At a New Year’s Eve dinner with my family, I saw a familiar situation play out: someone speaking with strong confidence about something they only partly understood. In Spain, we call this el efecto cuñado. What I didn’t realize for a long time is that this behavior has a name in psychology too. It’s the Dunning–Kruger effect, and it shows up just as often in localization and AI conversations as it does at Christmas dinner tables.
This feels like a pivotal moment. Localization teams are being asked to support more markets, move faster, use AI responsibly, and show impact, not just output. Expectations are higher than ever, but many teams are still trained mainly for execution. We are strong at delivering localization work, yet we often struggle to move from output to outcome and to clearly explain the impact of what we do.
AI isn’t just changing tools, it’s changing expectations
Three years into working with AI in localization, I’ve seen the pressure build: automate faster, scale more, do it now.
But the real challenge isn’t the tech itself. It’s the gap between hype and reality , and what happens when teams are expected to act like everything’s already working.
In this post, I break down five common challenges that keep showing up, and what we can actually do about them.
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.
Choosing between a single-vendor or multi-vendor localization model is not only about price. The real difference shows up in the day-to-day metrics: turnaround time, quality stability, cost control, and how much coordination your teams need to do. In this post, I walk through the core metrics that tend to improve with a single-vendor setup, and how they can help you understand which model fits your localization strategy right now
Even when localization teams aren’t directly affected by a company reorg, everything around them can change fast sponsors move, teams merge, budgets shift.
That’s when weak governance shows its cracks.
This post explores how strong localization governance keeps programs stable, visible, and credible no matter how often the org chart moves.
Over the years, I’ve noticed that localization buyers, like the emotions in Inside Out, are often driven by one dominant need. Some are in survival mode, juggling too much. Others are just getting started and need guidance. Some care about speed, others about cost, and some are laser-focused on how things feel in-market.
Most localization discussions stop at per-word rates. However, what appears inexpensive on paper can often turn into costly delays, rework, and frustrated teams.
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) provides a more comprehensive view, one that encompasses engineering fixes, QA cycles, support tickets, and brand impact.
When procurement and leadership focus only on price, localization becomes a cost center. When they consider TCO, it becomes a key driver of quality and efficiency. And this post explains how to approach that
Many teams treat localization vendors as interchangeable compare rates, sign the contract, move on. But every switch comes with invisible costs: lost context, quality dips, and team fatigue. In this latest post, I unpack what really happens behind a vendor change ( and how to prepare for it like a continuity project, not a quick fix)
“Welcome to my blog. The space where I document my passion about Localization, Project Management and Leadership”
Price localization means tailoring your company’s pricing strategy to each buyer depending on local characteristics, it seems obvious but still many companies are failing to truly understand what a truly global Price Localization strategy means.
This week I talk about Price Localization, and how I thought a colleague was playing a joke on me when he told me about the big mac index to calculate prices when I was planning to move to Canada …
I’ve been always attracted by stories when I was a child with the book and as an adult studying storytelling in Toastmasters or in workshops about Storytelling with Numbers. I like stories, I like words and content, I like exploring what entails a good user experience. And this week in my weekly post I write about Storytelling in UX, because storytelling in UX has the potential to engage users. It can also make their user journey easier and persuade them to convert. It sounds good, doesn't it?☺️
If you work in a in-house Localization department you will know how difficult it is to identify yourself with more than just a number and that your achievements and your contributions to the company are recognized by the people around you.
And if you are a linguistic freelance it may be even more difficult to get the recognition of your achievements
It is widely proven that staying behind the computer does not help us increase our visibility, however, how many times does it happen?
Making yourself “visible” to others is essential if you are looking to grow in your career and climb steps,
What is the point of delivering the best Localization project in the world or having the best Localization solutions if nobody finds out about it?
Localization projects usually involved many stakeholders, and this might bring unclear roles of responsibilities
How a Localization Project Manager might bring structure and clarity to the roles that stakeholders play within the Localization project. I think there are 2 options, either we embrace the force and master the Jedi mind trick, or we can use this Localization Project Management trick that I describe in this post that I just wrote!
