When I receive an offer, I want to negotiate a fair figure, so I do not choose between accepting too little and losing the role.

Job context

Who

A candidate who has just received an offer

When

In the days after it arrives

Trigger

Learning a colleague in the same role is paid more

Situation

One side knows the whole range and the other does not

Constraints

Asking too much may lose the offer

5 Pains

• No idea of the market rate for this role

  High

  Public data is broad and old.

  Root cause: Pay is information workers do not share with each other

• The employer knows the range and the candidate does not

  High

  So every number stated is a guess.

  Root cause: Range information is held on one side

• Naming a number first costs you

  High

  And the other side always asks first.

  Root cause: Whoever speaks first anchors the whole negotiation

• Fear that asking high loses the offer

  Medium

  So most accept the first figure.

  Root cause: The candidate bears the risk of losing the offer and the employer does not

• The starting figure decides years afterwards

  Medium

  Because raises are computed as percentages.

  Root cause: Every later raise is computed on the first number

5 Desired Outcomes

• Know the real market rate

  Functional

• Know the range before naming a figure

  Functional

• Not be the one to name a number first

  Social

• Negotiate without fear of losing the offer

  Emotional

• Start at a figure that does not hold them down for years

  Functional

5 Existing Solutions

A solution is not the same thing as a product, a customer can hire a behaviour or a workaround too.

• Check salary survey sites

  Product

  The only numbers available, in ranges wide enough to be nearly useless.

• Ask people in the trade

  Behaviour

  The most accurate source, in a conversation still treated as taboo.

• Ask them for the range instead

  Behaviour

  The most effective way to avoid anchoring, and many refuse to answer.

• Hold another offer

  Workaround

  The only real leverage, requiring luck in timing.

• Accept the first figure

  Behaviour

  What most people do, setting the price for years.

2 Opportunity Gaps

• The employer knows the whole range for the role while the candidate knows only their own single figure, and the negotiation proceeds as though both sides had the same information.

  Why existing solutions fail: This information asymmetry is the employer's advantage, so no company gives it up voluntarily, and workers do not share pay with each other because of a social norm that benefits the other side.

  Potential opportunity: Pay sharing among people in the same trade, anonymous and role-specific.

• The risk of a failed negotiation falls entirely on the candidate, who may lose the role, while the employer loses one candidate among several.

  Why existing solutions fail: The asymmetry in risk makes the weaker side negotiate more cautiously than is rational, and the result is read as agreement with the offer when it is only the shape of the balance.

  Potential opportunity: Stating at the outset that negotiating will not endanger the offer, and holding to it.