Agon Arena — a negotiation and tough-conversation trainer
Refactoring vs Features
Negotiation duel: Engineer ↔ Product Manager. An engineer asks for a sprint to pay down tech debt: three of five integrations still run on a hand-rolled connector that breaks weekly — 'it will only cost more later.' The product manager refuses: 'the quarter is…
Roles in the duel:
Side A: Engineer — goal: Get time allocated for tech debt with clear benefit criteria.
Side B: Product Manager — goal: Deliver the quarterly features without giving up a single sprint.
Play out a difficult conversation with an AI opponent and get a breakdown from three judges.