins for that application and if it requires a license. For example, for the application Sublime Text, Quickset will know that I installed Package Control and then individually installed the packages BracketHighlighter and TrailingSpaces. It will also remember the license key that I purchased for Sublime so that I can copy it and paste it right in.

When you get your new computer, the first thing you should do is install Quickset. Once installed, you are able to download all of your applications at once and configure them quickly with the information stored in the app. The goal is to cut the time it takes to set up your new computer in half.

The Three Questions

1. What is the problem we are trying to solve?

Setting up a new computer can be very time consuming. Trying to remember all of the applications that you’ve installed on your old computer, what settings you customized for those applications, and if they require a license key.

2. Who will benefit from using this product?

People who need to set up their new computer and do not want to spend a lot of time doing it. Also people who have had their computer’s stolen or their hard drive malfunctioned or wiped. These people cannot look at their old computers as a reference to how things were installed on it previously.

3. How will this product solve the problem?

Quickset helps people set up their new computers when they cannot reference their old computers or just want to have a quick set up experience. When you install Quickset on your computer, it knows all of the applications you’ve install on that computer, customized preferences that you’ve set for each application, and if the application requires a license or password. Then when you get your new computer, install Quickset, and you will be able to download all of your old applications quickly and easily.