Localization Goals for 2020 - some thoughts about how to create our Globalization strategy for the coming year!
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, toys in every store … 🎶🎵🎵🎵🎶🎄❄️☃️
There are certain unequivocal signs that the year is ending, Christmas is here, the decoration in houses, the shop windows in the streets, the smell of roasted chestnuts from Mariana the street vendor that has been in the neighborhood where my parents live as many years as my memory can remember ... I like Christmas, I like all the signals that the end of the year sends us, but there is a signal, which year after year by these dates, arrives, and I do not like it.
No, I am surprised, no, I know it will come, but even so, when it arrives it bothers me. That signal is .... time to set yearly goals for the next year.
Much has been written about whether it is good or not good to have goals, some people defend them to death as the only way through which we can achieve any goal we set ourselves, but just as there are defenders there are detractors, such detractors argue that having a list of goals all you get is not complete happiness, because there is always something else to do, something more to achieve, and that eventually leads to frustration and unhappiness.
There are days that I think goals are necessary ... but there are other days when I feel totally overwhelmed by this goal-setting culture and do more, achieve more, deliver more.
Today for this post I put on Miguel's hat that thinks that goals are necessary to get things done. I want to write and share certain ideas on how to set goals for a Localization team for next year. And, being honest, creating goals for a Globalization team is often a complicated task.
A Globalization team, due to the nature of the work we do, has many dependencies to get things done. These dependencies can be external (LSPs) or internal (multiple stakeholders), for whatever reason, internal or external, sometimes creating Localization goals is not easy. I share below certain tasks/techniques that I have used over the years and that may be of help to you. Here we go!
Step 1
Find your company goals for the next year. Ask yourself: how our Globalization / Localization team might contribute to those goals?
Tip: if in your company goals you see words such as “expansion”, “international sales”, “growth”, “increase consumer base”…. That might give us some signals that there’s an opportunity for a Localization team to collaborate with the company goals
Step 2
Review your year, if you had goals review how it went, analyze if you are happy with the results or if you can iterate them for the coming year. We can focus on areas such as prices, timeline, and quality delivered.
Are you happy with the current delivery time?
Or maybe some goals related to time delivery could be established?
What about stretch ourselves and maybe aim to the next level if you already have them and iterate them and dream bigger??
Step 3
Where are we going?
In this step, it is important to think out of the box.
Where do we want to focus?
Do we want to enter into a new market
Do we want to start using machine translation?
Do we want to move from an in-house Localization model to an outsourced one?
Do we want to try test automation?
In this phase, it is essential to think about a long-term localization strategy, think about where we want to position the team and how to execute that strategy.
This step in many cases can be overwhelming, if it is already difficult to choose which movie to watch on Netflix, then imagine the burden that is to think about strategic objectives
Something useful to me during my career to define strategy and goals is to use the Localization Maturity Model (I wrote some posts about LMM. Check out Here and Here and Here and Here). This model helps us to make a kind of benchmark of where we are vs. where we want to be.
For example, if we analyze our Localization department or our processes we might conclude that we are at a level 2, then what we can do is look at what are the processes, tools, and results that are achieved at a level 3 and convert those results into goals. The gap between our current level and the dream level will help us to define a Localization strategy.
More goal ideas can be goals related to metrics such as:
% total deliveries on time vs total deliveries
Fully loaded average price per word
ROI per tier language
Outsourced cost vs internal Globalization cost
Customer online engagement
Step 4 Define timeline and ownership
The who does what by when is crucial.
It is also very important to have tools that help us identify if we are in the on-track or off-track phase as the year moves forward.
We need a “compass” that we look at and know if we are on the right track.
And how can we do this?
My favorite system is the key results.
OKRs (Objective Key Results) is a fairly popular methodology in the tech world, born from the legendary Andy Grove the Intel alma mater and popularized in Silicon Valley by John Doerr. By the way, If you need a book recommendation this Christmas, I suggest this book (Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs)
Great book to get a better understanding how to measure the importance stuff!
It is an excellent reading that helps us to define Objectives and that encourages us to think about how we are going to measure the results obtained to find our way. OKRs will also help us to know if our compass is well-calibrated or not!
The theory behind this model of OKRs is relatively simple to understand, and also I think it's easy to apply.
According to this methodology, a team identifies an Objective to be met and then 2-5 metrics (the Key Results) to determine whether that vision has been met. It’s recommended that teams limit their Objectives to only 3-5 for a specified period (quarterly is a good cadence).
If you want to know more about OKRs Perdoo has very good educational videos. Check out his channel!
Setting strategic goals is not a piece of cake. But the effort is worth it
Clear goals will help our teams to:
Focus on what matters
Clear Key Results will allow us to measure our progress towards those goals
Clear Key Results enable large groups to work together and aligned
I wish you a happy goal-setting season! And this is my last post of the year before starting my Christmas holidays tomorrow, so merry Christmas to all and have an excellent beginning of the decade!
I wish you that the new year brings you countless moments of happiness both in your personal life with your loved ones and in the workplace with your colleagues. Merry Christmas guys !!!
What about you? Which techniques do you use to create your Globalization goals? What Localization strategies are you planning to execute next year?
Leave your comments below and have a great Christmas season!!!🎄❄️☃️☺️
@yolocalizo
In this blog post, I imagine three roles that could become as popular as the Social Media Manager did: AI Workflow Localization Manager, Localization Data Curator and AI Localization Quality Specialist
These roles blend human expertise with AI, pointing to a future where localization jobs look very different from today.