What high-level problem are you trying to solve?
Some organizations that use ODK Collect also use Mobile Device Management software like TinyMDM or Microsoft Intune to do things like automatically accept permissions, lock down application access, selectively push out application updates, and keep track of the physical location of devices. Android has very good support for Mobile Device Management with two different modes: it can either take over and manage the entire device or manage just a separate profile on a user-controlled device.
Some of these organizations that already use ODK with MDM have asked about using MDM to configure Collect remotely, especially to configure a new project for every device without needing to manage and scan in QR codes.
Any ideas on how ODK could help you solve it?
We are proposing making it possible to set a settings_json configuration key from MDM and give it a value containing JSON representing client settings.
If no project is configured, when Collect receives those settings, it would immediately create a new project and switch to it.
If a project is already configured, when Collect receives those settings and the URL and username match an existing project, Collect would immediately apply the new settings to the existing project.
If a project is already configured, when Collect receives those settings and the URL and username do NOT match any existing project, Collect would immediately create and configure the new project.
In the latter two cases, the currently active project would not change so as not to disrupt ongoing work.
Upload any helpful links, sketches, and videos.
Most MDM providers have a way to specify variables in settings like
$appuserkey above. This would make it possible to use a single policy to configure many devices each with their own App User key.
Related work
We've previously discussed a way for users to specify settings on the server and for those settings to stay synchronized on the client. We think these two approaches would be complementary. For example, an organization might want to use MDM to configure the server and App User identity for each device and then configure further settings from Central.
Please let us know what you think! We'll also show a proof of concept for discussion during Wednesday's Insiders call. 
