Act 2: Moving Pictures

It’s been three years with GenAI in our lives.

You may think we understand what AI can or cannot do (at least those in the Global North think they do). But think again. There are entire regions of the world that are playing catch-up to the AI-first reality. And there are always newcomers to our industry who need guidance to set them on the right path.

Ultimately, progress will look different to every team and professional. It won’t be linear, and it may come at a cost. It may require us to redefine ourselves. In our quest onward, no one should be left behind, right?

In this section, read the articles that explore the human side of the (r)evolution unfolding around us.

Olga Stokowiec

Localization Program Manager at Maxon

Olga is a seasoned localization professional with a background in law, music and translation studies. She’s currently leading the localization program at Maxon, focusing on scalability, cross-functional collaboration, and cost efficiency. When not in localization, you’ll find Olga playing the trumpet, cycling, or hiking with her dog.

The floor is lava, everything’s moving, and we’re sprinting to stay ahead — without getting burned to cinders. We (i.e., the Localization Crowd) are hungry for innovation, eager to gaze into the crystal ball and make decisions with lasting impact. No one wants to just ride the wave of the Next Big Thing™ (be it agentic workflows, RAG, concurrent multilingual content creation, etc.) without a concrete strategy.

The localization space is buzzing with ideas. Language service providers morph into Language Solutions Integrators (LSIs), and TMSs evolve into multilingual CMS platforms. The ideas for how to use LLMs for quality evaluation or decoupling localization operations from the constraints of traditional translation memories are blooming, and you can see it as you enter every room filled with language industry professionals. All of this sounds nice, but how do you take action on any of them?

This is a field guide for the localization product manager in 2025 (and until the next earth-moving innovation drops).

We’re flying fast… but is the pilot even on board?

Outside of the industry conferences and meetups, localization teams often still have to fight for visibility, budgets, and approvals within corporate hierarchies. The more things change, the more they stay the same. We know the value of long-term innovation — but do our stakeholders? 

We understand that every string in our repo, every legal disclaimer, and every segment is a nugget of data gold that can save us time and money. We know that centralized operations mean better knowledge flow and less overhead for other teams. The smarter we are at consolidating our assets and leveraging them for future projects, the more closely quality and cost efficiency go hand in hand. Tech savviness, curiosity, and exploration of new tools and ideas are not optional, they’re imperative if we want to not just keep up, but set the pace for the international experience our companies offer.

But how do we showcase the value of localization beyond our own bubble? How do we talk about localization to the non-localization crowd? The people who may not share our passion for cross-cultural communication, or those who are risk-averse yet hold the purse strings and the decision-making power.

The answer is: Treat everything like a product. 

Localization, your career, your mission at the company. Not to sound overly pompous (just a little bit), but you’re the product manager of your destiny. Productizing localization internally can be a helpful North Star when navigating the corporate labyrinth on a quest to advance the cause.

What does productizing localization mean in practice? Is it just about being able to articulate ROI and having a roadmap? That too, but not only. We have to dig deeper.

Meet all your users

By users, I don’t mean the end-users of the product your company is selling (at least not at the beginning of this process). First, you need to learn more about your internal users. The first people whose needs you need to meet to pitch your solution (i.e., localization operations) are your manager, C-level, and internal stakeholders.

What are their pain points? What has recently caused them a headache? Where did they lose money? If they had a magic wand, what ideal-world tools and processes would they implement?

You might have a flawless diagram showing how you‘ve slashed time-to-delivery or compelling data on skyrocketing translation memory leverage — but if your definition of ‘impact’ doesn‘t align with theirs, it could all fall flat.

If you want to pitch localization to corporate decision-makers, you need to understand what matters to them:

• Is it money? (How much can we save if we implement the new TMS? How does this quality improvement translate to increased adoption aka more money?) 
• Is it data security? (Is our LLM ethically trained? Do we know what happens to our data in the innovation process?) 
• Is it intellectual property or procurement concerns? (How does this solution affect our data governance and the control over our intellectual property? Are we compliant with all the local regulations at every step of the way?)

It’s not about dazzling every room with your localization expertise. It’s about meeting people where they are and speaking their language — figuratively and literally. Make sure to hold space for the users you’re talking to and craft a narrative that resonates with them. Only then will you capture their attention and advance your localization initiatives.

Start small and iterate

Localization is incredibly complex. It’s not just translation, getting an app in your language, and funny mistranslations that go viral (sometimes). Localization is about creating an end-to-end international experience, juggling multiple vendors and time zones at a time, meeting tight deadlines, and grappling with various file formats. It’s about figuring out the best ways to assess the quality of the different content types and adjusting the workflows and requirements to each of them. It’s about collecting data and driving impact.

But we, the localization professionals, don’t always do a great job of communicating this complexity. Most of the non-localization crowd have no idea what we’re dealing with daily. So when we embark on a journey of onboarding internal stakeholders into our world and start painting the full picture of our operations, it can quickly get overwhelming (what do you mean we have to consider all those moving parts?!). Particularly if we want to pitch a new solution or get buy-in for an innovative project. 

No one wants a revolution and sweeping changes all at once. The key to success is to bundle the bold ideas with an easily digestible implementation plan. 

Break down the initiative into small chunks. Define the phases, desired outcomes, and deliverables for each of them. Think about success metrics and how you will report on the progress. Build your localization initiatives the same way designers build a product: start small and iterate. Don’t kill the existing environment (at least not immediately). Lead with gradual changes, from a proof of concept on dummy repos to the full-scale rollout at the end. Don’t forget to collect feedback and act on it!

Show the value, foster the dialogue

Keep the momentum. Once your stakeholders are on board and you’re moving forward with the implementation plan, you need to continue showing the value of the initiative. 

Maintain the dialogue. Return to the initial questions — the initial user research. Build the narrative about localization success around what’s meaningful to your stakeholders. Show how localization moves the needle in a way that resonates with the leadership.

And collect the feedback! Establish cross-functional communication and collaboration between all the teams, from marketing to engineering. Make sure that everyone is heard and that there’s a platform for feedback and exchange. Sometimes we become so immersed in a project that we overlook obvious shortcomings or ideas for improvement. Being open to new insights — and sometimes challenging opinions — is a core competence for any product manager.

In a world moving at lightning speed, localization professionals have a choice: stay reactive, or step into a product mindset to better shape the future. Treat your work like a product, your stakeholders like users, and your ideas like prototypes. Iterate, collaborate, and lead with value. That’s how localization becomes not just a function — but a force.

Read the full 132-page Global Ambitions: (R)Evolution in Motion publication featuring vital perspectives from 31 industry leaders on the ongoing AI-spurred (r)evolution.

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