What localization tasks are different when working on the buyer side?

I’m still feeling the “buzz” from the Madrid chapter of the Women in Localization launch event, and that’s the magic of these events. You get to talk with people about everything going on in our industry—about the present, the future, and, why not say it, about the past.

During one of those conversations with an attendee, the topic of what it’s like to work on the buyer side versus the service provider side came up.

Honestly, it seemed like an interesting question worth reflecting on a bit more.

So, here I am, taking advantage of the peaceful time the AVE train offers, knowing I have over two hours with few distractions to try to write a blog post about this—the differences between working on either side of the industry…..

 Having worked for over a decade at Lionbridge and then also at Enzyme (Keywords Studios nowadays), I had the opportunity to experience Localization life when your focus is offering localization services to companies….. And now, after more than another decade of buying those services being at the client side….I realize that while there are some localization tasks that are done regardless of which side you’re on, there are others that are definitely different.

So, that’s what this week’s post is about: What are the key tasks a client-side localization team handles differently than a vendor-side team? Shall we start?

Categories

To help visualize and contextualize this post in the clearest way possible, I’ve divided the tasks into four categories. Although tasks exist on both sides, the objectives and approaches are different. The categories are:

1. People Management: Focuses on stakeholder alignment. Why is what we do in the Localization team is important?

2. Operations: Focuses on executing localization workflows, vendor management, and ensuring language quality. This is the how. Operations is all about execution, processes, and ensuring that things run smoothly on a day-to-day basis.

3. Strategy: Focuses on high-level planning, inclusive design localization, and risk management. Where do we want to go? How do we support the business from a localization strategy perspective?

4. Metrics: Focuses on tracking and analyzing globalization performance through data and user feedback. This is our compass to measure if the activities we are executing are moving the needle in the right direction

 So, without further ado, let’s dive into an overview of these tasks!

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1. People Management:

• Stakeholder Alignment:
  This is probably the task that requires the most patience, as it’s a never-ending effort. You constantly need to explain and give visibility to the internal product team and leadership about the impact of localization and why it’s worth investing in. Localization is more complex than just “translating,” so alignment is crucial. This task is all about creating strong relationships with internal teams to ensure localization efforts align with business goals. Aligning stakeholders on the importance and impact of localization is a key responsibility for a localization team leader.
  Example of activity: Regularly meet with the product and marketing teams to explain how localization impacts market expansion and discuss how early involvement can streamline product launches in different markets.

2. Operations:

• Workflows:
  With the rise of AI, it’s essential that the client-side localization team takes the time to review their current processes, familiarize themselves with AI offerings, identify gaps, and generally look for opportunities to optimize workflows by designing scalable processes. This could involve leveraging automation to reduce time to market or exploring available tech and workflow customization options to ensure continuous localization for content updates.
  Example: Implement an automated content localization pipeline using a Translation Management System (TMS) that automatically assigns translation tasks and integrates with the development team’s content updates, enabling continuous localization without manual intervention.

• Vendor Management
  While both the buyer and the provider manage vendors, the unique aspect of doing this internally is that the buyer defines quality metrics, sets performance expectations, and negotiates rates with localization vendors. Yes, LSPs do this, too, with their freelancers, but the approach is slightly different. If the client isn’t clear on what “good quality” looks like, it creates a snowball effect because the provider doesn’t have the tools to know if they’re delivering a good service. That’s why defining quality, performance, and rates is critical for the buyer.
  Example: Establish clear quality metrics, such as acceptable error rates in translation or delivery timelines, and negotiate rates based on the project’s complexity and market requirements.

• Language Experience:
  While both the buyer and provider play key roles in ensuring high-quality localized content, their focus differs in the language experience process. The buyer typically takes a more strategic approach, overseeing the final quality of localized content to ensure it aligns with the brand’s standards, tone, and cultural expectations. For example, we might conduct post-delivery reviews to verify the provider’s work meets agreed-upon quality metrics. Meanwhile, the provider manages the hands-on QA work.
  Example: Establish a multi-step quality assurance process where linguistic and functional testing is conducted by both in-house teams and external vendors, ensuring the final product is error-free and culturally appropriate for each market.

