The Localization

Manager’s Guide to
Everything 2022

Insights, challenges, and predictions from

senior-level localization leaders.
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 Contents

01 Challenges Ahead for 4

Localization Managers

02 The Future of Work… Now 7

03 Lessons for LSPs and 10

the Industry

04 Predictions for 2022 12

05 About Welocalize 14

06 About Welocalize’s Let’s Go 15

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 Localization in 2022 is as important as ever. Digital transformation is rapidly
accelerating. Remote work has become commonplace. And content velocity
is increasing. Localization managers are feeling the pressure.

Welocalize talked with senior-level localization managers at Let’s Go, our

virtual on demand summit. They shared their challenges, what Language
Service Providers (LSPs) and the industry should do, and their bold
predictions for 2022. This loc guide is based on those honest discussions.

Thank you to our amazing contributors

and localization leaders!

Alexandra Maria Pop Cristina Triviño Castillo Margarida Soares

Senior Manager, Product Head of Localization, Localization Manager,
Localization, UiPath Sprinklr MindGym

Hartmut von Berg Alessia Felici Anna Golubeva

Senior Director of Global Global Localization Global Localization
Localization, LogMeIn Program Lead, IKEA Program Lead, IKEA

CLICK HERE to view all Let’s Go sessions including

The Localization Manager’s Guide to Everything 2022,
Sessions 1 and 2, both moderated by Steve Maule,
3 Director of Customer Success, Welocalize.
01 Challenges Ahead
for Localization
Managers

Some of the pain points localization managers are facing are issues
they expect to continue to deal with. How localization is perceived
is still a problem for some organizations. What is new is the speed
by which localization teams are expected to churn out their work.
Another is the demand to do more work at a reduced budget.

Localization Remains an Afterthought

Organizations, particularly those new to global markets, still
see localization as something that happens after the product is
developed. “They don’t see that the same efforts that went into
developing the English product that we took so much care and
thought into will have to happen again,” says Margarida Soares,
Localization Manager of MindGym.

Some internal stakeholders still think localization is just translation,

whether by a human translator or machine translation. Soares
points out that there needs to be a shift in mentality to “seeing
localization for what it is and for the value that it brings to
the business.”

This entails making localization part of the development process

and “building a stronger connection with the people who are
developing content,” according to Anna Golubeva, who handles
multilingual initiatives at Inter IKEA Systems B.V.

Localization should “start at the beginning and not as an

afterthought,” she says. “It takes much more time if you do it the
other way around.”

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 The Need to Constantly Promote Localization
Because of this misconception about localization, loc managers feel
the constant need to educate internal stakeholders. Alessia Felici,
Global Localization Program Leader at Ingka Group (formerly IKEA
Group), says, “What is quite common is that most of us have to keep
promoting localization within our companies continuously.”

Part of her work is raising awareness among stakeholders. This

includes “explaining the implication of localizing or not localizing
specific content for a specific market, not only from a cultural
perspective but also from a business point of view.”

Alexandria Maria Pop, Sr. Manager for Product Localization

at UiPath, shares that she has made her team visible inside
her organization. However, she stresses, “This required a lot of
networking.” She also had to be present in many meetings to make
sure her team was part of the process from the start. “I was always
the one approaching them to go and explain what localization is,
why we are doing it, what is the impact, and what the best practices
are that their teams need to follow,” she explains.

UiPath made localization a mandatory release checkpoint for

product releases to shift the responsibility from just the localization
team to other departments. Now, all units know “that localization
needs to happen and when it needs to happen,” Pop shares.

Proving the ROI of Localization

Localization managers also contend with the perception of
localization as a cost center. Soares says that localization should be
seen not just as additional work and expense but as “something
that will bring us value.”

Pop agrees, “We need to act more on how we are perceived by

other teams, how visible we make ourselves, and how we can
explain our impact.” Another challenge for localization managers is
finding “a magic formula for localization return on investment.” Pop
explains that is an impossible task as there are “so many factors that
have an impact on revenue, that it’s hard just to say that localization
by itself is enough.”

She suggests that organizations should switch the focus from

delivering localization to supporting the growth of a new market.
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 And for that, Pop explains, “We need to work a lot more consistently
with other business units like marketing, sales, support, and
whatever else is needed for growth to happen.”

Another challenge is linking localization metrics to business

outcomes. Hartmut von Berg, Senior Director of Global Localization
Services at LogMeIn, says, “You can provide additional benefits to
your stakeholders by connecting the data that they are looking
for.” That’s why localization managers need to understand various
stakeholders’ language, data, and KPIs.

Greater Pressure, Lower Budgets

Despite often being treated as an afterthought, “There is a big
focus on the outcome,” explains Cristina Trivino Castillo, Head of
Localization at Sprinklr. “Localization, if you’re doing it for the entire
company, for different types of content and goals, needs time and
effort. And sometimes, that is hugely overlooked,” she adds.

