Prototype Your Next Place

Midlife couple. Longtime homeowners. Financially stable. Deep roots in their current community.

On paper, their place still worked. The house met their needs. Their routines were familiar. They had friends nearby and meaningful history in the area. But when they stepped back and looked across the full picture—health, environment, community, and finances—misalignments began to surface.

Daily movement required more intentional effort than it used to. Social connection had narrowed over time. Access to the kinds of activities that energized them increasingly required driving, planning, and coordination. Nothing was “wrong,” exactly—but very little felt easy.

When asked whether they wanted to move, they hesitated. They weren’t unhappy enough to force a decision. At the same time, they were increasingly aware that staying put without change carried its own cost. The question wasn’t Should we leave? It was How do we know what would actually be better?

It was January. They felt the familiar pull of a new chapter. The idea of a different place—more walkable, more connected, more supportive of daily life—was exciting. But the magnitude of a move felt overwhelming. Selling a home. Choosing the wrong location. Regretting a decision that felt hard to undo.

So instead of deciding, they paused.

This is where many Place Planning can stall—not because people lack vision, but because the leap feels too large.

When Vision Meets Friction

The beginning of the year has a way of loosening the imagination. People are more willing to ask “what if?” New routines feel possible. Big ideas feel lighter. And often, place sits at the center of that vision—where life happens, and how much it supports or drains us.

But place decisions carry unusual gravity. Homes aren’t habits you can break in a week. They’re deeply intertwined with identity, finances, relationships, and health. Even modest changes require time, money, and emotional energy. So when optimism meets effort, momentum often fades.

What looks like indecision is frequently something else: inertia created by the absence of a manageable first step.

Big Bets Aren’t the Only Way Forward

One of the most useful reframes in place planning is letting go of the idea that clarity must come before action.

Instead of asking, “Should we move?” a more productive question is often, “What could we test?”

This is where prototyping comes in.

Borrowed from design thinking, prototyping breaks a large, high-stakes decision into smaller, lower-risk experiments. It’s not about committing. It’s about learning. You’re not trying to prove you’re right—you’re trying to gather real-world information.

In the case above, the goal wasn’t to pick a destination. It was to reduce uncertainty.

From “Think” to “Know”

Place decisions are experiential. You can’t think your way into knowing how a neighborhood will feel, how your energy will shift, or how daily rhythms will change. You have to experience them.

Prototyping might look like:

• Spending a week in a walkable neighborhood you’re curious about

• House-sitting for friends in a different environment

• Temporarily living with less space—or different space

• Structuring your days as if you already lived somewhere else

• Testing out a retirement community for a night

Each prototype answers a specific question. What felt easier? What surprised me? What drained energy instead of giving it? Even disappointment is useful. It prevents far more costly mistakes later.

This approach aligns closely with the work of Stanford professors and authors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, who emphasize that meaningful change doesn’t come from declarations, but from small experiments repeated over time. Prototypes turn “I should” into “I tried,” replacing intention with evidence.

Why Prototyping Breaks Inertia

Prototyping creates movement—and movement changes how decisions feel.

Once people start testing ideas, conversations shift. Partners move from debating hypotheticals to reflecting on shared experience. Skepticism becomes more specific, and therefore more addressable. Instead of asking whether a change is “too risky,” the question becomes, Which part of this actually matters most?

Over time, clarity emerges—not all at once, but through accumulation.

Progress Over Perfection

You don’t need to uproot your life to explore what’s next. You need permission to test without committing.

The beginning of the year invites vision. Prototyping gives that vision traction.

And when it comes to place, the greatest risk is often not choosing the wrong option—but letting inertia make the decision for you.

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