Navigating the Complex Landscape of Product Localization: Insights from Atlassian’s Melanie Heighway

In today's global marketplace, successful product expansion requires more than just translation: it demands a deep understanding of cultural nuances, user expectations, and technological capabilities across diverse markets. Melanie Heighway, Head of Product Internationalization at Atlassian, brings valuable insights into this complex landscape, sharing strategies that have positioned her team at the forefront of the localization industry.

The Multifaceted Role of Product Internationalization

At Atlassian, Melanie oversees the adaptation of over 30 different products into more than 20 languages, a massive undertaking that goes far beyond simple translation. Her role involves collaboration with different teams across the business, from software engineers to UX designers, ensuring internationalization and localization best practices are followed from the early stages of the product development lifecycle.

In software development, "internationalization" (often shortened as "I18N") is the process of designing a software application so that it can be adapted to various languages and regions without engineering changes. On the other hand, “localization” (often shortened as "L10N") is the process of adapting internationalized software for a specific region or language by translating text and adding locale-specific components. In light of this, internationalization is a fundamental preliminary step of any localization effort, as the effectiveness and complexity of localization are greatly influenced by the degree to which the source code is internationalized. The more the native code was created with localization in mind, the easier it will be to localize and the less likely it will be to encounter problems down the line.

Melanie is not the first of our guests to highlight the importance of internationalization. Aglaia Pavlerou, Localization Manager at DICE, shared with us that, in her opinion, localization is about ensuring that every user feels the product was crafted just for them, and the only way this is possible on a large scale is to treat localization as a priority from the get-go, rather than an afterthought. The most effective way to do so (if not the only one) is to plan ahead, building a source code that is internationalized and therefore localization-ready by definition.

Common Misconceptions About Product Localization

Despite its critical importance for global business success, localization remains widely misunderstood. Melanie identifies three prevalent myths that can hinder effective global expansion:

Myth 1: Localization is Just Translation

One of the most pervasive myths is that the localization team is the only one responsible for international product experience. In reality, for a product to succeed globally, all teams involved in the product development lifecycle need to consider globalization from the start.

Myth 2: Translation Quality Issues Stem from the Localization Team

Another common misconception is that poor translation quality is solely a localization issue. However, Melanie points out that translation quality issues often arise from inadequate internationalization practices such as concatenation, hard coding, or failing to internationalize time and date settings.

Myth 3: All Markets Mirror the US Experience

There is also a tendency to assume that all international markets behave like the US market, which is simply not the case. Even among English-speaking markets, there are differences that need to be accounted for.

AI as a Localization Game-Changer

As we’ve already discussed with several localization experts, the impact of artificial intelligence on the localization industry is undeniable. However, as Morana Perić, Head of Localization at DeepL, told us in a recent episode of The Multilingual Content Podcast, while AI is a powerful tool, it’s important to apply it correctly and to the right tasks, as relying only on AI is not a magic recipe to solve all problems related to localization.

Melanie told us that Atlassian has also embraced artificial intelligence to transform its localization processes, creating efficiencies while maintaining quality. Here's how they did it:

Enhanced Context Gathering

One area where Atlassian is applying AI is in context gathering, to quickly and accurately provide translators with the context they need for short software strings.

"We use our own products, Confluence, Jira, and Bitbucket, and we're actually able to use powerful AI queries and prompts to obtain context, in a process that would have previously taken three times the amount of time it takes now," Melanie shares.

Rapid Issue Identification

AI is also helping Atlassian quickly identify the root cause of localization issues, such as errors in complex nested plurals, significantly reducing the time and effort needed to diagnose and resolve these issues.

Automated Developer Notes

Atlassian is also experimenting with using AI to parse developer strings and create individual developer notes with detailed context for translators.

The Human Element Remains Essential

Despite these impressive AI implementations, Melanie emphasizes that Atlassian considers AI as a tool to complement human expertise rather than replace it. They are deliberate about how they integrate AI into their workflows, primarily using it for gathering and providing information to translators, thus effectively making their job easier and their translations more accurate.

"We're very careful that if we use any AI translation workflows, we always have a human in the loop," Melanie notes. "We're also currently investing time into researching the performance of different LLMs for AI translation within language sets as well, just to keep up to date with how AI translation quality is tracking in our industry."

Testing and Stakeholder Alignment

While technology plays a crucial role in Atlassian's localization strategy, Melanie also highlights the importance of robust testing practices and strong stakeholder alignment.

Evolution of Testing Approaches

Atlassian's testing methodology has evolved over the years, moving from a more ad-hoc approach to regular "blitz" situations before feature or product releases. They involve the engineering team in both localized QA and English QA processes.

"It gives them more empathy for the localization issues as well and gives them more motivation to involve us in the QA," Melanie explains. "I can definitely say that's changed and improved, and I'm seeing more of these regular blitz situations for new features and products."

Balancing Investment Priorities

Justifying investment in localization requires a strategic and planned approach. It's important to quantify market opportunity, ensure robust data tracking processes, and align with stakeholders on realistic goals, as well as define what success looks like.

Both of these strategies applied by Atlassian highlight the importance of alignment and collaboration among different teams, which had been made crystal clear by Miguel Sepulveda, Globalization Director at King, in one of our blog posts where Miguel shared how other teams often have a very vague notion of the impact of localization, which leads to oversimplification and unrealistic expectations about localization timelines. On the other hand, involving localization teams at the early stages of product development can make internal stakeholders more aware of localization complexities, and therefore more responsive to internationalization initiatives, which in turn reduces localization issues down the line.

Strategic Planning for Global Success

For companies moving their first step on the globalization journey, Melanie offers two key pieces of advice:

• Internationalize your products from day one. This doesn’t mean you have to commit to localization straightaway, but that you will be ready when the time comes, which is much cheaper than retrofitting it later.

• Take the time to analyze market opportunity and local competitor offerings before committing to a localization effort. Make sure that the specific market is going to be beneficial for you and look at legal requirements and local regulations, which sometimes may be a blocker.

The Future of the Landscape of Product Localization

Looking ahead, Melanie is excited about accessibility developments in areas such as dubbing, subtitling, and captioning, as they are crucial for making content accessible to people with disabilities. Similar to what happens with different languages, these developments enable companies to reach a broader audience than ever before.

As Melanie's insights demonstrate, successful product localization requires a holistic approach that combines technological innovation with human expertise, strategic planning with tactical execution, and technical excellence with cultural sensitivity. By embracing this comprehensive view, companies can transform the landscape of product localization from a challenging requirement into a powerful driver of international success.

Get in touch if you want to find out more about how Undertow helps B2B SaaS companies develop and execute tailored localization strategies, and check our blog for more examples about how leading SaaS companies are leveraging localization to grow internationally.