Localisation strategies for global success
•Download as PPTX, PDF•
0 likes•145 views
The ultimate goal of localisation is to power up your product and make it relevant and engaging for all your users no matter where in the world there are from or what language they speak. However, in most businesses nowadays localisation is still an after-thought. It happens at the end of the product development process and because of that it fails to realise the enormous value it could bring to the business. As the localisation lead at Skyscanner, Hristina will share examples of challenges she’s seen at Skyscanner or other global businesses and how to overcome them. You will find out why localisation is important and how poor localisation strategy and lack of collaboration can have a negative impact on the product, user experience and the business; you will leave the talk with ideas on how to collaborate better with their localisation teams and how to be more empathetic with global users.
Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
More from JAM London
More from JAM London (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Localisation strategies for global success
- 4. Culturally relevant product Better user experience Faster time-to-market
- 9. Negative impact of poor localisation collaboration on: 1. Product – cultural relevance 2. User Experience 3. Design
- 11. Negative impact of poor localisation collaboration on: 1. Product – cultural relevance 2. User Experience 3. Design
- 12. nuts
- 15. Negative impact of poor localisation collaboration on: 1. Product – cultural relevance 2. User Experience 3. Design
- 18. Planning
- 19. Negative impact of poor localisation collaboration on: 1. Product – cultural relevance 2. User Experience 3. Design
- 20. 11 26 20
- 21. Don’t treat your international users as second-class citizens
Editor's Notes
- I want you to imagine that I'm taking you on a trip around the world, my guess is one of the first things you will think about is packing - currencies, clothes, power outlets, visas. In other words, a lot of work. And preparation doesn’t end there, once you arrive at your destination, you need to follow the local laws, customs and unspoken social practices.
- What often happens when companies go global and start their own journey around the world, they turn out to be one of those sloppy, last-minute packers and find themselves in a country without the right currency or even worse, with no visa and not able to enter. My job is to help companies pack better. And do localisation better in order to succeed on their global journey.
- My name is Hristina and I’m the localisation lead at Skyscanner. Skyscanner is global travel brand that helps travellers find inspiration, plan and organise trips. We operate in over 200 markets and 35 languages. The localisation team enables product teams build products that are relevant and feel native for all our travellers no matter where they are from.
- Before we start, by the show of hands who works for a product or service that is available in more than one language? From these people, anyone that is responsible in any way for localisation? This was a trick question. In my belief Localisation is everyone’s responsibility. In one way or another you all are involved, impacted or contributes to localisation. In my time in the industry, I’ve talked to localisation teams from some of the biggest brands – Uber, Survey Monkey, Tinder, Atlassian, Spotify. Everyone I’ve talked to sees Localisation as enabler – enabling teams build culturally relevant products for all markets, helping create better user experience by making the product work for all languages and if collaborating efficiently, enabling faster time to market. This is what WE, localisation experts believe to be our biggest value and contribution but it seems to an outsider – anyone from a different team, this isn't very obvious and they don’t see us that way.
- Instead Localisation teams are often seen as a human google translate – we receive words, translate them and send them back, And this simplified perception of localisation couldn't be further from the truth. The ultimate role of localisation is not to simply translate words but to help building products that delight and help ALL users no matter where they are from and what language they speak. But by being at the end of the process, we are not able to provide value and impact we so strongly believe we could.
- Let me show you what I mean. Do we have writers in the audience, Imagine you are a UX writer you are asked to work on a feature – the product has been built, the design has been beutifully crafted and someone has even already written the copy. Your job is to review the copy, that's it. you can’t make any changes even if the copy isn’t aligned with the tone of voice and style of the Brand or is inconsistent with other features. You can only review and fix typos and spelling. Or if you are a designer – you are asked to do the design of a new feature and this is what you are presented with.
- Neither the writer nor the designer would be able to provide the value they could bring to building a successful product. And neither can your localisation team if they are at the very end of the process and their hands are tied.
- My mission today is to show you the value localisation teams can bring, how you can work closer with them and more importantly what happens if you don’t. Localisation teams must have a seat at the table and must part of the product development lifecylce. The success of your global product depends on your collaboration with them.
- During the presentation I will share examples of challenges we’ve had at Skyscanner. We will see the negative impact poor localisation strategy and lack of collaboration can have on your the product, the user experience and design.
