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White Paper Global Product Management Enterprise Software Localization

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
9 views

White Paper Global Product Management Enterprise Software Localization

-software-localization in a fully understandable formate

Uploaded by

najaco3163
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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world class product management

White Paper

Global Product Management


Enterprise Software Localization

www.productfocus.com Page 1 world class product management


Summary
For software product companies expanding
to other territories, the topic of localization
is critical. Yet the details of what localization
involves are often not well understood.
For example, the term localization is often
assumed to be synonymous with translation.

But, translation is just one aspect of


localization. A successfully localized product
will also have taken into account issues of
data representation, local business and legal
constraints, as well as cultural norms.

Even in a well-prepared organization that has


a fully-formed globalization team, much of
the responsibility for product localization falls
to the product manager. This paper describes
how localization impacts the product manager,
what they need to know, and provides a
checklist of key considerations for a successful
localization process.

Index What is localization?


Localization and the product manager
Page 3
Page 4
The whole or augmented product Page 5
Language Page 6
Data representation Page 7
Business and legal requirements Page 9
Culture and geopolitics Page 11
Roadmap for localization Page 13
Conclusion Page 14
Checklist Page 15

www.productfocus.com Page 2 world class product management


What is localization?
Users' expectations of enterprise software have changed over time – while users might once have been told
to 'just use it,' consumerization means these same users now have high expectations for the experience. Their
employers, your customers, recognize this fact. You will want to maximize the value they get from your product,
so it's in your interest to take localization of the product experience seriously. This means ensuring that the user
interacts in their own language, with data presented in a format familiar to them, and crucially, that aligns with
their cultural norms. So the software has to be 'localized.'

“The goal of localization should be that your product appears


to the user as though it had been designed in their country and
culture and not imported from elsewhere.”

There continues to be considerable debate around the correct use of several terms - localization, globalization,
and internationalization. Globalization is now most often used in the context of taking a whole business to the
global market or the more general sense of markets themselves becoming more global.

According to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the other two terms have the following meanings:

• Internationalization: the design and development of a product that is enabled for target audiences that
vary in culture, region, or language.
• Localization: the tailoring of a system to the individual cultural expectations of a specific target market
or group of individuals. Localization includes, but is not limited to, the translation of user-facing text and
messages.
The implication here is that the product first needs to be enabled for multiple markets (internationalization) and
then tailored specifically for each market (localization).

In this paper, we use the term localization to cover both activities for two reasons. First, the boundaries between
the two are somewhat blurred, and differentiating between them would appear to add no value. Secondly, as
we are only interested in the end goal, there seems no need to split them. And from a practical perspective, it
is very rare to be able to perform all of the internationalization tasks ahead of localization for any country, as we
shall see.

www.productfocus.com Page 3 world class product management


Localization and the product manager
So why should a product manager care about localization? Aren't we just talking about a set of requirements
no different from all the other requirements on the backlog? The answer is that many requirements related to
localization are tacit rather than explicit. In other words, they are intuitive, rooted in experience, and therefore
hard to communicate. For example, a global product manager wouldn't know that, in some countries, using
yellow colors for their user interface would be associated with pornography.

And if we agree that the product manager is ultimately responsible for the product that is delivered and its
adoption by users, then that product manager had better have a focus on localization.

This does not mean that product managers must know the specific requirements for every target market. What
they do need to understand are the areas to be considered, why they are important, and the need to engage
with local experts for the detail in each market.

Localization and the product


management framework
Most product managers work within
a framework that gives structure
to their role, such as the Product
Activities Framework from Product Strategic Product Activities
- working out what the right product is for the business
Focus. This outlines 20 different
product management activities that Analysis Giving Direction

should take place in any company with Market research Segmentation Product & portfolio strategy

products. Should localization become Customer research Propositions Vision & evangelising

the 21st activity? The answer is no - Competitive research Positioning Roadmaps

localization needs to be considered


Product performance Business cases Pricing

as a component of just about every


activity, whether it is Discovery,
Inbound Activities Outbound Activities
Competitive Analysis, Roadmapping, - helping the business to deliver the product - helping the business to sell the product

or Launching. Product discovery Launch

Requirements Product promotion

Product management Design & build Sales & marketing content

organization Operational readiness & trials Sales support

In an ideal environment, a company


will have a central globalization team
of cross-functional practitioners that Product Activities Framework
includes product management. This
group will make the big decisions
about the markets to be targeted and
ensure that all departments are aligned
concerning globalization. While this is
ideal, it's not the norm. A common scenario is that the sales organization decides to target a new growth market
or identifies a specific opportunity, such as an existing customer wanting to broaden their use of a product
into more of the markets in which they operate. In both cases, the product team is reacting rather than being
proactive with their preparations for localization.

