Leading Localization Teams in the Knowledge Era

Last week I had the opportunity to attend in Paris the Game Connection week! Yay!

These events are a great opportunity to attend shows and demos of different publishers and it gives some insights about next steps of our industry. In the city of l’amour I could not only try amazing tender cheese, yummy!  Rich flavors French wines, double yummy! but also I could see the hype VR is creating, also I had the opportunity to see in a huge screen how awesome the new FIFA 17 from my ex- EA colleagues look. Very impressive the control movements of franchise players. Well done! You guys rock! (and I have very clear which it’s going to be my gift for my kids birthday next month :)

There was also a competition of Just Dance, Counter Strike etc etc, it’s great to see how big the video game industry is evolving and becoming more and more important …. And what about Localization? Is it also becoming something important? Of course! It was already something very important! Let’s not forget that Localization brings nice % revenue to videogame publishers!

Why do we fail when approaching Agile Localization

• 
  

Last week we had a nice event from the Women Chapter GALA association in our King office. It was a nice gathering where we shared experiences about Agile Localization.We shared experiences in the hope that Localization, one day might have the status it deserves 

Is this a dream? Maybe 

Is this possible? Maybe 

Will I see it? I hope so! Although I’ve been over 20 years in the industry and I keep receiving same questions as in the ‘90s. i.e. How do you convince management teams than investing in Localization is worth it?

My Lizard brain is exhausting!

Summer holidays .. game over. I’m in the train going to Barcelona, my summer break just finished. A summer with the flavor of salted sea, warm sand, delicious seafood (and paellas), great family time and awesome books. Reading at the beach is one of those worldly pleasures that I truly enjoy. 

How to say it?

The journey continues …. Last month I presented my Project number 4 in my Toastmasters club.

This is an important project . In fact many people believe this should be taken as the first sign, of one being serious about achieving his or her Competent Communicator goal. I’m sharing with you what I learned while preparing and delivering this speech

How my iPhone did not sleep with me anymore

As I mentioned earlier in my blog I love habits. I found habits an aspect very fascinating in human beings. Why do we do what we do?

What’s a habit?

A habit is something that we do on daily basis without thinking about it. And that’s the key! We don’t think about it. When you don’t think about some actions you don’t lose energy.

The best analogy to understand habits I read it in the book from the Heath brothers.

Switch, How to Change Things When Change is Hard.

In their book they introduced the theory of the Rider and the Elephant. The Rider represents the rational side. The Rider knows what’s good for you. The Elephant represents the emotional side and the instinct. For example, my Rider wants to have a healthy body, a great beach body! Meanwhile my elephant wants some Oreo cookies and a couple of beers (with salted peanuts). Who wins? I guess I don’t need to take a selfie in Barcelona beach to reveal the winner J

A new habit every month

Around one year ago I read the book “The power of habit” from Charles Duhigg and since that moment I decided I would work to create a new habit every month.

Working only in one habit per month might seem not very ambitious, however, when you think about it at the end of the year I have 12 new habits. Each habit I see it as a tool, this means I have now 12 new tools in my tool box! That’s quite a lot!!

Habits that I introduced are quite varied from something so trivial as ensuring I brush my teeth twice per day, being every week day at 7:30am at the gym or create a routine to go to sleep (no smartphone in the bed was really difficult to achieve for me)

The good thing with the habits is that you do them without thinking about it, this is great as you don’t lose energy. I remember at the beginning how difficult was for me to wake up 7am and go to the gym... always procrastinating. It’s said to build a habit you need to repeat it at least during 21 days until you interiorize it. This particular one took me longer. However now it’s totally integrated in my morning routing, and I love it!

Today I want to share with you the latest 2 habits I built.

Pseudolocalization -What are the Psëëêùùdö-lóçåìålîîzååtîîøøñ Méêéthóöòds? 

May 14, 2016

• 15 views
• 4 Likes
• 0 Comments

• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter

Pseudolocalization (also know as Pseudotranslation) is one the “free” techniques less known and used in the Localization industry. To be honest I’m not sure why this happens. Getting your app (or game) localised is expensive, however Pseudolocalization is almost free. If you first pseudolocalize you can get a good overview about how well prepared is your content for a further internalisation phase. 

A few years ago I was working for a Localization vendor and I remember a client with a small budget but very smart spending every single Eur. They always asked us before starting the localization or LQA phase to perform a pseudoloc check. 

I’m going to share with you how I was doing it. This approach is still valid nowadays :)

Hack your brain with Parkinson's Law!

Work expands to fill the time available for its completion. If you’re into productivity, you’ll know this rule as Parkinson’s Law.

First time I heard about Parkinson’s Law I did not believe it.Why do I take more time to finish something? It’s better just to finish something and then moving on! Time to work on something else or enjoy some tapas!

A budget for my brain

Every month I design a personal budget for various aspect of my life.

