Urban areas are often characterized by complex problems, such as social and economic deprivation, segregation, or bureaucratic administration. Urban living laboratories (ULL) provide a promising approach to redefine and tackle such problems in novel ways. The present study examined an ULL initiative in a suburban area, where guided workshops based on the Change Laboratory method were arranged. The findings showed that it is important to dedicate sufficient time to early innovation process before development projects are launched, involving building relations, sharing knowledge, exploring ignorance and innovating new concepts. Successful ULL activities require contributions by all living lab actor roles: enablers, utilizers, providers, and residents as users. Actor roles emerged in actual planning and were situation-contingent. The study emphasises the importance of distinguishing the early innovation process called preject from the project and gives suggestions for managing the preject.