Quite often Localization teams speak a different language than the business, and we need to find a way to close that gap to create a meaningful impact, align efforts and to feel that as localization professionals we are understood
There has been an obsession in my life to find Localization ROI …
Not everyone can work well in a remote environment, and that’s ok, that’s the beauty of the diversity… Now, if you want to debate what’s best — remote work or co-located work — this post is not for you. But, if you want some ideas to consider about how to improve while working remotely then this post is for you. For many years I've been working with remote teams, with remote LSPs, with remote ... bosses. COVID has put us all to work remotely in a somewhat forced way, including my friends Manuel, Carlos, and Angel, with whom yesterday after months I was able to get together again and enjoy some beers and some good tapas!! In this conversation, the topic of remote work arises, and this post is a reflection and a summary ... a summary of the 4 things I have learned working remotely, in one of the most distributed industries 4 things I have learned working remotely in the language industry.
If you are not sure what a Content Strategist, Content Copywriter, UX Writer, Content Copyeditor, or Content Globalizer do … this blog post might help you to understand the differences ☺️
Onboarding plays a critical role in a new hire's success, happiness, and motivation. Good onboarding is especially important for remote employees since they don't have as many opportunities to organically integrate into the company job processes and the working culture.
Do you know the best practices for a successful onboarding experience?
After talking to Natalia this week I found inspiration to write my weekly post about that topic …
Fortunately, the perception that an internal PM at the client side is simply a file-pusher sending files for translation to an LSP and wait until the translated file is back is changing.... but still sometimes it's not clear what's the value that an internal PM brings within a software organization who moved to an outsourcing Localization model. I reflect on this topic in this post where I write about the business value of an internal Localization Project Manager when working embedded in a company who decided to outsource localization activities to an LSP
25-five years achievement of working in the Localization industry unblocked! ☺️ this special post is a journey about what has happened in the last decades plus some predictions for the future!
Until now the localization industry has been immune to the crisis, it has been growing for years and years. We still do not know how we will get out of this. Maybe we got out of this too! And probably, something that will continue to be very relevant is understanding how an LSP chooses its collaborators.
Research and connectors are 2 components and that can bring the localization industry to the next level!
Sometimes we forget that Good Copy is Good Business, sometimes we forget that Microcopy Makes Money, sometimes we forget that Microcopy is Cheap, that it's everywhere, and it's Powerful, and fortunately there are books like this one and UX writing professionals doing a tremendous effort to remind us of the importance of words as a means of persuasion and thus move users to take action
The situation of how to effectively lead a remote team can be aggravated. There are certain project management techniques and tools that can help us to create a sense of team and deliver results, even if everyone works remotely. My favorite is Trust, but verify. But there are others that I have summarized in my weekly post. What am I missing here? What else could we pay attention to increase our results without increasing our micro-management?
Public speaking either to a couple of persons or 200 hundred is still public speaking. And while is true that remote on-line presentations have unique challenges, many of the tips we are thaught in Toastmasters are still applicable to remote online presentations.
For some people, WFH will be a challenge, but if there is anything that the Globalization / Localization industry knows how to do well, and does it very well, is to work from home.
Is transcreation the next natural step in the translation/localization industry? Can a translator be an excelent transcreator?
My reflection after a meet up about Localization in videogames + seeing a survey on Twitter about Translators income after taxes.
Startups aren't known for dreaming small. World domination is in their DNA. And world domination means Localization. For start-up thinking from the first day in languages, markets, and expansion strategies is something critical, but a majority of the start-up usually face the same problem. Either they don't have money to design a solid Globalization plan, or they don't have the role of Globalization / Localization specialist (s) in their teams. No fear, below you can find some tips about how you can embrace Localization in your startup journey even if you don't a budget for Localization!
In the last years, post-editing has become very popular. Companies aspiring to provide their content in different languages to a global audience in a jiffy plus the emergence of Neural Machine Translation technology plus the improvement of MT has made the role of the post-editor a very necessary one. In this post, I explore what's post-editing, why it is so popular and some tips about how to run an efficient post-editing process!
Localization professionals often focus on translation quality and best practices, but decision-makers care about customer impact and revenue. If we frame localization as a cost, it risks being deprioritized. Instead, we must highlight its value driving engagement, trust, and business growth.