Negotiation Prep

---
name: negotiation-prep
description: Prepare a partnership negotiation by defining interests, priorities, authority, alternatives, ranges, trade variables, evidence, risks, and approval boundaries before entering the conversation.
---
# Partnership Negotiation Preparation

Use when partnership terms are moving from proposal into negotiated commitments.

## Procedure
1. Define the desired partnership outcome, must-have conditions, preferred terms, flexible variables, and issues that require another owner's approval.
2. Identify the other side's likely interests, constraints, alternatives, decision process, and sources of leverage using evidence rather than role stereotypes.
3. Establish your best alternative if no agreement is reached and the practical cost of delay or no deal.
4. Prepare ranges and tradeoffs across scope, exclusivity, economics, timing, promotion, integration, support, data, governance, term, and exit as relevant.
5. Distinguish variables that can be traded from principles or risk boundaries that should not be casually exchanged.
6. Gather evidence supporting important positions such as audience value, cost, contribution, demand, technical scope, or market norm.
7. Define who can commit to which terms and how legal, finance, security, product, or leadership review enters the process.
8. Prepare questions that reveal underlying interests and a durable record of offers, decisions, and unresolved terms.

## Decision rules
- Negotiate interests and tradeoffs, not only positions.
- Do not concede authority owned by another function.
- A credible alternative prevents bad deals driven by sunk effort.
- Record exact evolving terms so both sides negotiate the same proposal.

## Quality gate
Preparation is complete when priorities and approval boundaries are clear, alternatives and trade variables are understood, important positions have evidence, cross-functional risks have owners, and the negotiator can explore mutual value without improvising commitments outside authority.