“I’ve built localization programs at Notion, Lyft, and Medium – helping scale from one language to global products used by millions. Notion now generates over 70% of its revenue from outside the US. This knowledge base captures what I’ve learned about what works, what fails, and what it actually costs.” – Brian McConnell, Founder and General Manager
I Am An Engineering Or Product Leader
For teams building global products and managing localization infrastructure, these articles are a good place to start.
Global Ready Coding – low cost and no cost coding and design patterns that will prevent you from accruing costly tech debt.
Choosing A Translation Management System (TMS) – things to consider in evaluating TMS vendors, written from practical experience, no vendor fluff.
Integrating Your CI/CD Pipeline With Your Translation Pipeline – a vendor neutral primer on integrating your CI/CD pipeline with localization systems.
Building For Runtime Localization – how to build a scalable runtime localization infrastructure.
Translating At Scale – how to build translation infrastructure that automatically adapts based on real-world revenue and ROI signals.
Get Out Of The User’s Way – before you localize your product, first enable customers to use your product in their language.
I Am A Founder Or Senior Executive
For leaders planning international expansion and building the business case, these articles are good places to start.
When Is The Right Time To Start Localization? – when is the right time to start localization.
Budgeting For Localization – how to budget for localization initiatives, from early pilots to scaling.
Org Design : Where Should Localization Live – what is the best home for localization?
Building Out A Localization Team – how is localization usually structured, and how a lean team can get a lot done.
Get Out Of The User’s Way – before you localize your product, first enable customers to use your product in their language.
Prioritizing Which Languages & Regions To Target – a data driven methodology for targeting and ranking regions and languages.
I Am A GTM Or Growth Leader
For teams deciding which markets to enter and how to sequence them, these articles are a good place to start.
Prioritizing Which Languages & Regions To Target – a data driven methodology for targeting and ranking regions and languages.
Spanish As A Prelude To International Expansion – by launching Spanish in the US market, you can score an easy win and decouple foundational work to support languages from international expansion.
Mutlingual SEO : A Primer – as you add languages, you also need to think about SEO and rank authority because you will not automatically inherent this from English.
Measuring ROI From Localization & Internationalization – how to measure the ROI for localization initiatives.
Upstreaming – turning localization from an afterthought to a forethought.
Video Captioning And Subtitling – how to caption, subtitle and dub streaming assets in multiple languages.
I Am A CFO Or Finance Leader
For teams in charge of financing and budgeting decisions, these articles are a good place to start.
Budgeting For Localization – a practical methodology for estimating localization budgets at various stages from early startup to scaling companies.
Measuring ROI From Localization – expanding internationally can easily 2-3x your revenue, but localization ROI is often hard to measure directly. This article describes a practical, data driven methodology for estimating ROI.
Localized Payment Support – this article covers localized payment support and pricing, and its role in driving global revenue and conversion.
Compliance & Regulatory Risks – issues to be aware of in international expansion.
Translating At Scale – building runtime translation infrastructure that automatically adapts to ROI and revenue signals
I Am A PM/EM And Am New To Localization
For the person who is in charge of this initiative, and in startups this is often someone without prior localization experience.
When Is The Right Time To Start Localization – this article describes important signals and metrics to watch and what usually triggers localization initiatives.
Org Design : Building Out A Localization Team – most startups and scale ups run localization with a lead in house team. This article walks you through what a typical loc team looks like.
Budgeting For Localization – how much should I budget? This article walks the reader through budgeting at different stages of a company’s development.
Choosing Language Service Providers – most companies outsource translation work to LSPs that handle recruiting and managing translators, typically in human+AI workflows. This article explains the criteria for evaluating these vendors.
Choosing A Global Ready Content Management System – it is important to use a CMS that is natively multilingual and has an object oriented content model to support multi-language and multi-region operation.
Choosing A Translation Management System – before you kick off translation work, you’ll need a TMS to serve as a central repo and to orchestrate translation work.
Where Are We At? (A Quick Read On Localization Readiness)
Low Maturity : Most early stage and many growth stage companies have little prior experience with this and are learning on the job. They have not yet chosen platform and service provider vendors and often have tech debt to retire prior to localization. Most localization work is experimental and limited in scope. Most seed to series A companies fall into this category.
Key Priorities : Fix tech debt, get out of the user’s way, and commit to a TMS.
Mid Maturity : At this stage, a company has localized most user touch points and has decent systems and automations in place to support scaling to more languages. Series B to pre-IPO companies fall into this category.
Key priorities : Automate workflows and localize user touch points.
High Maturity : At this stage, a company is focused on expanding language coverage and maintaining the languages it already deployed. The focus is operational scaling and expanding go to market efforts. Companies in this category are usually post-IPO and have an established in-house localization or international experience team.
Key priorities : Focus on automation and operational scalability.
Case Studies
Built by a team that has designed localization systems at:
- Notion — Scaled to 10+ languages, with over 70% of revenue coming from outside the US
- Lyft — Supported the company’s first international launch and multilingual product experience
- Medium — Enabled multilingual publishing and global audience growth
See our Case Studies and our Knowledge Base for engineering, product and go-to-market teams.
Get In Touch
If something you read here applies to your situation, I’m happy to talk through it. Most conversations start with a quick overview of where you are and what you’re trying to accomplish.