We argue for a broader and more deliberative regional policy-making process that can be used to better identify the needs of diverse left-behind communities and develop appropriate policies. We argue that the capability approach’s quintessentially inclusive and broad scope, and focus on real opportunities, agency, and process might better address the challenges of regional development. We use these insights to lay out a practical guide for how the capability approach could be used in policymaking, breaking down the implementation approach into steps, and providing examples from a variety of contexts to show how each step might be achieved in practice.