Two Wins to Win.
How might we use gamification to teach job offer negotiation?
Educational Game Design and Job Offer Negotiations
The final project seemed straightforward: design a game that teaches someone something. Our team was tasked with defining the "someone" and the "something." We began brainstorming ideas like teaching color theory, fostering empathy, or cultivating problem-solving skills. However, a collective groan filled the room when the topic of job interviews and negotiation came up. With graduation on the horizon, the interview process felt like a looming challenge.
This shared concern led us to dive deeper into the domain, and we quickly realized we weren’t alone. For many of our peers, interviews and negotiations were daunting, making them the perfect focus for our project. The next step was to identify where students like us struggled most. Could these pain points offer opportunities for both effective learning and engaging gamification? It turned out they could—and Two Wins to Win was born.
Created as part of the Educational Game Design course at Carnegie Mellon University, Two Wins to Win was developed over the span of eight weeks. I had the privilege of collaborating with four incredible teammates: Haley Carter, Vivi Nguyen, Daniel Noh, and Ham Siripanichgon. My roles in the project included Instructional Design Lead, Game Designer, and Visual Designer.
Recognition
Two Wins to Win was selected as a finalist in the 2021 GEE! Learning Game Awards in the student-created category, earning recognition for excellence in educational game design.
Solution.
Negotiation with a Twist
Two Wins to Win is a board-based card game set in a fantastical environment designed to help players practice the art of negotiation. In the game, players take on the roles of both recruit and recruiter, engaging in negotiation scenarios where the objective is to strike mutually beneficial deals.
The twist? To win the game, both players must achieve a positive score. The concept emphasizes the idea that recruiters are not adversaries, but rather collaborators working toward a common goal. This approach fosters a more positive, cooperative view of negotiation, challenging traditional "win-lose" scenarios and encouraging players to focus on creating value for both sides.
Benefits
Practice in a Low-Stakes Environment
Gain confidence by learning the lingo and testing new negotiation techniques without real-world pressure.Prioritize Personal Interests
Explore negotiable benefits and develop strategies to align offers with your goals and priorities.Collaborate with Recruiters
Build communication skills to work effectively with recruiters and understand their perspectives.Fun and Creative Scenarios
Hone your negotiation skills by tackling imaginative challenges—like convincing your boss to let you bring your pet dragon to work. (Because priorities matter!)
Research.
Identifying the Need: The Origin of How Two Wins to Win
The journey to Two Wins to Win began with a deeper exploration of the job-seeking process. We mapped out key stages—submitting a resume, navigating interviews, and ultimately accepting a job offer. This exercise revealed an important opportunity: offer negotiation.
Our research led us to a compelling statistic: 84% of Gen Z workers (ages 18–24) and 74% of Millennial workers (ages 25–34) accept the first salary they’re offered (ZipRecruiter Job Seeker Survey, 2018). This suggested a potential gap in negotiation skills among younger professionals. To validate our findings, we reached out to peers in our target audience, and they confirmed our hunch: discomfort and uncertainty often surrounded the negotiation of job benefits, making it a significant challenge in the job-seeking process.
This insight helped us pinpoint the key pain point we aimed to address with Two Wins to Win: building confidence and skills in negotiation through an engaging, interactive game.
Key Insights That Shaped Two Wins to Win
In our research into teaching negotiation skills, we explored course curricula, academic journals, and industry thought leadership, which led to three key insights:
Too Realistic Simulations May Inhibit Learners
Simulated environments that mirror the real world too closely may limit learners' ability to experiment. As highlighted in the Harvard Law Negotiation Report, familiar contexts can trigger automatic responses, and overly realistic environments can reduce psychological safety. This prevents learners from taking risks and trying new strategies, ultimately hindering their growth.Classroom-Based Negotiation Training Relies on Exercises, Not Gamification
While negotiation training does exist, it typically involves learning exercises and role-playing in classroom settings with accompanying curricula or instructor facilitation. These approaches do not fully incorporate gamification, which offers a more interactive and engaging way to practice skills.Existing Negotiation Games Avoid Job Offer Scenarios
While there are many negotiation games available, few specifically focus on job offer negotiation. Most resources in this area are static guides, rather than interactive, gamified experiences that allow users to actively participate and learn.