Whether or not market entry is planned in advance or not, the job of localizing the product lands with the
Product Management team. So how should that team organize for localization?

All product managers should be knowledgeable about localization in general if relevant for their product.
And, when driving the development of their component of the product portfolio, the product manager
should have localization in mind so it does not become an afterthought. But then, for specific
markets, it makes sense to have product managers focused on those markets (often alongside their other
responsibilities). They will need to build a tight relationship with in-region resources such as the local sales
and services teams, partners, and customers, to understand the local requirements.

www.productfocus.com Page 4 world class product management


The whole or augmented product
It is often the case that a customer doesn't take a single Enterprise Software Product. They take that core
product alongside various product options, product integrations, and additional services. This can be termed
the whole or augmented product.

Where this is the case, the product manager needs to consider both the core product and all of the additional
elements that make up the whole or augmented product valued by the client. Are all these elements, e.g.,
integrated products, third-party products, professional services, and support teams, as well as marketing
collateral, proposal capabilities, documentation, training, implementation services, support capability, etc.,
available in all target markets?

Typically the product manager is not responsible for much of this, but without it, your product has a much lower
chance of success in new markets, and so it is in the product manager's best interest to work with stakeholders
both internally and externally to ensure a wholly localized product.

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www.productfocus.com Page 5 world class product management


Language
“If I am selling to you, I speak
Choice of language
your language. If I am buying,
The first thing that comes to mind when considering dann müssen sie Deutsch
localization is language. For truly global products, it sprechen.”
is likely that products must support more than the
traditional handful of mainstream languages such - Willy Brandt
as English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese, and
Japanese.

Many languages also have variants – think of American English vs. English as used in the UK, Spanish spoken
in South America vs that spoken in Spain, or the French of France vs. that spoken in Quebec.

Language representation
Language is represented through its character set,
and it is irritating when a supposedly multilingual
product fails to properly support the accents or
additional letters of a particular language, such as
the German ß, French é, or Greek α. To facilitate this,
products should be built using the Unicode standard
for encoding. Any software written recently should
do so, but if you have any legacy code, beware.

Directionality
Another topic related to language that you should be aware of is directionality. In English and most languages,
we read and write from left to right across the page. But a few languages, such as Arabic and Hebrew, are written
from right to left. Unless your product was built to support this capability originally, it is very difficult to retrofit and
will probably involve a redesign of your user interface. It is not as simple as mirroring the entire UI – for example,
some icons are reversed (like those indicating direction) while others are not (i.e., a clock, since clocks go clockwise
all over the world). And some text elements – such as a URL – will always display left to right.

Collation
The collation of data also introduces complexity. In English, having just 26 letters, the concept of alphabetical order
is very simple. But as soon as you start introducing accented characters, life gets more complicated with different
languages having different rules. For example, in German, the letter Ä is treated as a regular A when sorting, while
in Swedish, it is placed at the end of the alphabet. And when dealing with non-alphabetical languages (so-called
ideographic languages such as Chinese), the rules get more complex. If your product always relies on collation,
with support from the underlying tools such as the database or browser, you will probably not go far wrong. But
if your developers have implemented their own sort or comparison routines, they will likely have to be changed.

Text length
English is a fairly compact language, and so when translated into other Language Ratio

languages, the text will typically take up more room. This can cause problems, English 1.0
for example, with text displayed on buttons. The table to the right shows the
Korean 0.8
relative densities of various languages as a ratio.
Japanese 1.2
Translation Portuguese 2.6

Translation is a topic on its own and has spawned a huge industry of people
French 2.6
and technologies to handle it. Before making a choice on which to use,
ensure that all of the above topics are considered. German 2.8

Italian 3.0

www.productfocus.com Page 6 world class product management


Data representation
The second most common concept in localization after language is data representation, including
dates and times, numbers, names, addresses, etc. Often the tools used to build our products (operating
systems, databases, programming languages, web browsers) take care of this. However, the author
was once at a software demonstration to a British audience of a product built in the US. It did use locales
and was configured to use UK-style dates – day then month. But there was one date field on one screen shown
in the middle of the demo, where the developer had overridden the format and hard-coded a US-style date –
month then day. At that moment, the potential sale was lost – the prospect, unfairly perhaps, concluded that if
the vendor could not get date formats correct, how would the functionality stand up in the UK.

