In some RFPs today, it is no longer so clear what buyers really value from LSPs. This post explores why. Based on my experience on the buyer side, I share why the real need may be shifting from pure execution toward something harder to explain, but often more useful in practice.
What do you do when someone asks for the ROI of localization and you know the question is too narrow from the start? In this post, I reflect on why I stopped trying to prove isolated ownership and started talking more honestly about contribution.
Reading The Myths of Happiness reminded me of the arrival fallacy: the belief that once we reach a certain goal, everything will finally feel solved. In localization, that can look like waiting for the day when people will finally understand what we do. But organizations keep changing, so that moment may never fully come. And maybe accepting that is exactly what helps us stay grounded, avoid frustration, and keep moving forward.
In many companies, the localization budget does not sit with the localization team. At first, that may seem like a small detail. But over time, it changes how localization influences strategy
Defining localization metrics is relatively easy. In many cases, a team can write a reasonable list during a workshop, like the ones I mentioned above, or during a strategy session. The conceptual part of what to track and why rarely takes long. The real difficulty appears later: HOW you actually obtain those metrics.
AI will not eliminate (initially) localization roles, but it is reducing the time spent on certain tasks. What once took hours can now take minutes. That creates capacity.We can treat that time as a cost savings or reinvest it. If nothing meaningful replaces it, the value of the role will eventually be called into question.Jobs do not disappear because tasks are automated. They disappear when the value is not redefined.
So the real question is: what can you do now with the time AI gives you that wasn't possible before?
The world of localization is full of small, hidden details.
Some things are deeper than they seem, and I often see between in-context review and LQA in the world of Localization. They might seem the same, but if we scratch beneath the surface, we'll see they're not what they seem.
In this post, I want to focus on explaining the differences between in-context review and LQA, which is something I see being confused quite frequently, and although the tasks are similar ... they are not the same.
AI is not eliminating localization. But it is removing the illusion that execution alone is enough.
Layer 1 accuracy, delivery, quality was our playfield. Now AI scales it faster and cheaper. And when value is framed only around execution, the conversation shifts to cost and headcount.
Meanwhile, executives focus on retention and growth.
That’s Layer 2 cultural impact.
In the age of AI, localization must operate in both.
You need a solid localization tech stack before you can build a global digital product. Tools that help manage content, automate workflows, ensure consistency, handle volume, control quality, and scale across languages are essential. Without them, everything becomes slower, more expensive, and harder to manage. Today, we have great tools to support all of this. And yet, despite all these changes, something fundamental hasn’t changed in the ingredients that define good localization.
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Is there any way to measure whether the good or poor quality of a translation has an impact on the perception we have about the quality of a company? Question with difficult answer, almost as difficult as finding the mythical Holy Grail 😃
When Localization teams and Dev Teams work together during the phase of game development good things happen ... join to my weekly post to know why!
Getting along with LSP is a long process but it has not to be necessary painful. Have a look to this post to get some ideas about how to on board vendors in any LOCALIZATION PROCESS.
Developing a game from scratch as an indie developer is a titanic effort, a lot of hours and quite often not enough money to outsource very necessary tasks. One of those very necessary tasks to conquer the world with our game is ... LOCALIZATION! In my weekly post this week I share some thoughts on this idea ... Can we localize our game for free? Have a look at the following post and feel free to share your comments below!
In the G-localization industry we have services that no one understands very well what they are ... but perhaps the most misunderstood service to all of them is ... Internationatilation! If you want to know more about this discipline, do not hesitate to read the post I prepared this week on my blog! Hopefully at the end of the article this service is a little more famous :)
Translation vs Transcreation which service do I really need? these 2 terms are used interchangeably but actually, these 2 services are quite different. Have a look to this post on my blog if you are unsure how these 2 translations disciplines differ frome each other .....
"This translation sounds weird" feedback is a typical comment we receive when someone uses localized software If we are not sure about how good or bad our quality is, or if we want to go to challenge back our "localization-haters" ... setting up a review process might be a good starting point....
If someone wants to start carving out a future in the complex world of translation, where should we start? What skills should we polish to start working to in the industry? Check out my post where I share some ideas to start a career as a translator...
January is the month of the years' resolution, so maybe some of you set a goal to get a certification or studies related to Localization? If that’s the case, please keep reading as I prepared a summary of different courses, certifications and training material that you might find interesting.
A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to be in Kathrin show, we talked about the in and outs of the videogames industry. If you are curious to know about what we talked you can find the interview here.
Choosing ... when we are presented multiple options is quite challenging! Not only for trivial decisions (choosing a new pair of Jeans) but also for more important businesses! (which's my right partner for Localization) Check my new post and download an infographic with some questions I crafted about how to overcome this paradox of choice!
This week Amazon announced their weapon to kill Google Translator and to kill "us"; However I don't think that will happen. Localization industry is more technological and much more complex than many outsiders might think. This Amazon announcement made me think and I created a white paper where I share the 10 tech tools that we should include to create a high-performance Localization strategy model. I even created a Christmas tech tree! I hope you like it 😃
How can we move from a good product to a great product? How can we move from a good G-localization strategy to a great strategy? have a look at this post and we will find some advice to achieve greatness in Localizaton with the help of a cute, little animal ...
All you need is ... LOVE ! Join me in the second part of my crowdsourcing post where I explain how we might apply the Maslow pyramid to keep the morale of our volunteers up and fully engage!
This week in my weekly post I reflect on what a few years ago was on everyone's lips, crowdsourcing! Here I reflect on concepts like:
In this post, I share some thoughts about how we can get good quality of our localized content focusing on 4 areas. Have a look at this post and you might see a crossover between history, Granada and the amazing industry of G-localization!
Do you remember the TV show of the late 80's early 90's Moonlighting? I remember the two main characters played by Cybill Shepherd Bruce Willis always arguing about who was right. And I believe in the Localization industry we have our own Moonlighting show, this time starred by the Translators and Reviewers, this time fighting about who's right when it comes to preferential changes during the review the phase.
Take a look at my article where I reflect on the delicate subject of the preferential changes during the revision phase. Happy reading :)
Last week Google presented new phones and they introduced the Google Pixel Buds and these headphones are magical ... they translate up to 40 languages in real time! Again many comments in social media predicting the apocalypse of the translation industry ... and again, I believe that good translators can remain totally calm as I don't think these gadgets/technology can replace them. This week in my post I reflect about why I don't think these fancy pieces of hardware can retire aG-localizer!
Sometimes I have had the impression that in the Localization industry we have a sort of inferiority complex, that we act ourselves as under-valued services. We need to step forward and learn how to make better marketing of what we do and we can help our companies to meet their goals.
A relationship buyer-language provider is very similar to other human relationships where the key to getting the most of it it's based on solid principles such as transparency and align expectations.
In my post this week I share some thoughts about this special symbiosis. Have a good day!
Several factors affect the duration of localization for a digital product, including translators' availability and the technology setup level. This blog post explores the various elements that impact the amount of time needed for product localization.