Summer localization slowdown

Things are quiet on our localization front at the moment.

The nature of managing localization projects as a consultant is that, if there's work to do, I do it. If there isn't, I go into down-time mode and focus on interim activities like these:

• Analyzing return-on-investment. This is, in part, how I eventually grew into the role of international product manager. My quest for data on the language-by-language profitability of our localized products takes me to more far-flung corners of the company than I'd anticipated, and it isn't always embraced by everybody in the organization, but I learn a lot. The Accounting department has some vague numbers on revenue from localized products - the overseas sales offices have more accurate data - but it's hard to allocate costs accurately because a localized product costs more than just the amount paid for translation, and companies treat this differently.
  
• Evangelizing. I spend some time getting my ducks in a row with Engineering, Marketing and Production, "educating" them on what goes into a localization project and how much more internationalization we can afford for the next version. I work at keeping people's eyes on the goal of simultaneous shipment ("sim-ship").
• Working things out with the vendors. Some projects merit a post-mortem - which I have always preferred to label "post-partum" - meeting to review what went well and what needs to go differently in the future. It's common for some action items to come out of such a meeting, and so I often spend time with the vendor putting process improvements in place for the next round.
  
• Tinkering with the machine. Every project brings up several internationalization issues (embedded strings, rogue controls, bits of unruly not-invented-here software), so I take advantage of down-time to find out how to deal with them, then pleasantly surprise the engineers with the research I've done.
• Finding beta testers. It's helpful to spend time in between projects mining our registration lists for new beta testers for the localized versions. I find new prospects, weed out the people who haven't helped on the previous round of testing and - very important - handily reward those testers that have stepped up and done a good job for me.
• Talking to the Sales teams. The salespeople in the overseas offices know best what sells and what local customers think of the products, and down-time is an opportune moment to collect formal and informal data and requirements from them.

What about you? Do you ever have down-time between localization projects? How do you spend it? Post a comment and let us know.

Localization is Like a RipStik

 

I'm on vacation this week in Santa Rosa (Northern California), and I've dared myself to get acquainted with my nephew's RipStik.

Naturally, since I needed a pretext to post to this blog in the middle of my vacation, the RipStik reminded me of localization. Specifically, simultaneous shipment (simship) localization, in which a company releases the same product in multiple languages "simultaneously," a term that is, fortunately, loaded with shades of meaning and exactitude.

It Works, But It Looks As Though It Shouldn't

The RipStik has only two wheels. Both are 360-degree casters, slightly pitched. Once your feet are on the decks and you give yourself a small push, you move your legs - particularly the back leg, according to my nephew - to propel yourself. Having done this for only a single day now, I have no idea how I keep my balance, but I assume that it has something to do with divine intervention.

Simship shouldn't work, either, should it? You're artificially constraining something (usually the source-language product) and propelling something else (the target-language products). Yet once you're underway, management will wonder at how natural the process seems.

Don't Do It If You're In a Hurry to Get Somewhere

Yesterday I sweated and gasped for half an hour to get about 50m and back. This morning I resolved to get to the end of the street and back, which also took a half-hour. I probably couldn't get to the corner and back on a RipStik if I really needed to get to the corner.

Don't bet the quarter's international revenue on your first simship attempt unless upper management has agreed to flog anybody in the company necessary to meet the goal. You'll need a few release cycles to build up to this.

It Helps to Have a Buddy
In the RipStik How-to-Ride video, the narrator recommends having a friend help you steady yourself when first you mount. This I would gladly have done, but my sons and nephews were too busy laughing at how ridiculous I looked to stop and help me.

Talk to localization professionals in other companies about their experience in simship. If you don't know any, find some on LinkedIn, or lob a question about simship into Multilingual Communications (see "Blogos" link to the right). Don't rely on your vendor for this; they're in the back seat and you're the one behind the wheel.

You Won't Truly Know Whether Your Organization Is Up To It Until You Commit
I have no idea what possessed me to ask my nephew whether I could try his RipStik, but as I stood over it wondering how to operate it, I realized it wasn't going to reveal its secrets until I'd made the first move...and the second and the third and so on.

You may be able to gauge your company's commitment to simship by asking people, but you don't know whether the process is truly possible until you've been through it. You, as localization manager, will of course shoulder most of the burden, but there are plenty of things you'll need from other people, and only by doing it can you see how close to or far from the goal you've landed.

Quantify Your Goals
I challenged myself to get to the corner and back on the RipStik, but I forgot to specify the amount of time I was willing to spend on it. Not much of a goal.

When you launch the project, specify "simultaneous:" source plus 15 days, source plus 30 days, same day for source plus two languages then 30 days for the remaining languages, etc. It makes success appear more probable to all of the other players whose support you'll need.


So, hop onto your RipStik and give simship a try, but keep in mind one important dissimilarity between these two endeavors: I've realized that, like many activities that involve balance, it's best if you keep your head up and focus on your progress, but not on how you're making your progress. In simship, that's a luxury reserved for upper management. You need to keep tabs on everything all the time.