It’s been one and a half month since I worked as a localization PM in CCJK. Here I just want to share with you guys some of my experience and summary about my job done during the past one and a half month, mainly about what PM should follow and realize according to my knowledge and understanding.

I would like to divide this summary into 4 parts and focus on the keyword “coordinate”.

Part I Coordinate with clients

i, PM should always follow his client’s desire and requirements and be responsible in translation/localization. There are 2 basic rules to follow: to ensure quality as well as to ensure delivery time. Sometimes we need to judge by ourselves which is more important according to clients need.

You should always observe your client’s priority in either maintaining a considerable quality or strictly obeying their time schedule. Because sometimes it’s really difficult to meet both needs. But one thing is certain, you are indeed the most important part in handling the whole project because you’ll be connecting all insiders. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE.

ii, Another thing is to try to understand his REAL NEED. For format, style and font issues, always try to get as many details to avoid troubles follow-up. For example, when translating an English source file to languages such as Hindi or Tamil, given that some fonts aren’t included in the Unicode font integrated into word system, display problem is likely to occur if the client doesn’t have that font installed on his PC.

Plus if the client DOES NOT WANT to additionally install any fonts in his/her computer, you’ll have to retype the text over again in fonts integrated in Unicode. That’ll be waste of time of both sides, plus language such as Hindi and Tamil cannot be simply converted into another one, in many cases the linguists will have to retype it over again so an unexpected additional part of salary is generated. That’s what I actually experienced so that’s why I really want to share this issue with you guys.

iii, The third is to always BE PATIENT to your client. It is true that we are proud and eager to get the so called “big orders”, and it’s easily for us to get really “mad” sometimes when our clients keep sending emails requiring us to do tiny updates or queries on the original translation.

You need to be really patient to handle these issues and be willing to solve out their problems Sometimes the clients can be REALLY IMPOLITE but that is definitely not the way you should treat your clients backwards. Always try to listen, try to accept and try to realize their requirements and need.

iv, The last point is to establish a friendly relationship with your client for long-term cooperation. You have different ways to do that. For example to introduce our advantages in handling certain languages such as Chinese and Asian languages, and also by the way let them know that we are also willing to be their trustful agent in many other languages. Also, try to collect their feedback or just simply write an email every few weeks (according to your own timetable) for kind greetings. Don’t let them forget you.

(To be continued)