Some of the more important topics are:

Dates and times


There are many ways of writing a date, including the order of the day, month, and year; whether the month
is written out (fully or abbreviated) or represented by a number; the symbol used to separate the parts. In
the United States, the convention is to use the sequence month-day-year, whereas just about everywhere
else uses day-month-year. In general communication, you should spell out the month to avoid confusion, but
when displaying numeric dates, it is important to use the format that the user expects. The map below shows the
variation around the world – blues and greens usually put the day before the month while the red does things
the other way around. Interestingly the most logical format – year-month-day (since it makes sorting easier) is
used only in China and some other eastern countries, as represented in yellow on the map.

When abbreviating the names of the months of


the year, in English, we use three letters. But in
some languages (such as French), the first three
letters of the names of months are not unique,
and so more letters are used, which means that
more space will be required on the screen.

Also, Westerners tend to assume that everyone


uses the Gregorian calendar, but some
applications may need to use others, such as the
Islamic, Hebrew, or Solar Hijri calendars.

The most common variation when specifying


time is between the 24-hour clock (known as
military time in the US) and the 12-hour clock –
the latter typically requiring an am/pm (in the
local language, of course) suffix. The hours and
minutes may be separated by a colon, a period, a
letter (H, or the abbreviation for hour in the local
language), or not separated at all.

Numbers Multiple formats used Usually put the day


before the month
Most countries use the so-called Arabic numerals Usually put the day Usually put the month
before the month before the day
(0, 1, 2, etc.) to represent numbers. But the decimal The format is year then Usually put the day
point may be represented by a period (full stop) or month then day (YMD) before the month
a comma, and for ease of reading, the digits are
usually grouped in threes where the groups
could be separated by spaces or commas. There
are other number systems in use, such as Hindi Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_format_by_country
and Japanese.

www.productfocus.com Page 7 world class product management


Addresses and personal names
Most countries have a conventional way of writing an address - whether that is a personal address or a business
address. Complying with that convention is often a requirement if using the address for mailing purposes. Using
the office addresses of a major global software company, here are three examples. Notice the different order
of items on each line:

Germany: US: France:


Dietmar-Hopp-Allee 16 3999 West Chester Pike 35 rue d'Alsace 92300
69190 Walldorf Newtown Square, PA 19073 Levallois-Perret

The order in which personal names are written also varies. Here in the West, we tend to use the terms first name
and last name, which refer to their normal position in our culture. Better terms from a localization perspective
are given name and family name, and they should be placed on the screen in the order appropriate to the
location. Recently it was reported that one of the reasons that a major food delivery app was not well received
in Japan was that the app's UI had simply been translated, and the order of name and address fields was
confusing for local users.

Time zones
Time zones can present particular problems when
localizing. There are two challenges here. First,
handling dates and times that are entered and
displayed in local time zones – the classic example
being airline solutions where a plane can quite
legitimately land before it has taken off when
expressed in local time. And secondly, there is no
standard list of time zone abbreviations that you
can use. Common abbreviations such as CST have
different meanings in different parts of the world,
for example, Central Standard Time, China Standard
Time, or Cuba Standard Time. And then throw in
Daylight Saving Time (DST) for good measure!
A curious DST anomaly occurs within the continental
US, where the State of Arizona does not use
Daylight Saving, except within the Najavo Nation. As
a further twist, the Hopi Reservation is surrounded
by the Najavo Nation but does not use DST. So
a relatively short drive through this area can involve
four time zone changes!

Other
Many other business entities have different representations around the world. One example is paper sizes – a
global application will need to support both the international 'A' standard as well as US letter and legal sizes.
Another example is units of measure – while the metric system is in common use in most countries, there are
exceptions, such as in Burma, Liberia, and the US. A third example is telephone numbers, which, although
interpreted by the telephone network as a string of digits, are usually grouped according to local custom.

(US: nnn-nnn-nnnn France: nn-nn-nn-nn UK: 0nnnn nnnnnn)

www.productfocus.com Page 8 world class product management


Business and legal requirements
Despite the globalization of business over the past 50 years, every country remains unique with its own legal
rules and business practices. Often, at large multi-national companies, the head office (who frequently selects
solutions) believes they can implement common business processes globally for consistency and efficiency.
But the reality is that in most situations, local laws or established business practices must be adhered to, so any
solution must accommodate those local requirements.