I won’t explain in this post my boring budget for my boring expenses, electricity, water or my never-ending mortgage

I am going to share with you another budget I created. A budget that I created back in November last year. This is an unusual budget, this is a cheerful budget, this is a budget for …. my brain!!!

What does it mean? I conceived I was missing some investment in my body, and I don’t refer here to a budget to go the gym

What I realized is that I didn’t have a budget for my brain!!

I started to think about this concept last summer, however I did only implement it in November 2015. My description of a budget for my brain is:

Burrito, Gasolina, Dale

Is it a good idea to translate your game in Latin American Spanish?

When it comes to localize a game into Spanish there’s some confusion.

And this is a logical confusion! because it’s the official language of 21 countries!

Get to the POINT

I’m terrible summarizing my ideas. I get lost easily with unnecessary details.

Do you really know how to delegate a task?

I remember a project I was working a few years ago. It was a software Localization project . I was leading a small team of 6 people. The workload I had at that time it was quite high, and I thought:

Well, in this situation I studied in my HR Master that all I have to do it's delegate! Therefore, we grow as a team and we can achieve more together!

Perfect theory! Horrible how I execute it J

 I went to one of my colleagues and I asked him

Sweat, and sweat! Everybody dance now!

Last Thursday I did something for the first time, and that in my forties is always something quite interesting ☺

Last year I started my journey to improve my communication and leadership skills. I embarked in this trip thanks to Toastmasters.

And last Thursday, for my very first time, I performed the role of Toastmaster of the Day!

While I did my role I noticed about the following.

The first thing I realized is, I'm still sweating ☺ When I finish a session in which I speak in public my T-shirt always ends up in the washer ☺ Maybe someday I’ll have a better control of my nerves, but nowadays, every time I go to the stage in our Toastmaster club, the butterflies in my belly start flying ☺

Lost in review? or proofreading or editing or ....

In the Localization industry there’s some confusion about editing, proofreading (or proofing), reviewing and copywriting.

Even the roles of freelancers or language vendors seem confusing.

Is it the same the role of a copywriter vs copyeditor? Editor or reviewer or even proofreader? In the following post I’ll summarize my view based on what I have seen in my career in the Localization industry.

I don't have time for anything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don’t have time to go the gym, no time for being with my family; I have no time to pursue my passions, my hobbies.... I do not have time for anything!

I have no time to be productive and that creates frustration and sadness.

All this led me to change my lifestyle, changes in the way I work and overall changes in the way I understand my life. I think I realized about this 5 years ago. I was all day working, but poorly organized, and I had very little time for other activities. So, while recovering from a hernia operation I took those months of “waiting for work” to put clarity in my head and my priorities.

I was convinced to make some changes in my habits that gradually helped me to be more productive.

I realized I had 3 main areas that I had to change.

Thank YOU at the end of a speech?

The area of public speaking is fascinating! It involves multiple disciplines, control emotions, leadership, psychology, body language … It is so exciting! And of course, the more I read about this topic, the more I watch TEDTalk videos, and the more I get involved in Toastmasters, the more I like it!

It is rare a lunch in which I do not end at some point talking about public speaking J

I guess that's what happens when you are passionate about something. This happened again yesterday. I had lunch with my colleagues at a Japanese restaurant that we have around the office.

 I'm lucky because my colleagues are very nice people, and I love
being with them. They are so friendly! Very interesting people indeed! We were enjoying a delicious plate of sushi with miso soup and very tasty rice when the topic about saying

Thank YOU at the end of a presentation came up.

Should we say Thank YOU before closing a presentation/speech?

Minimalism - Living better with less stuff

Living better with less stuff…..? Is it possible?

No, it’s not possible!!

We live in this materialistic era where we need to buy everything!

And we need to get everything right now.

We are suggested that in order to be happy, we need to buy a bigger house, a better car, the latest electronic gadget etc etc

And lately it seems we are even more tempted!

We have imported Halloween sales, we have Black Friday….but Just 1 Friday won’t be enough … …  and we got the cyber Monday!  but, think for a second, what if we don’t need that many things to be happy? what if the happiness is not in the objects we own?

Don't join Toastmasters!

Many people are surprised when I tell them that every week I attend to a club to improve my public speaking skills. First, I explain what Toastmasters is, and the next question is usually, how often do I have to speak in public in my current work? or if I want to become a proffesional speaker? or if I am working for a sales department?

Usually it's not seen the value of joining Toastmaster. So if you don't want to improve and advance your professional career don't join Toastmasters. BUT, if you want to become better in different skills joining Toastmaster definitely will boost your performance! I'm so happy being a Toastmaster member!

Obviously Toastmasters teaches you to speak in public, but also teaches you to develop many skills more!

Public Speaking Tips

Localizing Videogames

Localising a videogame is way more than translating it from one language to another. CULTURALIZATION is the key.