Counter
Negotiate a job offer against a market band you can’t see. Set your ask, the offer already on the table, and your walk-away floor; the engine scores where that number lands — accepted, left money on the table, a credible counter, or an over-reach — estimates the likely settle, and adds up the money your counter actually won over the opening offer. The moat is what happens at the end: the market band was rendering invisibly the whole time, and only the X-ray reveals it, so you feel in real time how a number that sounded generous was sitting below median. Runs entirely in your browser (0 uploads, works offline).
How to use it
- Drag the Your ask slider, or tap a preset — Play it safe, Counter at market, or Swing big.
- Watch the outcome badge, the likely settle, and the value vs offer update live — all without seeing the band.
- Adjust Their offer and Your walk-away to change the scenario; the walk-away note warns when a settle would fall below your floor.
- Open the X-ray to reveal the hidden band and the exact percentile your ask and settle landed at — then copy or share the result.
What this clears up (the fundamentals)
- An offer is a position, not a number — "generous" only means something relative to the market band. The same 145,000 can be a great ask or leaving money on the table depending on where the band sits.
- Anchoring bias runs both ways — ask below the median and you get waved through because you undersold; over-reach past the ceiling and the whole conversation can snap back to the opening offer.
- The counter captures the gap, capped by reality — a credible ask inside the band lands near your number, but the settle is capped at the band ceiling; nobody pays above the top of the market to close one hire.
- Percentile is the honest scoreboard — "I got a raise" feels like a win; "my settle landed at the 34th percentile" tells you whether it actually was.
Where it’s used
A miatz build-lab concept playable for the Career track’s Owning Your Narrative closing module — the fastest way to feel why an anchoring number sounded generous while sitting below median. Play the hidden-band reveal here, then learn to build the negotiation scoring and the percentile X-ray yourself.
FAQ
How is the outcome decided?
From the numbers, deterministically. An ask at or below the offer is accepted; an ask more than 10% above the band ceiling is an over-reach; an ask above the offer but below the band median leaves money on the table; anything else inside the band above the offer is a countered offer. No model call, no randomness.
Why is the market band hidden until the end?
That’s the whole point. During a real negotiation you can’t see the band either — you feel out where your number lands. Revealing it only at the X-ray reproduces that moment: the number that sounded right, scored against data you couldn’t see.
What is the "settle estimate"?
A plausible closing number: for a reasonable ask it’s your ask capped at the band ceiling (and never below the standing offer); for an over-reach it collapses back to the opening offer. The value vs offer is simply that settle minus what they first put on the table.
What does the walk-away floor do?
It’s your minimum acceptable number. If the modelled settle would fall below it, the advice flags that the deal is under your floor and you should be ready to decline — walking away is a real negotiating position.
Is anything uploaded?
No. Your ask, offer, and floor are scored entirely in your browser — nothing is transmitted, stored, or logged. Turn off your Wi-Fi and it still works.
Limits
A teaching model with one fixed band and a hand-set rule for outcomes — a fast, opinionated read on where a number lands, not real market data for your role, level, or city. Actual comp bands shift with location, equity, and cycle; the settle here is a plausible estimate, not a promise. The lesson it teaches — anchor to the band, not to the offer — is exactly the real practice.
Related
Part of the Demystify Playgrounds. Explore the rest from the Playgrounds home.
Bookmark this page (Ctrl+D, or ⌘D on Mac) — it works offline the next time you need it.