“Local regulations v global standardization”

Security and privacy


Not a day passes without a news headline of a major cyber-attack, data breach, or concerns about data privacy.
Governments worldwide respond to these threats in different ways and impose different requirements. For
example, take the issue of where data is stored, processed, or from where it is accessed. It is a complex
subject with the terms data residency, data sovereignty, and data localization often confused. One of the
key benefits of the SaaS model of computing is data storage 'in the cloud' accessible from anywhere.
However, many jurisdictions are legislating for the hosting of personal, health, and financial data within the
country or region of the data subject, with restrictions on accessing it from elsewhere.

Many people will be aware of the long-running dispute between the US government and Microsoft over access
to emails stored on a server in Ireland. Under the US CLOUD Act, US law enforcement can compel US-based
companies to provide data stored on servers anywhere. This is very much in conflict with European data
protection rules if the data is about EU citizens. Until July of 2020, there was a mechanism known as the EU-US
Privacy Shield designed to mitigate the risks. But in that month, the European Court of Justice, in a case known
as Schrems II, found that the mechanism no longer provided a valid legal basis for data transfers from the EU
to the US. Now customers of US cloud service providers must themselves verify the data protection laws of the
recipient country, document the risk assessment, and confer with their own customers.

In late 2021, there was a news item about the lack of tracking information from container ships in and around
China which is adding to global supply chain challenges. The reason given was that those operating the
receiving stations on the Chinese coast are wary of the recently introduced Chinese data privacy laws, even
though no personal data is involved, and they are not passing on the data.

www.productfocus.com Page 9 world class product management


As a product manager, you do not need to be an expert in all of this, but as part of overseas expansion, you do
need to ensure that your Chief Security and Privacy Officer is fully engaged and be prepared for the possibility
that, for some countries, you may not be able to host your solution in the current locations.

Certification and compliance


For some types of products, in some markets, there may be a requirement for certification and/or compliance.
For example, to sell SaaS applications to US Federal Agencies, you must achieve FedRamp certification – a
process that costs several hundred thousand dollars – and involves a lot of effort. Trade restrictions may also
impact you, e.g., if your software uses strong encryption technology, it must not be sold in certain countries. And
if your solution includes a hardware component, there may be prohibitive import duties in some countries as
well as a requirement for certification by local authorities.

Names and trademarks


Your product probably already has a name – perhaps carefully chosen to convey your brand and value. But it
is likely either a word in your own language or what you think is a made-up word. Typically, you would not want
to translate the product name, but what does that word mean in other languages? Marketing literature contains
many tales of woe around global branding disasters due to naming issues. And a well-known example involved
the re-branding of Facebook's parent company to 'Meta.' Native speakers of various languages have pointed
out the unfortunate meanings of the word in their language.

You also need to check that the product name (and even your company name) has not already been trademarked
in your target countries for a similar product. For example, an Australian software house in business in the UK
for around seven years received notification from a very large telecommunications company that their company
name violated a trademark they held. The telecoms company's legal department was probably larger than the
entire software company, so they were forced to rename and re-brand the company – a very expensive and
time-consuming exercise.

“What does your product name sound like in


Arabic / Korean / French…”

www.productfocus.com Page 10 world class product management


Culture and geopolitics
The cultural aspects of localization can be challenging to get right but can have the largest impact on user
adoption. Our definition of localization suggests that the product must look and feel as though it had been
developed locally. But it is very easy to focus on hard business requirements rather than these softer cultural
aspects. Unfortunately, most aspects of culture are not documented or understood by outsiders, and without
care, it can be very easy to cause offense.

Let's look at some examples of the visual


components of a product that might impact
cultural acceptance.
PARIS TOKYO
Color NATIONAL INDICES TOPIX 1,946.40 -21.20

Color can have very different connotations AEX 713.34 +0.41% 日経平均 27,821.43 -205.82
around the world. For example, yellow is
BEL 20 4,068.16 -0.09% JPX日経400 17,557.08 -194.72
associated with good luck in Thailand but
東証REIT指数
with pornography in China. And where we CAC 40 6,406.89 -0.02% 2,003.04 +13.98

in the West use red and green to indicate ISEQ 20 1,430.29 +0.58% 日経平均VI 21.98 -0.39

negative and positive, respectively, in some PSI 20 5,228.38 +0.13% 金標準先物 7,594 +80
Eastern cultures, the roles of the two colors
OSEBX 1,092.54 -0.40% ドバイ原油先物 73,020 +600
are reversed, as you can see from these two
screenshots from the Paris and Tokyo stock
exchanges. You can see more interesting
examples in this blog post by Shutterstock.