- And as in any true collaboration, all sides have responsibilities and actions they are accountable for, in each example I will share what both localization and product teams can do to make this collaboration optimal and ultimately build better products and create better user experience
- Let's start with the product and the importance of cultural relevance. We all know how different each culture and language is, we've heard stories about culture clashes and misunderstandings, and very likely you've experienced this yourself. Actually, most of us here are from non-English speaking countries and yet when building products we suddenly forget that. What works in English, often doesn't work in other languages. so let's see an example
- We've all seen similar messages hundreds of times. In an effort to make this message less boring, our UX designer decided to accompany it with a playful illustration of a few cookies. While working together, the UX writer raised the concern that this message and ANALOGY will not work in other languages. UX designer wasn’t happy with the comments saying this only one person’s opinion - however I suggest looking at translator as the first users to experience your new product and at translation as user testing. Translators can be your secret weapon in going global. This was a proof our successful collaboration with UX writers. It was the UX writer that brought in the localisationteam at the beginning of this project. And the way we had achieved this was by building a network of ambassadors
- An ambassador is someone that has experienced the benefit of working together and would gladly advocate on your behalf. And this is exactly what we did, we became allies with the UX writers and turned them into localisation champions - after all we have the same goal – create a highly efficient and quality content– writers focus on English and we on all other languages. The goal wasn’t to turn them into localisation experts but for them to understand enough and to know when to get us involved. But it's not always enough and doesn't always guarantee the localisation team involvement at the right time. What you as a product manager or designer can do to facilitate further this collaboration is to take the localisation first approach.
- As we saw in the cookie example, putting localisation at the beginning of the product lifecycle, at the ideation and planning stage, you will get valuable insights that will determine your direction and will ensure your product is relevant for ALL your users and by doing this early on in the process, you will achieve faster time to market .
- Next we will look at the user expereince and how poor localisation collaboration can directly impact the user, their experience using your product and their perception of your brand.
- In the Arabic app, the timing of the flight is left aligned. This confused the users when they tried to read according to the Arabic RTL format. One user asked “How is it possible that the departure time is after the arrival?” People would never think, oh it’s a localisation issue, for them your product is broken. And even if they eventually do make a booking or purchase, it erodes their trust in the brand and product and reduces the chance of them using it again in the future or recommending it to others.
- What localisation teams can do to prevent these type of issues is perform Localization testing. Linguists will look at the product in the respective language and will make sure not only translation is correct but it displays and functions as intended, optimized your product’s appearance, language correctness, and cultural standards It seems pretty straightforward and you would wonder why it doesn't happen more often. The challenge for the localisation team is having enough time to do the translation itself and then perform the testing in context on device before the launch. Often this is the result of poor planning in the whole product lifecycle.
- I would like you to have a think, how much time do you spend building a new feature, or just a change to a feature? I’d say probably a few weeks. And how long is decicated to localisation? Usually a few days. When the time comes to localise that feature, we do not always have the same level of attention for the foreign product as we do for the English one. So next time you plan your new feature development, factor in localisation, ask the team how long they will need and what else you can support them with it to ensure that your international users have the same experience as your English speaking ones. Otherwise, you risk not only ruining their experience but also your brand's perception and reputation.
- Lastly we will look at design and see how it can be impacted if localisation isn't taken in consideration.
- Actually 29 out of 35 languages had this issue. Translations are 30% longer than English. In this case even 100%. There wasn’t a way that you can say “Plan a trip” in 11 character The potential solution was to either change the English to something that would translate and fit or to modify the design. In this case it turned out we didn't want or couldn't do either of this. In my role I work with the whole organisation to raise awareness and to demonstrate the impact English-centric copy and design have on the localised product. And in those conversation, I sometimes get an udnerstanding but other times I'm told that by trying to make it work for Localisation, we are compromising the English copy and Design. And in these situations can't help but ask, is that truly user first approcha or are we prioritising some users over others and some languages over others?
- English is just another language of the many your product might support. So don’t treat your international users as second class citizens. All users are equal and they deserve the same care and attention and deserve having the same experience.
- I envision a world where Localisation experts are just another member of your product team and localisation is at the beginning of the product lifecycle. My ask of you is when you go back to work on Monday, go to your localization team and see what you can do to help them so they help you make your product truly global and relevant for all your users.
- Because this can be a trip of a lifetime or it could be a total disaster. Building a global product is hard but you don’t have to do it alone, the localisation team can be your trusted partner on the exciting journey of going global.