The "Globalization Strategy Playbook" describes strategies for Localization and Globalization Professionals.
The GILT Leaders Forum is a self-organized group of seasoned globalization professionals representing various companies from the "buyer" side. The group chartered a Strategy Thinking Task Force to document and share experiences in developing localization strategies for people, processes, and technologies, including setting a vision, working out the strategic direction, and guidelines for conversations with stakeholders.
This book will help you learn that localization strategies should flow from company strategies, or at the very least, the strategies of the localization stakeholders; localization managers should plan for people, processes, and technology in a comprehensive manner, following the long-term vision for the team’s role in their company; understand how to know when they are solving the right problem, and how to define the problem.
The document source is available on:
The document is published as PDF to GitHub
- Melissa Biggs – Locale Solutions
- Wayne Bourland – Dell Technologies
- Karen Combe – Combe Consulting
- Francesca Di Marco – Pinterest
- Loïc Dufresne de Virel – Intel
- Mimi Hills - Hillstra Associates
- Natalia Levitina – PTC
- Christian Redmann – Siemens Digital Industries Software
- Lyena Solomon – ServiceNow
- Jean-François Vanreusel – Adobe
- Erji Wang – VMware
- Lorna Whelan – Tripadvisor
You can contribute by suggesting changes in the project Issues, or by emailing the Strategic Thinking Task Force. The team will review this feedback within 6-12 months.
This project is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License - see the LICENSE file for details
This playbook is the outcome of the initiative, participation and contribution of a group of Globalization leaders with different backgrounds and experiences. Bringing together the diverse everyday life in the Globalization department, the years of experience, the different working styles and skills, the authors hope that they have made this playbook more impactful. Here is the list of contributors:
- Melissa Biggs is a founding Partner at Locale Solutions consultants. She has held management positions in localization for over 25 years at technology firms. Melissa contributed to this unique playbook to help make it a powerful channel for communicating the many key facets of global strategy both within localization groups and across all company and partner organizations.
- Wayne Bourland has led multiple facets of translations for the past 14+ years and is currently the Director of Translations (L10N, I18N and Interpretation) for Dell Technologies. Wayne contributed to this playbook out of a passion for sharing best practices and a need to do something other than having yet another conversation about word rates, turn around time, and quality metrics (although those are all important)!
- Karen Combe retired recently from her role as VP of Localization at PTC, having worked for 20 years to build and develop the Localization Department. She wants to share the results of her challenges and successes with others so that they can spend their own efforts more productively.
- Francesca Di Marco is the Internationalization Lead at Pinterest where she had the privilege to build a Localization program and then an Internationalization program. She has been in the localization industry on and off for 20 years. Francesca contributed to this playbook with the wish to pass it on to the next generation of Globalization leaders, like a recipe to improve and customize, rather than to preserve.
- Loïc Dufresne de Virel currently leads Intel’s in-house localization team. Loïc has deep experience in all aspects of localization, translation, internationalization, translation memory tools, QA (Quality Assurance), process optimization, innovation, and more. More recently, he worked on advanced localization projects involving natural language understanding and multilingual speech recognition engines. Loïc joined this initiative to help other localizers move forward faster through collaboration, teamwork, and experience sharing.
- Mimi Hills has served as director of Globalization teams at major Silicon Valley companies. She is passionate about ensuring that the non-English speaking customer is treated well—and also that the Localization Department is seen as a strategic contributor to the company’s goals.
- Natalia Levitina is a Localization Director at PTC where she is responsible for implementation of localization technology in the department as well as overseeing the in-house translation team and vendor management. Natalia has contributed to the playbook because one learns not only by doing but also by putting down their thoughts on paper (or Google Doc)!
- Christian Redmann is a Localization Director at Siemens Digital Industries Software. Christian has been in a leadership role in Localization for more than 20 years and had the privilege to build a Localization program and organization early in his leadership career. Christian has been a Globalization and Localization champion throughout his career and is passionate about his chosen field. He contributed to this playbook out of the belief that a guide like this did not exist but would be an invaluable resource for anyone looking to build and run a successful Globalization program and organization supporting the culture and drive the strategic objectives of the company.
- Lyena Solomon is a Globalization Director at ServiceNow. She is responsible for product globalization and business Go To Market strategy. Lyena contributed so she can help globalization leaders develop strategic mindset and learn from localization industry experts. Think big, start small, measure, change, succeed—that is the ticket to global domination.
- Jean-François Vanreusel is Director of Globalization at Adobe where he’s been leading globalization teams and activities for 20+ years. He joined this initiative to share his savoir-faire so all people around the globe can enjoy software products and content to their full extent.
- Erji Wang is a Senior Globalization Program Manager at VMware Inc. Erji has been working in product globalization for eight years. In recent years he has used business data to build the roadmap of product globalization at VMware. He contributed to this playbook to share what he has learned in this journey.
- Lorna Whelan is Senior Director of Localization at Tripadvisor and has been in the localization industry for 20 years. Lorna contributed to this playbook to share her learnings and to help create a very valuable resource to guide new Globalization leaders in raising the strategic importance of localization.
Special thanks for editorial review to:
- Edith Bendermacher, Head of Globalization Strategy, Localization Operations at NetApp
- Adam Youngfield, Global Manager, Translation Operations at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- Jenny Kang, Director, Globalization at Veritas