• Post-Localization Review & Maintenance:
  Another interesting task on the client side is continuously reviewing and updating localized content to ensure it stays relevant and accurate over time. Products are updated frequently these days, and the internal localization team is obviously in a better position to understand this and ensure the content remains aligned with product updates and evolving market conditions.
  Example: Regularly review localized content in live environments (e.g., websites, apps) to ensure that translations remain accurate and culturally relevant as product features evolve. Update outdated content as needed.

3. Strategy:

• OKRs:
  A fundamental aspect of a localization team's work is taking time to understand the company’s objectives and the product team’s goals and then thinking about how localization can contribute to those goals. Clearly defining localization goals that align with the company’s overall business strategy and market expansion plans is essential to staying relevant today. We must ensure localization efforts support long-term growth and customer engagement in target markets.
  Example: Define the goal to localize your product in the top five revenue-generating markets within the next fiscal year. Align this with the broader business objective of increasing market share in those regions, ensuring that localization efforts directly contribute to global expansion goals.

• Inclusive Design Localization:
  A localization team can contribute to culture, inclusivity, diversity, and accessibility, helping create products for everyone. Under the discipline of inclusive design, we can set standards and define strategies that adapt content to fit the cultural, linguistic, and accessibility needs of each target market.
  Example: Localize a mobile game’s user interface and marketing materials to align with the cultural preferences of the Japanese market. This includes changing colors, icons, and references to match cultural expectations and ensuring character dialogue resonates with local humor and values.

• Content Prioritization:
  Deciding what content to translate, at what quality level, and what localization approach to take (human, AI, hybrid, etc.) is a decision the internal team must make—it cannot be outsourced. An internal audit should happen to focus on localizing the most critical and high-impact content first, ensuring the most visible or user-facing content is translated and optimized for key markets before secondary content.
  Example: Focus on localizing high-traffic content such as landing pages, product descriptions, and the checkout process for your e-commerce site

• Risk Management & Compliance:
  Both the buyer and provider play crucial roles in risk management and compliance, but their responsibilities differ significantly. The buyer identifies and manages risks strategically, ensuring we identify localized content that complies with local laws, cultural norms, and brand requirements. We are responsible for defining legal, cultural, and linguistic risks and setting compliance standards that reflect the company's broader market entry strategy. On the other hand, the provider implements the buyer’s guidelines, ensuring the content meets the specific legal and cultural requirements laid out by the buyer.
  Example: Ensure your content for the Middle Eastern market complies with local censorship laws, avoiding content related to political or religious sensitivities.

4. Metrics:

• Globalization Analytics:
  The internal team must know which metrics matter most to them—this is something a vendor can only help with to an extent. Sure, they can offer suggestions based on other companies' measurements since LSPs work with different clients and have valuable insights. But ultimately, the buyer needs to decide which KPIs will measure the overall success of localization efforts in relation to their broader business goals.
  Example: Track the quality of translations through post-LQA (Language Quality Assurance) scores, measure turnaround times, and analyze customer satisfaction in localized markets. Use this data to adjust vendor assignments, improve workflows, or justify increasing the localization budget to management.

• User Feedback Integration:
  Incorporating feedback from localized markets and real users to refine localization quality is an internal task. The client team has access to user feedback and product owners, making it their responsibility to gather and act on this input to improve future content.
  Example: After launching your app in Brazil, collect user feedback from in-app reviews and social media.

• Budgeting & Cost Management:
  While both client and LSP teams need to pay attention to budget management, their approaches are very different. The internal team focuses on anticipating how much funding is needed to execute the localization strategy and convincing budget gatekeepers to secure those funds. Creating a localization budget is complex, as it must include various categories such as translation costs, localization tools, team salaries, travel, and entertainment, or learning initiatives, among others.
  Example: The internal localization team prepares a budget for a product launch, including translation costs, tools, and team training. They present it to finance and the leadership team to secure the necessary funding.

In conclusion

Working on both the buyer and provider sides of the localization industry has many similarities—after all, we are all trying to make content successful in different languages and cultures. However, there are some important differences between the two. On the buyer side, you are often focused on strategy, ensuring teams within the company are working together and ensuring that the final product stays true to the brand’s image and message.

I hope this post has been useful in providing a perspective on how things are from the client side!

@yolocalizo