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Going Global Without Going Insane
The document discusses the challenges and processes involved in creating better content for global markets, emphasizing the complexities of language, cultural nuances, and the importance of localization. It highlights key strategies for effective translation, including the need for clarity in writing and the role of technology in streamlining workflows. The author also shares insights from Lexmark's experience running a global organization with diverse linguistic and cultural requirements.
Going Global Without Going Insane
- 1. Going Global WithoutGoing Insane @kevinpotts #LavaCon Kevin Potts
- 3. Today’s agenda Thechallenges we face Getting to better content … and better process Translation models Technology that doesn’t suck How Lexmark does its thing
- 4. Challenges Language ishard. Meaning is harder.
- 5. (challenge one) Ourworld, today.
- 6. There are languages over 7,100
- 7. There are ofdialects thousands
- 8. There are ofcultural millions nuances
- 9. There are waysto poorly infinite communicate
- 10. Expect complications 预计并发症 Nothing is easy when going global
- 11. (challenge two) Yourlanguage is not my language.
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- 13. French German Italian Romansch 4
- 14. 11 Zulu Xhosa Afrikaans English Northern Sotho Tswana Sotho Tsonga Swazi Venda Ndebele
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- 16. Spanish ⧣ Spanish French ⧣ French Portuguese ⧣ Portuguese English ⧣ English
- 17. Identify specific markets Identificar mercados específicos It’s about country and language and dialect and getting it wrong is not good
- 18. (challenge three) Translationvs meaning
- 19. “The clothing wasworn.”
- 20. “She wore herdress.” “The pants had holes.” “The uniforms were damaged.” “He ended up wearing the suit.” “The kids’ clothing was rags.” “The Santa suit had seen better days.” “Slacks and tractors don’t mix.”
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- 22. Focus on localization דגש על לוקליזציה. Understanding is the only goal
- 23. Better content Clarityin translation starts with sharp writing and smart content
- 24. Write tight Simpleclauses Active verbs Minimal hyperbole Specificity Brevity Clarity*
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- 31. Seek clarity demandela clarté Writing well helps every downstream facet of communication
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- 33. Art smart “Unwritten”culture Details matter Seek opinions Respect its influence Edit like words
- 35. Better process Strongprocess provides consistent results
- 36. Workflow mo' ~80%use cases Document and share Embrace complexity Get better
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- 43. Who translates? Youmight dance well, but you’ll never win without a great partner
- 44. 2 4 Agency 1 3 Freelancers In-house (part time) In-house (full time)
- 45. In-house (full time)1 + Dedicated Build knowledge Confidential Consistency - Expensive Unscalable Single point of failure
- 46. In-house (part time)2 + Build knowledge Confidential Less expensive - Competing priorities Inconsistency Driven by necessity
- 47. Freelancers 3 + Cost-effective Easy collaboration Build relationships - Inconsistent quality Management juggle Potential flakiness Needs internal review Little scale
- 48. Agency 4 + Scalability Consistent quality Easy management Professionalism - Potentially costly Needs internal review Competing clients
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- 50. Freelancers In-house (fulltime) In-house (part time)
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- 52. Explore combinations Khámphá sự kết hợp Shape translation vendor organization to fit your business and budget
- 53. Technology Sometimes technologyreally can help the situation. (Really!)
- 54. Things that areawesome
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- 59. (side note) Webpages that won’t implode
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- 64. Bend, don’t break Beygja, brjóta ekki Build tools and templates that scale seamlessly
- 65. How we do Lexmark runs a global org and that can be a pain in the ass
- 66. Our numbers 4major “geos” 50+ countries 30+ languages 80+ web properties 50+ humans involved 1,000s products
- 67. What makes ourlife interesting Product content and marketing content Distributed authority at geo and country level Two major divisions Brand shifting
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- 72. ROI Vendor structure(time, $) Automated publishing (1000s of hours) Internal production (big $$$) Consolidate budget (a lot)
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Editor's Notes
- #31 VERBING – THESE GUYS ARE SOLUTIONING THE PROBLEM Colloquialisms and clichés Something we don’t think about much. Totally confusing. Flatter than a pancake Tip of the spear Pouring cats and dogs Life is like a box of chocolates Slicker than snot
- #32 NEWSPEAK – The small empty rooms of communication
- #33 french
- #35 Be culturally aware; every country is different. Languages matter little … it’s about all of those unwritten rules. * Germans don’t use checks * Africans don’t use desktops * Chinese don’t eat fortune cookies Italians don’t drink Starbucks These little details make a big difference Ask opinion of those who know; this is art, it’s subjective, and that subjectivity is what will work for you or against you The first 50 results of any stock site suck. Search for more meaningful work. * a good picture is worth a 1,000 words, a bad picture loses 1,000 sales
- #40 As simple as a human Ticketing system Enters project management Make it consistent
- #61 We work with web people all the time. Here’s how to ensure the content you’re responsible for makes it to the visitor safely and intact.
- #62 Obvious, but …. Don’t lock content into graphics Video – think about voiceover vs text on screen – worse case scenario: talking head Typography – a Latin thing, and largely irrelevant for Hebrew and Farsi
- #63 Test … Throw everything into Google translate Once you do have a translated page, reverse test: open in Chrome and check to ensure stuff is in place
- #64 Icelandic
- #66 Geos: North America, Latin America, EMEA, Asia-Pacific,
- #68 Characteristics: * Strictly B2B. Meaning lots of persuasive content, nurturing campaigns, white papers, businessy stuff. Focus on sectors requires even more specialization. * Soft messaging … not “what it is” but “why you would use it” Solutions: Common web template for writing … before stuff even gets written, we know all content that needs to be captured Alignment with global teams to understand how stuff plays globally * website tiering
- #70 Geo master * removes any colloquialisms * Queen’s english * Shorter