Localization Teams Master Class

The Localization Teams Master Class focuses on the people aspects of building and growing localization teams. We’ll focus on the unique management challenges of a localization team, from hiring the right team members, defining roles and responsibilities, and setting goals, through seeing your employees through successful execution of department goals.

Localization Teams Master Class
Localization Teams Master Class

Master Class Details

Dates
May 1, 2024 - June 12, 2024

Format
5 classes, 2 hours each

Instructor:
Mimi Hills

Fee
$750

Language
English

Register Now!

Cancellation Policy

Session #1: Wednesday, May 1 – 6pm – 8pm CEST / 12pm – 2pm EDT
Session #2: Wednesday, May 8 – 6pm – 8pm CEST / 12pm – 2pm EDT
Session #3: Wednesday, May 15 – 6pm – 8pm CEST / 12pm – 2pm EDT
Session #4: Wednesday, May 22 – 6pm – 8pm CEST / 12pm – 2pm EDT
Session #5: Wednesday, June 12 – 6pm – 8pm CEST / 12pm – 2pm EDT

10% off for companies registering 3 or more students at the same time! Please Contact Jill@LocalizationInstitute.com to register with this discount!

People are the most important resource in any company. Localization departments often have a unique set of challenges that are themselves benefits, including dispersed teams, non-native speakers, a high percentage of outsourced talent, and roles and responsibilities that are unique within the company. How do you manage a diverse set of people into a cohesive, high-performing team?

Each company brings a unique perspective, with different priorities, scopes, budgets, and cultures contributing and putting pressure on the localization department manager. Still, managers face a common set of issues, and through interactive discussion we can learn from participants’ different approaches as we look at a range of management topics.

We’ll also look at how strong leadership contributes to a high-performing team, including how to define a vision and shape a culture that embraces the team’s strengths, inspires the trust of your stakeholders, and makes the localization team a successful contributor to the company.

This Master Class is for:

    • Managers of localization, internationalization, and globalization teams, including managers without localization experience
    • Managers who are responsible for an aspect of localization
    • Localization professionals, for example Project or Program Managers, who comprise a small or single-person team and are tasked with localization responsibilities for their company
    • Localization professionals with at least 5 years of experience who aspire to management roles
Please note: recording or republishing any of the class sessions is prohibited. We do this in order for students to be able to speak and share experiences freely with the instructor and their fellow classmates in a comfortable and safe environment without fear that something they say might later be made public.

Session 1: Setting the Team Strategy and Building the Culture

Wednesday, May 1 – 6pm – 8pm CEST / 12pm – 2pm EDT

This session will examine your role as a leader. Starting with the company strategy, you can build a localization strategy that will guide your team. Then you can ensure that your team culture supports that strategy.

Session 2: Defining Team Scope, Roles, and Structure

Wednesday, May 8 – 6pm – 8pm CEST / 12pm – 2pm EDT

We’ll look at the possible scopes of a localization team and possible roles of team members, including project/program managers, stakeholder managers, vendor managers, tools specialists, product managers, linguists and linguistic quality, translation quality, product quality, technology roles, data specialists, etc. What do you prioritize, and how can you shape, grow the team over time? What are the advantages and disadvantages of hiring employees, contractors, and consultants?

Session 3: Hiring, and Managing Other Financial Challenges

Wednesday, May 15 – 6pm – 8pm CEST / 12pm – 2pm EDT

Management includes opportunities, such as hiring, as well as constraints, such as downsizing during times of tight budgets. We’ll look at how to hire for a team that needs to be both flexible and specialized, and how to handle reorganizations and acquisitions. We’ll also examine how to approach—and help the team survive—budget cuts and layoffs.

Session 4: Growth and Transformation: Leading Your Team

Wednesday, May 22 – 6pm – 8pm CEST / 12pm – 2pm EDT

We’ll discuss goal setting, training in both technical and soft skills, mentoring, and change management. We’ll look at career paths and job levels. And we’ll look at how you scale your team, bring visibility to your team members, and take the team to the next level.

Session 5: Results: Sharing Your Experiences, Issues, and Questions

Wednesday, June 12 – 6pm – 8pm CEST / 12pm – 2pm EDT

This course will provide you with:

  • Leadership strategies to set a vision, mission, and goals for your team that fit with your company’s strategy and culture and motivate your team to participate.
  • Practical techniques and ideas for hiring, training, and managing a diverse localization team.
  • How to set up the localization team for success within the company, and set up your employees for success with their careers.

Active participation is encouraged.

To allow for a high level of interactivity, the class is limited to 20 attendees.  To protect privacy and confidentiality, sessions will not be recorded.

All students who complete the Managing Localization Teams Master Class will receive an Industry Certificate of Completion from The Localization Institute, Inc.

10% discount for 3 or more students from the same company  – please contact jill@localizationinstitute.com for more information.

Mimi Hills interviewed author Minette Norman about her new book The Psychological Safety Playbook: Lead More Powerfully by Being More Human for the Localization Insights blog here on The Localization Institute website on January 30, 2023. The interview covers important topics for localization teams to consider and these themes are also incorporated into the curriculum of the Localization Teams Master Class.

Read Mimi’s interview with Minette Norman here: Approaching Inclusion Through Psychological Safety: Ideas for Localization Teams!

About Your Instructor

Mimi Hills

Mimi Hills is a localization industry veteran. She’s the former Director, Global Information Experience at VMware, Inc. and has also led globalization teams at BlackBerry and Sun Microsystems. She comes from the software world with a background in project and engineering management. She’s passionate about people and finding ways to communicate. Early in her career she worked in college science textbook industry, as well as in technical publications at Apple Computer.

Mimi is active in the localization industry and in diversity and inclusion circles, and is a passionate advocate for the non-English speaking user. Mimi has been a mentor and Impact Coach for over ten years with the TechWomen program, and has traveled to Africa three times with delegation trips. In 2022, Mimi contributed as an expert from the GILT Leaders Forum and as a co-author of “The Globalization Strategy Playbook”.

In her spare time, she plays guitar and bass and runs a nonprofit music camp for adults.

Testimonials

Overview

Preview Webinar

The Globalization Strategy Playbook

Localization Teams Master Class

The Globalization Strategy Playbook is the result of efforts by 12 members of the GILT Forum, and Mimi Hills contributed as a co-author to this book. In the playbook, these experienced localization leaders share their strategic approaches to various aspects of localizing products and services in the companies that they have worked for. You can learn more about process of writing the The Globalization Strategy Playbook in the Multilingual Magazine.

The book is available on the GitHub website and a pdf of the English text is available here.

The Globalization Strategy Playbook is available for free under a Creative Commons license that allows users to use the material in their work, but not profit from it. Derivative works must also be created under the same license. Feedback on the playbook is welcomed at strategyplaybook@gmail.com.