This post explores the key differences between working on the buyer versus the provider side of the localization industry. While there are some tasks common to both, others vary significantly in areas such as people management, operations, strategy, and metrics. The article breaks these tasks into four categories, providing examples for each to highlight these distinctions
While localization fundamentals are the same across software, video games stand out for their unique challenges. There are elements complicated to deal with such as the narrative arc, or syncing voiceovers with character lip movements, timing subtitles perfectly so they appear in the right scene at the right time …
Words have the power to shape perceptions and influence actions, which is why reframing is such a powerful tool. In localization, we can reframe our role from simply translating to driving alignment across the company. By ensuring content is consistent, culturally relevant, and strategically aligned with business goals, localization professionals play a key role in helping businesses grow globally. This post explores how we create that alignment and why our work is much more than just translation.
Post-localization activities are crucial for maintaining high-quality localized content even after a product launch. These include collecting user feedback, monitoring translation consistency, and ensuring legal compliance, all of which aim to improve the user experience. Continuous efforts in localized SEO, metrics tracking, and stakeholder alignment keep your localization strategy strong and relevant across global markets—and this post covers all that!
In this post, I compare the excitement of discovering the internet to the rise of AI in localization today. With tools like LLMs and GPT, we’re at a turning point, and staying curious, planning carefully, and aligning efforts are key. Missing any crucial element, as shown in the infographic, could hinder progress. A "slow and steady" approach is essential as we navigate this change.
Handling feedback like "this translation sounds weird" requires us to be armed with patience and resist the temptation to push back, as we might be labeled as defensive. It’s better to take an analytical approach, as described in this post, and why not use ChatGPT as a friend instead of a threat
We’ve all heard the saying that “change is always good,” right? Wrong. We don't like change; we don't like to step out of our comfort, but still, change must happen. I've been studying "Change management and resistance to change" in the last weeks because change is the norm in our #localization industry. In this post, I summarized my learnings so far! I hope you find it useful ☺️
There are many articles about best practices on how to prepare an RFP, but information about how to evaluate them is scarce. This blog post gives a client-side perspective on what areas are important.
Understanding in which areas AI is really powerful, and the ones that a human professional is superior is critical nowadays to maximize our impact and possibilities to stay relevant in the generative content world we are living in nowadays
Yesterday I was enjoying a delicious cappuccino and a croissant. I was looking out the window and shut up in my thoughts. Mentally I was going over my Christmas break, we had great family moments that I truly enjoyed and I was thinking also about my New Year's resolutions. Between sips of coffee, I read an article that caught my attention, "72% of people will quit their New Year's resolutions just 17 days after they started" This made me think, why?, and I wanted to share with you the steps I do to keep myself focus on my goals. A few years ago I decided to study to get a certification in Project Management (PMP) and it was on my list of purposes for several years, but for different reasons, as the year moves on I was always quitting. The first year that resolution did not last in the list even the 17 days the article mentioned !!
I bought several books, databases of test questions, visiting websites to simulate tests and inter acting in various forums.....But I always felt the same, just overwhelming, so much content!, it looked like something unattainable, too much information.
Fortunately I got a present, a book about the Kaizen method, and that changed my way of dealing with objectives! Kaizen (改善) concept was born in Japan and it is based on continuous improvement, it focuses on small steps in the right order, so you can be closer to your goal. The example of a drop gradually hammering a stone it is fairly representative. Thanks to the Kaizen method, I learned that an important task is to make something every day to take you closer to the goal. Even in the worse cases just doing 5-10 minutes will be better than nothing. So I decided to come up with a plan, and I will be studying one hour (5 days a week) and do simulation tests to obtain a minimum of 85% of correct answers in the tests simulated. This "smart" approach has helped me to achieve the goals that I intend, SMART is an acronym(Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timeline).
I used a mix of Kaizen and SMART to work towards my goal of getting a PMP certification
• I want to get the PMP certification (S) • I will study every day 1 hour (M) • Study every day 1 hour is something I can do (A) • I will get a result of 85% in the simulations (R) • I'm going to do this five days a week (T)
I think many times we set purposes but very generic, we always have the typical purposes of "I have to lose X kilos" "I have to learn a language" etc etc ... these are good intentions, but how we are going to check if we are in the right direction? The problem is that these purposes are very generic. In my own experience SMART has helped me to stay focus by detailing what I have to do
It took me a while to be consistent and build this habit. But eventually I got this habit and everything went well. Good luck with your New Year! and remember the joke...., how do you eat an elephant? one bite at a time! Use the Kaizen method and put SMART goals and you will get what you want, humans are unstoppable when it is clear what you want!
Thanks for reading!, you can follow me @yolocalizo or contact me in my LinkedIn Profile
This post explores the key differences between working on the buyer versus the provider side of the localization industry. While there are some tasks common to both, others vary significantly in areas such as people management, operations, strategy, and metrics. The article breaks these tasks into four categories, providing examples for each to highlight these distinctions