And, apologies if you're reading this in the UK and expect to see the spelling 'colour'. We've chosen to use
American English at Product Focus because a large proportion of our readers have English as a second language
and are more familiar with American English spelling. It would be nice to localize our content for every country,
but we've made the decision (rightly or wrongly) that the cost to do this is too high.

Symbols and icons


One trick that has been used to simplify localization is to use symbols or icons rather than words because they
are more widely understood and do not need to be translated. A lot of work has been undertaken trying to
develop 'universal' icons that are acceptable in any cultural setting. There are two dangers in this. First, the icon
can be so generic that it does not have a strong meaning in any setting. And second, believing that the resulting
icon is truly universal, without thinking, you may stumble across a culture where it is not acceptable. Here are a
few guidelines for using icons:

• Avoid using any graphics that use body parts – for example, the thumbs-up sign commonly used in the
West has a very different meaning in West Africa and the Middle East.
• The use of animals is to be discouraged as they often represent very different ideas in different cultures.
For example, a British company might use an Owl to represent learning, but the Owl depicts stupidity
in some parts of Asia.
• Always avoid religious symbols – this is why the Red Cross is known as the Red Crescent in many parts
of the world, even though the origin of the Red Cross symbol is not a religious one but a reversal of the
colors in the Swiss Flag in tribute to the founder of what became the Red Cross movement.
• Some icons could also be considered time-sensitive in that younger people may not recognize the
meaning as they originated in technology that no longer exists or is fast disappearing. Two good
examples are the Save and Mail icons in common use today.

Save Mail

www.productfocus.com Page 11 world class product management


Geopolitics
Geopolitics is another source of potential challenges that can impact a user's perception of your solution.

For example, consider the widely used drop-down that lists countries. There is no definitive list of countries
agreed on by everyone. The most commonly cited number is 195, made up of the 193 UN member states
plus 2 observer states – the Holy See and Palestine. But that does not include either Taiwan or Kosovo, for
example, which are not recognized by the UN (having been vetoed) or Greenland or Hong Kong, which are
self-governing territories within other countries. You may have to use your own list, taking into account your
specific circumstances. For example, most online retailers do not include embargoed states such as Cuba, Iran,
and North Korea.

Aside from the list of names, it's also important to ensure country names are provided in the relevant language
of a multilingual user interface.

Second, but in the same vein, using maps can get you into trouble, as happened during the 2020
Olympic Games in Tokyo. The American broadcaster NBC displayed a map of China as part of its
coverage of the games. They received a formal complaint from the Chinese authorities because the map
did not include either Taiwan or the South China Sea, both of which China claims as part of their country.
In a further twist, it was announced that Netflix had removed two episodes of its drama Pine Gap in the Philippines
at the request of the government there because they included scenes showing a map that did include the
contested Chinese territory.

www.productfocus.com Page 12 world class product management


Roadmap for localization
If you are new to localization, then the breadth of topics covered in this paper may seem daunting. Do not be
scared off by all of the localization challenges!

Here is some advice for product managers who are given the opportunity to take their product to international
markets.

If you are in the fortunate position of being the initial product manager when your product is first developed
and launched, then you have the opportunity to build a product that is world-ready from the start by ensuring
that the 'internationalization' aspects of localization are incorporated into the first release. However, you
are likely to be under pressure to launch in your home market as fast as possible, and the additional cost
and time involved in complete internationalization are unlikely to be approved. But that does not mean that
you should ignore them. Ensuring that all team members are aware of localization issues can prevent some
costly mistakes at this early stage of product development.

Most product managers come to


localization once the product has
already proved a success in at least
one market and may not have been
involved in the initial launch. As soon
as you are asked to expand the reach
of the product to new markets, you
need to assess your current status by
undertaking a Localization Readiness
Assessment. The checklist on page
15 contains some of the key points to
consider. If this is your first localization
assignment, you may also consider
engaging with a localization consultant
to provide an independent view.

It is never too early to engage with local


resources, whether customers, potential
customers, or partners. These are the
people that will provide insights into
the specific requirements of the local
markets, and until you have a handle on
those requirements (be they functional,
legal, or cultural), you cannot begin to
scope out a plan.

Then you must build your plan. While it should be integrated with other aspects of your product plan, it is worth
being able to easily pull out all of the components related to localization, perhaps separated by target market.

