Negotiation Strategies

Constant collaboration between Product Management & Engineering

This article discusses a problem faced by one company where Product Management and Engineering were in constant conflict due to misalignment of deliverables. The author, a Director of Engineering, implemented rules of engagement, chunking down and chunking up models, and invited Product Managers to Engineering meetings to help resolve disagreements. The article also highlights the importance of building trust between Project Management and Engineering to ensure smoother delivery and more effective negotiation.

Teaching leadership through influence

As a team leader, the author identified four engineers with potential for leadership and used a simple task - organizing a team lunch - to teach them leadership through influence. After the team lunch, the author had a post-mortem with the engineer and two of the four engineers have since moved up to manager level. This experience has taught the author that leading through influence is more challenging than leading through authority, but can be effectively taught through simple tasks.

Discussing Pay Compensation

This article discusses how to approach a conversation about earning more money. It suggests researching the company's compensation authority, providing a list of accomplishments, and comparing market salaries to demonstrate why a raise is deserved. It also suggests being honest about other offers and emphasizing the value of staying with the current company. The article emphasizes the importance of making noise and letting the manager know that compensation is important.

Convincing your executives to increase their hiring budget

This article discusses the challenge of hiring a full backend developer with at least five years of experience. The author had to convince their executives to increase the budget in order to hire a top-notch engineer, and they gathered data to demonstrate that a small budget would result in a loss for the company. They also compared their company's salary to the market price and found that they were offering much lower than the competition. After a month of convincing, the executives agreed to increase the budget, but the perfect candidate had already declined the offer. The author's advice is to bring a lot of data and present it in a way that executives will understand.

Eight Proven Tactics for Salary Negotiations

This article provides eight tactics for negotiating salary, such as making sure your agenda is clear, doing research to understand your market value and position within the company, and using body language and non-verbal cues. It also encourages people to find common ground with their boss, be flexible, and use the "Powerlessness" and "No" cards when necessary. Lastly, it advises to not use precise numbers and to be the first to mention a number when negotiating.

I managed to convince top notch engineers to accept my offer

In a tricky negotiation to hire three rockstar engineers from a failed start-up, the negotiator leveraged different aspects to convince them to accept the offer. These included emphasizing the challenging role and professional growth, showing that the stock value would be higher, putting them in contact with people who had faced a similar situation, and looking for positions for their significant others. The negotiation was successful, and the negotiator learned the importance of listening to the person's concerns and finding ways to show that the company cares about their wellbeing.