Castillo says businesses must support localization, “be it through

exposure, through the right budget, the right team, the right tools,
to get to that outcome.”

For many localization managers, it can be an uphill climb. She

points out, “As the world continues to be fast, as localization
teams, we are going to have to continue to battle within our
organizations to find that enablement to get to the outcome
that we are asked to get.”

And von Berg agrees, “Capacity for a localization team is a critical

factor. And it’s also a critical spend factor. So, it’s always in the center
of all efforts to have enough capacity to drive those strategic topics.”

A significant challenge for localization managers is we are “asked

to do more with less,” Felici notes. She explains that it’s a common
concern over “long-term sustainability and scalability of the current
internal structures that we have, as most of us are faced with
reduced budgets,” she explains.

“We have an ever-increasing localization demand from our internal

stakeholders,” von Berg says. Localization teams are producing
more content in a shorter period, and “so this creates some kind of
pressure if you try to reduce spend at the same time for localization.”

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02 The Future of
Work… Now

One unique challenge for localization managers is managing people

and projects in a remote work environment. While this has some
advantages, increasing visibility and enabling change have become
more difficult.

The Challenges of Remote Work

The pandemic has forced localization managers to work with
their teams and communicate with other teams remotely. Pop
agrees that remote work “has some disadvantages: We’re no
longer seeing each other and don’t have that face-to-face human
interaction anymore.”

For Soares, who recently introduced a localization program within

her company, she has found it has proven complicated. “It was
hard to gain the visibility and influence that you need to drive
a localization strategy, being remote.” She explains that forcing
these conversations to happen remotely is a challenge.

However, when they started going to the office, it became simpler

for her to have those conversations. “And it was a lot easier for people
to understand what I was doing and what I was trying to achieve
with localization and translation,” Soares adds. “It just feels a lot
easier to explain the challenges that we have and tell them why we
can’t do things a certain way and why we need to do things another
way, rather than just trying to have these conversations on Slack.”

Even for localization managers who have established programs,

remote work has downsides. “Creating change is much harder when

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 you’re not in front of people,” Castillo says. “We’re all in this world of
having 30 meetings every week. How can we improve this? Creating
change is much harder in a remote world.”

Making Remote Work Successful

Remote work is not all bad. Pop points out it has its advantages. For
example, teams have a lot more flexibility. They can “find the best
balance between work and life without being required to be in a
specific place from 9 to 5.”

Working remotely can be effective when done right. Here are some
best practices to consider.

1. Have a central location for information.

Soares shares that their use of wikis for their massive list of translation
FAQs has been a boon “for everyone in whichever region we work
with. Having that information available for anyone who has questions
at any time, they don’t need to always be relying on my colleagues
and me to answer them.”

2. Maximize asynchronous communication.

Teams don’t have to meet all the time. Pop tells us they rely on
sharing written updates, using their communication tools, and
working on shared documents. “The information is accessible to
everyone at their own pace, no matter what time zone they are in,”
she says. “Teams need to be more empowered to be self-directed
and feel more accountable for their results.”

3. Reserve live meetings for the important stuff.

Synchronous communication, such as live calls, should be reserved

for “higher value meetings and for situations where we need to
produce results pretty quickly,” Pop recommends.

4. Adapt to people’s preferences.

Castillo points out, “Different people work remotely in different

ways because the need for communication is different. The style is
different. Some people will require constant check-in; others will be
happy to touch base once a week.”

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 5. Have very clear roles and responsibilities.

“Everybody should have a focus area and that focus area must be
aligned with the teams that they need to collaborate with in terms of
time zone,” Castillo says. This has worked well for her company, where
teams are spread across Japan, Brazil, and the U.S.

6. Encourage autonomy and transparency.

Castillo shares, “We do have a lot of frameworks and techniques for

documentation so that we’re able to provide the transparency and to
have good, healthy team routines as well.”

Transitioning to a Hybrid Model

Clearly, there are benefits to both working at the office and working
remotely. “It’s been an interesting mix of seeing the advantages
of remote work and also the advantages of in-person work,”
Soares notes.

Felici says, “We were forced to embrace new ways of working. We just
found ourselves working remotely using technology to communicate.
I’m curious to see how that is going to go in 2022, whether
companies will go back to the old ways, ask people to work remotely,
or implement a hybrid model.”

For many organizations, hybrid work could be here to stay. As Soares

foresees, “It will be in line with what a lot of businesses are doing. It’s
finding that sweet spot between in-person work and remote work
and having access to information both ways.”

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03 Lessons for LSPs
and the Industry

There is a great need for the localization industry, including Language

Services Providers (LSPs) to be more flexible. As Felici says, “An LSP
as a partner should be flexible and able to adapt fairly quickly if
there are business circumstances that are changing on the client
side.” This includes business models, hybrid roles, and best practices.

Rethink Business Models

The localization industry still relies on traditional pricing models and
metrics. “As a localization buyer, LSPs and even TMS providers need
to get over the traditional concepts of per word rate, minimum rate,
as well as word stored,” Castillo explains, “because there is a different
need for adaptability and flexibility.”