Localization can be an expensive process, particularly if you have a significant amount of technical debt to be
cleared. And senior management may not be expecting this cost and effort. After all, your product has been very
successful in your home market, so surely all that you need to do is to translate it? Be prepared to put forward a
robust cost justification as part of your plan.

www.productfocus.com Page 13 world class product management


Conclusion
Localization has become much more important as the use of enterprise applications has spread from
managers and administrators to end-users at the same time as more and more applications are being deployed
globally. As the product manager, much of the responsibility for localization falls on your shoulders. But
that responsibility does not extend to being an expert on the specific business, legal, and cultural requirements
of every market. That detail needs to come from local resources, be they customers, partners, or your own
teams based in those markets. You need to understand the four key areas of localization:

Culture & the user experience Languages and scripts


Culture and
Colors, icons, symbols
geopolitics Language Text representation
Geopolitics Translation

Enterprise Product
Localization

Security and privacy


Local business requirements Legal and Data Dates, time and numbers
Certification/compliance business representation Business entities
EcoSystem

The importance of local resources


To be successful in localization, it is essential that the product team works with local, native resources in
the target markets. Ideally, those resources should have a 'product' mindset able to identify and prioritize
those tacit requirements. In a perfect world, you might have local in-country product managers on your team,
but if not, then you should build close relationships with product folk within local systems integrators and
(if applicable) resellers. They will probably have real-world experience of some of the tacit requirements, such
as cultural norms that are less likely to be expressed by customers yet are so important. Finally, it is always
worth cultivating your network of fellow product managers and product marketers who may be able to
offer advice.

References
Most existing books on software localization are aimed at developers and are now rather old (pre-Unicode,
for example). However, the books on page 16, while of a more general nature, will be of interest to product
managers.

About the Author


Dave Barker is a veteran of the global enterprise software world with over 40 years' experience, much of it
focused on building, selling, and implementing global products and projects. He is based in the UK but lived and
worked in the US for five years and has undertaken projects in over 30 countries. He now offers consulting for
product managers facing the localization challenge.

www.productfocus.com Page 14 world class product management


Checklist
Localization experience
• Which countries will you target, including those where you already have customers/implementations?
• If you have already implemented in countries beyond your home base, what has been the experience?
• Were the projects successful? What have you learned?

Language
• Which additional languages will you need to support? And which variants?
• Was the product built with translation in mind?
• Does the product support Unicode throughout its architecture?
• Can it support right to left languages such as Hebrew and Arabic (if applicable)?
• Has all text been externalized to support translation?

Data representation
• Does the product support the concept of locale?
• Do all dates, times, numbers, etc., when displayed, use the locale?
• Do you have time zone support, including handling of daylight saving?
• Can the UI be configured to accommodate name, address, etc., formats?

Data privacy and security


• Where is your software hosted?
• Does your solution hold personal, financial, or medical data?
• Have you engaged your Chief Security and Privacy Officer, and have they researched the applicable
laws in your target countries?
• Will you need to establish additional hosting locations?
• Will local data laws permit your existing support teams to access your customer's data when assisting
them?

Local requirements
• Do you have a local partner identified – reseller or systems integrator?
• Have you investigated local requirements? Either through partners, customers, or other research?
• Have you checked the meaning of your product's name in other languages? And not just using the usual
spelling – what other words does it sound like elsewhere?
• Have you checked for trademarks in other countries?

Culture and geopolitics


• Do you have access to native resources to advise on cultural aspects of localization in your target
markets?
• Given the cultural sensitivity of icons, symbols, and even colors, how configurable is your UI in these
areas?
• Have you considered any potential geopolitical issues given the particular countries you are targeting?

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References

[1] Truly Global: The Theory and Practice of Bringing Your Company
to International Markets by Anna Navarro Schlegel

[2] Business Beyond Borders: Take Your Company Global by


Cynthia Dearin

[3] Culture Map: Decoding How People Think Lead and Get Things
Done Across Cultures by Erin Meyer

[4] Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding Diversity in Global


Business by Fons Trompenaars

[5] Product Activities Framework

About Product Focus


Product Focus are global thought leaders in product management and
European leaders in product management/marketing training and consultancy
for technology-based products.

www.productfocus.com Page 16 world class product management


Learn best practice and
improve performance
with the European leaders

If you'd like to discuss product management


training, or how we can support your
product management function,
please contact us:

+44 (0) 207 099 5567

[email protected]

www.productfocus.com

www.productfocus.com
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worldclass product
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product management
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