Localization Technology Partners offers a range of services from consulting and training for early stage companies to fractional program leadership for companies that are ready to start adapting and localizing their products.
Early Stage Companies
Most early stage companies are focused on product market fit, and shouldn’t rush localization until PMF is achieved. However, there are a few things they should do to avoid incurring technical debt that is expensive and time consuming to retire later.
We offer consulting and training to EPD staff, including:
- Global ready coding and design practices – low cost, no cost design and coding patterns that future proof your product and prevent you from accruing tech debt.
- Adapting your product for non-English speaking users – get out of your user’s way by fixing functional issues that prevent them from using the product in their language. For example, at Notion we had early traction in Japan because users could author content in Japanese, even though the UI is in English
- Selecting CMS platforms that can scale into many languages – while you might not localize your website for a while, it is important to choose a CMS that is capable of operating in multiple languages. Otherwise you may be forced to migrate CMS platforms later which is expensive and slows you down.
- Initial assessment of localization readiness and likely expansion opportunities when you reach PMF. We give you a report on your technical readiness, as well as a market analysis that identifies languages and regions to expand to.
A typical engagement involves about a day in total and costs $2000.
Reach out to schedule an initial conversation.
Mid-Stage Companies
Companies at this stage have found product market fit and are starting to scale. They are usually Series B or pre-IPO companies, although some earlier stage companies reach this state sooner than that. This is the right time to kick off localization efforts. This stage is where fractional leadership and technical program management can accelerate these efforts.
At this stage, work involved includes:
- Identifying assets that need to be localized and budget forecasting (we can also do this as a pre-engagement scoping step)
- Managing EPD staff refactoring efforts to support localization and internationalization. Companies often have to retire tech debt at this stage, which can be substantial if they don’t follow global ready practices early on (Lyft took a year to refactor its services).
- Selecting and implementing CMS and TMS platforms.
- Architecting and building localization tooling (e.g. CMS <–> TMS, CI/CD <–> TMS, etc)
- Onboarding and managing language service providers, usually in combination with AI translation platforms.
We offer this service on a fractional basis on a monthly basis, typically with a 3-6 month term with the option for ongoing engagement, at a cost of $6,000 to $12,000 per month.
Reach out to schedule an initial conversation.
Scaling Companies
Companies at this stage have built out localization infrastructure and automation, and are now focused on scaling the number of languages and regions support, and also expanding localization coverage to include assets like streaming video. These companies are typically Series C/D, pre-IPO and recently post-IPO. They may want to bring localization in-house or continue leveraging fractional expertise.
Work involved at this point includes:
- Building out the localization team, especially recruiting specialists like localization project managers and language leads (much of this can be handled by contractors but some companies prefer these to be in house roles)
- Developing integrations between additional platforms (e.g. lifecycle comms) and the translation platforms
- Developing and managing sequenced language rollouts that align with the company’s expansion strategy
We offer these services on a fractional basis at a cost of $10,000 to $15,000 per month.
Reach out to schedule an initial conversation.
In House Vs Fractional Leadership
One of the reasons I started this company was because most companies below a certain size (500-1000 people) struggle to staff localization, and because they usually have no prior experience with it. Everywhere I worked at went like this.
Manager: “Hey Alex, you speak Spanish right?
Random PM: “Si señor”
Manager: “Congratulations! You’re in charge of localization!”
This person then needs to become an expert on localization and internationalization, and usually has other projects on their plate. Another issue is that experienced localization professionals generally prefer to work at larger companies like Google. I’ve spent most of my career working with and for startups.
When companies reach scale, it usually makes sense to bring the program in house. When you’re operating in 10+ languages with a dedicated budget and predictable workload, it’s usually time to hire. Revenue is another threshold. If you are generating a substantial fraction of your revenue outside your domestic market, that’s another signal that it’s time to bring things in house.
We set things up so that clients own their relationships with technology and service providers, which enables them to bring the program in house.