The Market-Value Triangle

One data source is anecdote. Three is signal. Pull a pay range from three independent sources: salary surveys or sites like Levels.fyi (external), peers in similar roles at similar companies (human), and your own offers or recruiter outreach from the last twelve months (market-tested).

Where the three overlap is your real range — wider on top than most people assume. Anchor your ask at the 70th percentile of that overlap, not the median. You can always soften; you cannot renegotiate up once you anchor low.