What Does a Localization Project Manager Do?
Project managers serve as the vital link between clients and teams, guiding projects with a narrative-like approach. Before launching this narrative, careful consideration is given to the project’s initial planning phase, encompassing tasks such as file preparation, CAT Tool utilization, and team coordination. The nature of this planning varies, adapting to the unique demands of each field. Indie game localization projects afford more creative freedom compared to the urgency inherent in constant updates of MMORPG game localizations. Marketing translations may encourage exploration, while legal translations necessitate strict workflows.
Regardless of the field, the overarching goal remains consistent: achieving client satisfaction. The concept of “satisfaction” may be customer acquisition and retention for marketing projects. It can be ensuring players have an enjoyable experience in video games, or a combination of factors, as seen in crypto localization.
The Important Components of Crypto Localization
Managing this combination of factors requires a well-oriented team, a responsibility shouldered by project managers. The first step is the initial client meeting, focusing on considerations such as style guides, terminology, team dynamics, and tools for maintaining consistency. Project managers make educated decisions regarding these topics to ensure safe workflow. Let’s take a look into why these decisions are important.
In the crypto industry, style guides and terminology hold heightened importance, given the narrative’s legal implications. Establishing trust with the community and complying with legal regulations demand a consistent approach. Here, style guides and terminology serve as the foundational steps. However, there is a reason it is called the “first” step because there are more. The dynamic nature of crypto accounts necessitates a flexible, fast-paced and dedicated team. A team, ideally composed of individuals with a strong understanding of the cryptocurrency industry. Staying informed and engaged in the industry is crucial for team members, as crypto evolves with every passing second. Of course, even the most dedicated and educated teams require tools to stay consistent.
While project managers in other fields use familiar tools, unique challenges may arise, such as client restrictions on online tool usage due to data security concerns. Also, there is the shining fact that is machine translation. Due to the tight deadlines and budgetary reasons, there is a high demand for machine translation in crypto translation. However, ensuring the best quality with MT is quite hard even though the technology has improved significantly. Yet this is nothing a well-prepared team can’t handle. Overcoming such challenges demands a creative and systematic approach, setting the difficulties project managers face with crypto localization apart from their counterparts’ difficulties in other fields.
How Does Crypto Localization Differ from Other Types of Localization?
Crypto translation, like all types of translation, requires a dynamic and fast-paced workflow. However, this dynamic and fast-paced workflow is at its uppermost limits in the crypto industry. Many of the terms still don’t have widely known translations in many languages, and many of the concepts are being newly introduced to the communities. Also, the fact that one of the main goals of fintech is “Global Reach, Local Experience,” reaching communities and languages that don’t have access to many economic solutions only makes the need for localization more of a priority.
One great similarity between mobile game localization and crypto localization is evident here. If you want to reach more people, you need to find the right channel, which is smartphones in our age. For example, the cryptocurrency industry may owe its success and great expansion in Turkey to smartphones as a recent study shows that 77.7% of Turkey’s population has internet access, and 94.5% of this has mobile internet. In a way, this makes crypto localization a niche expertise, with a great reach and relatively few experts.
Crypto Translation Experts
The difficulty of finding experts in this area is because fintech is an industry that fluctuates more than almost all industries. Staying relevant and keeping track of all the news, updates, and developments is a burden in itself. This is mostly because of the obvious financial nature of the area, and this fluctuation can manifest in many ways. Let’s delve into two of them by grouping them under this sentence:
Where there is money involved,
- there will be a lot of discussions and disputes over legal regulations, which don’t seem to be ending soon. This is one of the main reasons that contribute to the dynamic nature of the area. New regulations emerge every day; therefore, the industry always has to keep itself updated and do this not in one language or country but in many because of its goal of reaching more and more people every day,
- you can be sure that trust will be involved as well, and keeping that trust intact is partly the responsibility of the localization team. Acquiring and retaining users calls for trustworthiness, and what better way to showcase your trustworthiness than by communicating with your community in their own language?
Comprehending and addressing these ideas is pivotal for crypto localization as they represent the paramount considerations for fintech companies. While companies adeptly manage these aspects in their native language, leveraging their valuable expertise, the broader vision of fintech extends beyond linguistic and cultural confines. The industry aspires to reach diverse languages and communities, necessitating collaboration with experts to effectively convey their knowledge and facilitate expansion.
Why Should You Work with Localization Experts?
In reference to an article on leadership, there are three trust elements. And even though the article isn’t written directly for our field, we can apply the same principles here. Also, examining them reveals how localization experts assist customers in meeting these elements.
- Positive relationships: While seemingly straightforward, its application in large companies is complex. Achieving this requires encouraging empathetic communication, staying informed about others, balancing results with consideration, fostering cooperation, and resolving conflicts. Collaborating with experts in cross-cultural communication facilitates this intricate process for companies aiming to navigate diverse cultures and languages.
- Good Judgment/Expertise: Finance, already challenging, becomes more intricate with technology. Fintech companies diligently establish themselves as industry experts, showcasing expertise to earn customer trust. Collaborating with professionals from other industries, localization in our context, may help them effectively communicate their expertise and achieve their reach goals.
- Consistency: Just like all localization projects, crypto localizations demand consistency. Crypto companies must uphold their promises and maintain a consistent direction to foster user trust. Partnering with a dedicated team of professionals ensures communication consistently meets the required high standards in tone, style, and overall quality.
In theory, these all sound pretty straightforward to handle. However, things get much more complicated than this when you have a plate full of languages with consistently tight deadlines. Do not fret though! We are here to help you out and facilitate your reach even further with our professional localization services.
Written by
İlker Erverdi
Project Manager