Introduction:
Internationalizing your codebase is often seen as a hurdle—a tedious process that delays development timelines and complicates workflows. But the truth is, getting localization right can be the difference between a product that flounders in new markets and one that takes the world by storm.
For engineering leaders, I18N isn’t just about localization and translation; it’s about ensuring your product resonates with global audiences while maintaining seamless workflows for your team. Let’s break down the challenges and solutions so your team can build scalable translation processes that work—without slowing you down.
The Importance of Localization for Engineers
When expanding to international markets, the numbers speak for themselves:
75% of consumers prefer to buy from websites in their native language.
Companies that localize effectively are more likely to achieve faster growth in new regions.
Yet, many in leadership see I18N as a "nice-to-have" rather than a necessity. This mindset often leads to last-minute scrambles, technical debt, and missed opportunities for growth when opportunity arises in a new region that requires translation. By applying a few basic I18N principles to your development workflow, engineering leaders can help their teams unlock global scalability at a moment’s notice, and deliver localized user experiences— no matter where users are located.
The Top Localization Challenges Engineers Face
Hard-Coded Text Strings
The Issue: Developers often hard-code text into their applications, making it difficult to translate later.
The Impact: Reworking hard-coded text adds unnecessary complexity and time to development cycles.
Lack of Scalable Workflows
The Issue: Many development teams treat translation files like source code, which creates a bottleneck.
The Impact: Without a solid workflow, teams face missing translations, inconsistent localization, and immense frustration.
Treating Localization as a "Final Step"
The Issue: Localization is often left until the end of the development process.
The Impact: This approach creates bottlenecks, as teams scramble to fix compatibility issues or rework features.
How Engineering Leaders Can Solve These Challenges
Externalize All Strings
Avoid hard-coding by storing text strings in external files that can be easily updated and translated.
Instead: Get your team into the habit of placing content in a translation file instead of directly into the source code
Use tools like JSON or YAML for managing content outside of your application’s codebase.
Invest in Localization Tools
Platforms like Lokalise can simplify the process of managing translation files, enable collaboration from other teams, and automatically translate your source content.
These tools integrate directly with your codebase, ensuring translations stay up-to-date as your product evolves.
Embed Localization Habits Early
Treat localization as a core component of your development process, not an afterthought.
Use Agile sprints to incorporate localization tasks alongside feature development.
Train Your Team
Provide engineers with training on best practices for internationalization For example, I18N is built around human written language, and many of the principals are counter-intuitive to engineers. Training them on these common gotcha’s will allow them to write code for the first translated language, and be ready for the next expansion opportunity on the roadmap.
Resources like OnPurpose Studio | Internationalization Services offer video courses and tailored workshops to teach engineers common I18N principals, how to architect with locales in mind, and ways to integration translation into their CI/CD pipelines.
Case Studies: Learning from the Best
Slack: From Day 1, Slack prioritized internationalization, allowing them to quickly scale to global markets without overhauling their code.
Airbnb: By investing in robust localization workflows, Airbnb made their platform accessible to millions of users worldwide, ensuring seamless experiences across languages and cultures.
Dropbox: Leveraging automation and integration tools, Dropbox simplified the process of managing translations, ensuring rapid rollout of localized products.
Join Us to Learn More
Ready to make localization a seamless part of your development process? Aaron Presley, CTO of OnPurpose Studio, will be presenting at two exclusive workshops this February:
LokaLIVE San Francisco (Feb 13)
DevWorld Amsterdam (Feb 27-28)
Aaron will share actionable strategies to:
Build scalable localization workflows.
Avoid common engineering pitfalls.
Deliver exceptional user experiences in global markets.
Don’t miss your chance to learn from a leader who’s been in the trenches of product development.
Conclusion
Internationalizing your codebase doesn’t have to be scary. With the right tools, processes, and training, your engineering team can build a scalable, efficient localization system that empowers your product to thrive globally.