Post by habiba123820 on Nov 6, 2024 3:56:00 GMT -5
The scene opens with you, a newly hired localization manager at a large company. You inherit a fairly extensive localization setup: established CMS software, a CAT tool, and a few translation vendors. If you’re really lucky, your welcome package also comes with a fully integrated translation platform. If not, at least you have the basic technology needed to start localizing with some level of efficiency. Now, the drama begins. One of the biggest challenges in the localization industry is finding the right vendors—the right fit for your content, at the right time, and at the right price. The perfect localization partner is something of a unicorn in today’s market, which is flooded with localization vendors claiming to be the best in the industry. Most localization managers endure a seemingly endless soap opera of hiring, firing, and rehiring vendors in the hopes of solving their localization problems. The good news is that there is a way out of this vicious vendor cycle. With the right strategy in hand, you can avoid all the drama depicted in the following scenes:
Scene 1: Burn It All Down
Julie came on board as a localization manager for a growing fashion brand that was expanding into the German market. On her first day on the job, she announced to the team that she had decided to lay off all of her existing suppliers and start from scratch. She wanted to make a big splash with her new company—and she did. The team struggled for wordpress web design agency months to get localization up and running after their Targaryen-style approach. “Julie” wasn’t the first localization manager to make this particular move. Unfortunately, it’s common in the industry for new professionals to enter a localization ecosystem and try to reinvent everything that’s already been done. You may even have felt the urge to throw everything away and start over from scratch. Now is the time to pause and rethink your localization strategy . You may not need to reinvent the wheel. And if you’re in a new position, it would be wise to consider that you don’t know what to change yet because you don’t yet know the organization well. Take some time to carefully evaluate what’s working and what’s not before deciding what changes your company needs. This thinking puts you in a really great position as a localization manager. You’re perfectly prepared to ask for what you want and work with existing vendors to tweak your approach. In most cases, you’ll get high-quality localization results faster with this strategy than if you started from scratch.
Scene 2: Suspicion and Accusation
Craig had just received the worst email of his entire career. The marketing manager for the Japan office had fired off a long complaint about the recent quality of the translation and blamed him for the poor results: “This translation is horrible. We absolutely cannot publish any of the content we paid for. We will lose business because of this.” After weighing his options, Craig decided to fire the translation vendor outright. He had no idea whether they were actually doing a bad job (he didn’t speak Japanese, after all), but at least it would look like he had done something to fix the problem. When faced with a localization disaster, it’s always tempting to throw up your hands and blame the vendor. That would be easy. The challenge would be to consider how much of the vendor is to blame and how much of the localization manager is to blame. It’s possible that Craig might have made a smarter decision if he had started with the man in the mirror. If you’re facing a problem with translation quality, consider the following questions:
Did you provide your vendor with a comprehensive style guide to work with? If not, did your vendor ask for one?
Do you have a proven process for getting your style guide approved by local reviewers? Are you holding everyone accountable for these decisions, including yourself?
Has your vendor developed a glossary that they are working from for your account? Have you seen this glossary with your own eyes?
If you answered “NO” to any of these questions, there’s your problem. You and your vendors must work together to pre-load your localization system with appropriate features and establish clear expectations for quality. If you don’t, you could end up firing a truly excellent translation vendor due to your own negligence.
Scene 1: Burn It All Down
Julie came on board as a localization manager for a growing fashion brand that was expanding into the German market. On her first day on the job, she announced to the team that she had decided to lay off all of her existing suppliers and start from scratch. She wanted to make a big splash with her new company—and she did. The team struggled for wordpress web design agency months to get localization up and running after their Targaryen-style approach. “Julie” wasn’t the first localization manager to make this particular move. Unfortunately, it’s common in the industry for new professionals to enter a localization ecosystem and try to reinvent everything that’s already been done. You may even have felt the urge to throw everything away and start over from scratch. Now is the time to pause and rethink your localization strategy . You may not need to reinvent the wheel. And if you’re in a new position, it would be wise to consider that you don’t know what to change yet because you don’t yet know the organization well. Take some time to carefully evaluate what’s working and what’s not before deciding what changes your company needs. This thinking puts you in a really great position as a localization manager. You’re perfectly prepared to ask for what you want and work with existing vendors to tweak your approach. In most cases, you’ll get high-quality localization results faster with this strategy than if you started from scratch.
Scene 2: Suspicion and Accusation
Craig had just received the worst email of his entire career. The marketing manager for the Japan office had fired off a long complaint about the recent quality of the translation and blamed him for the poor results: “This translation is horrible. We absolutely cannot publish any of the content we paid for. We will lose business because of this.” After weighing his options, Craig decided to fire the translation vendor outright. He had no idea whether they were actually doing a bad job (he didn’t speak Japanese, after all), but at least it would look like he had done something to fix the problem. When faced with a localization disaster, it’s always tempting to throw up your hands and blame the vendor. That would be easy. The challenge would be to consider how much of the vendor is to blame and how much of the localization manager is to blame. It’s possible that Craig might have made a smarter decision if he had started with the man in the mirror. If you’re facing a problem with translation quality, consider the following questions:
Did you provide your vendor with a comprehensive style guide to work with? If not, did your vendor ask for one?
Do you have a proven process for getting your style guide approved by local reviewers? Are you holding everyone accountable for these decisions, including yourself?
Has your vendor developed a glossary that they are working from for your account? Have you seen this glossary with your own eyes?
If you answered “NO” to any of these questions, there’s your problem. You and your vendors must work together to pre-load your localization system with appropriate features and establish clear expectations for quality. If you don’t, you could end up firing a truly excellent translation vendor due to your own negligence.