Improve Skills in Accessibility

There has been an increase in investment in accessibility, especially
in training and e-learning. “There will be a bigger focus on making
content accessible for users,” Soares notes, “so there needs to be
a bigger understanding of how accessibility works in different
languages. How will this work in Thai? Will this work in Hebrew? Will
the screen reader be able to read this?” However, she observes there
is a gap in knowledge and skills in this area. “It will be for me certainly
a big focus for 2022,” she says.

Fill Gap in Technical Roles

There is also a gap in technical roles within LSPs, according to Castillo.
“You do have certain knowledge about technical implementation
with tools. But I do feel that sometimes you get your engineer, you

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 get your solutions architect, and you know... I would like
to see a little bit more evolution in the sort of hybrid
roles that have that localization background.”

Learn From Other Industries

Organizations from across sectors are undergoing
digital transformation. Automation is a critical
component of the process. As Pop advises, “We should
be more open as an industry in looking at what other
industries are doing in terms of automating their
business processes and optimizing processes. Because
in the end, we’re in the same situation. We all want
everything easy, fast, and cost-effective.” She adds that
the complexity and workload of projects are increasing.
“So, we need to find some way to increase and improve
the scalability of our work in a sustainable and agile
way,” she explains.

Put Clients First

What localization managers want most from LSPs
is a real partnership. “I always like to speak about my
vendors as our extended localization team, because
those are people that you talk to day in, day out,”
Castillo shares.

That means, LSPs need to put their clients first and

“look after their clients’ best interest in the first place,
but at the same time, able to do profitable business, so
it’s a very delicate balance,” Felici notes.

She adds they should serve as strategic guides,

especially for stakeholders within companies who may
not be localization-savvy. “And they must be able to
anticipate what the client needs before they are even
able to articulate them.”

“An LSP should always be a few steps ahead of their

customers,” von Berg agrees, “so that they can foresee
the client’s needs and provide advice and guidance.”
This includes sharing best practices in optimizing
processes “to make them faster and more cost-efficient
so that we can route more content.”
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04 Predictions
for 2022

The localization industry is dynamic. And 2022 will be no different.

New roles, new technologies, new services, and new business
models will emerge.

New Roles
With AI-driven machine learning becoming more sophisticated, “the
role of people becomes even more important,” Golubeva says, “and
what kind of value they would bring, whether it’s a project manager
or a linguist. So, I’m very curious to see how that will develop further.”

New Technologies
Technology changes rapidly, and machine translation is constantly
evolving. Localization managers, such as von Berg, are continuously
assessing their localization tech stack. He shares, “One of the new
buzzwords is responsive machine translation, which takes into
account larger chunks of context and terminology, which could be
the next big step.”

New Services
Felici observes a higher production of audiovisual content, “So I got
queries or requests that I’m sure I wouldn’t have received in normal
circumstances, about whether it would be possible to get real-time
interpreting done by humans.” She adds, “I’m going to keep an eye
on how that is going to develop next year.”

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 New Business Models
There’s a growing trend, particularly in the software industry, toward
continuous localization. This is when localization works parallel with
agile software development cycles and isn’t added as a separate
workflow. “That creates the need to rethink processes completely
and the business models as well,” notes von Berg, “And that goes all
the way down in the localization chain to the LSP system.” He also
predicts that the industry will start to go away from its traditional
business and pricing models.

“If you’re feeding as much content as possible to your LSP,” he adds,

“it’s hard to stay on track to where you currently are, so there needs
to be a very trusted relationship from both sides. And that needs
to be reflected by business models. Otherwise, we will continue to
optimize here and there existing processes, which will not move
us forward.”

CLICK HERE to view all Let’s Go

on-demand sessions.

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05 About
Welocalize

Welocalize has extensive experience working with many large

global brands to drive their localization programs. We have a talent
network of 250,000+ translators, linguists, and project managers,
supporting over 250 languages. We work with our clients as a
partner, not just a vendor. As a proponent of technology, we
are driven by innovation. Find out how we can help you in your
localization journey.

More Welocalize Resources, Guides, & White Papers:

The Localization Manager’s Playbook

The Localization Manager’s Guide to Measurement + KPIs

The Extraordinary Effect of Converging
Localization & Marketing

Write & Design with Localization in Mind

Localizing the E-Learning Experience

Global CX: The Power of Localization & AI in
Customer Support

To keep up to date with Welocalize events including Let’s Go On

Demand Summit, click here.

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06 About
Welocalize’s
Let’s Go

Let’s Go on demand summits, events, and

programs bring together Welocalize experts,
industry analysts, and voices from global
companies to share knowledge and thought
leadership. Peer-to-peer sessions and forums
explore new techniques, strategies and
technologies to help brands scale localization
programs, leverage AI innovation, enhance
customer experience, and drive global
growth. Click here for details on upcoming
Let’s Go events.

Thank You

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