As we dug deeper, a key concern emerged. While our goal was to create a game, we realized that moving too far from a professional narrative could lead players to view negotiation as a battle. We wanted to ensure the game fostered collaboration rather than conflict. To avoid portraying negotiation as a win-lose scenario, we developed Two Wins to Win—a game where success for both players is intertwined, and achieving a positive outcome for both parties is the ultimate goal.
Learning Objectives.
Through research, in-class critiques, and an iterative design process, we ultimately defined four key learning objectives that captured what players would be able to do after playing Two Wins to Win.
-
Identify concepts associated with the practice of negotiation and the role they play, for example: logrolling, anchoring effect, and BATNA.
-
Identify negotiable benefits commonly included in a job offer including: salary, signing bonuses, PTO, work location, work hours, gym membership, moving reimbursements, pet care, daycare, childcare, and more.
-
Identify and implement negotiation strategies such as Interest-Based Negotiation, Logrolling, and Generate Option Strategy.
-
Item description
Experience Goals.
We also established a series of experience goals, ensuring consistency with the desired voice, tone, and overall player experience within the game.
-
Negotiation is about collaborating with your counterpart to create mutually beneficial outcomes. With this in mind, we aim to design a game where both players are invested in each other's success, rather than seeking to win at the other's expense. The goal is for players to focus on achieving their own objectives while also considering and supporting the interests of the other player.
-
By the end of the game, players should arrive at a mutually agreed-upon resolution, where they have negotiated a final deal that satisfies both parties. The game is designed to guide them through the process, encouraging collaboration and fostering understanding in order to reach this shared outcome.
-
Salary negotiations can be stressful in real life, but our game offers a risk-free environment for players to experiment with negotiation strategies. Designed for individuals with little experience, such as college students, the game provides a fictional setting to practice and familiarize themselves with the process. Persona cards for both the recruit and recruiter help players understand their roles and objectives.
-
Building on our previous experience goal, a key point of feedback from peers was that one of the most enjoyable aspects of playing a role-playing game is the humor. To enhance the experience, we incorporated humor into the roleplay elements of our game, allowing players to enjoy the experience in a relaxed and comfortable way.
-
An important aspect of negotiation is understanding the underlying interests of the other party. At the start of the game, both players keep key information hidden, such as their top priorities. As the game progresses, they work toward achieving their own interests while uncovering the other player’s hidden information, striving to reach a win-win agreement.
Design and Playtesting.
During our game design process, we utilized three platforms—Miro, Figma, and PlayingCards.io—to brainstorm and develop the card mechanics, board layout, and card designs. "Two Wins to Win" was created entirely in a remote environment, and these platforms played a crucial role in its development.
Ideation and Early Iterations
Using Miro, our team was able to brainstorm game ideas, as well as iterate on various game components and mechanics.
Mid- to High-Fidelity Prototypes
Once we refined our early designs into a playable game, we transitioned to Figma to reorganize and enhance the board and components, ultimately creating a higher-fidelity prototype.
Playtesting Insights: What We Learned
Role-play Aspect: Players found the role-play aspect to be the most engaging part of the game.
To enhance this, we adjusted the gameplay to better encourage negotiation and added more detail to the Persona Cards.Integration of Negotiation Tips: While negotiation tips were valuable, they needed to be more seamlessly integrated into the gameplay.
To address this, we added the tips directly onto the cards, making them more accessible to players during negotiations.Starting Negotiations: Players struggled to initiate negotiations effectively.
To resolve this, we introduced scripted phrases on the tip cards, such as "I would be happy to accept that offer if..." to help players begin negotiations more confidently.Scoring Mechanics: The scoring system needed further refinement to better support the negotiation dynamics.
We plan to further develop these mechanics to align with the game's flow and enhance the overall experience.
Final design.
Playing Cards and Tokens
Browse our Figma to explore examples of the final tip, offer, and interest cards used in the game.
Recruit and Recruiter Personas
Our persona cards provide players with background information on their role, guidance on what to negotiate for, and helpful tips. You can view both the Recruit and Recruiter cards.
Game Mechanics
Visit the Game Guide to learn the rules and get a complete overview of how to play Two Wins to Win.
Gameplay
The final playable version was created in PlayingCards.io. Although the room is no longer available, you can watch gameplay by clicking the link below.