How to Right-Size Translation Quality Based On Business Risk
Getting translation quality levels right can be tricky. How do you make sure that each type of content gets the level of care that it needs? You don't want to overspend, but you don't want to put your business objectives at risk either.
You've got many different options for creating multilingual content—human translation, machine translation (MT) and multilingual AI. Each one comes in various pricing and quality levels. How do you choose the right match for each type of content?
“One Size Fits All” Doesn’t Cut It
Clients often rely on their gut feeling and make a “one size fits all”-type of decision. For instance, some might flat out refuse to consider machine translation. Others might be so excited about technology that they want to use AI to create all of their multilingual documentation. But usually, they can’t give sound reasons for those convictions.
We recommend a better approach. Stop guessing, and start using an easy, structured model for right-sizing translation quality based on the business risk associated with each type of content.
Different Content Means Different Quality Requirements
Different types of content are associated with different levels of risk to your organization. Airplane safety manuals: high risk. A mobile app that let you put cat ears on your social media profile picture: maybe not so high. Instructions for a consumer appliance: somewhere in between.
We recommend aligning translation quality and process requirements with this risk level. Higher risk means more stringent processes; lower risk means that less mature processes and methods are acceptable.
Assessing Cost Risk
To assess risk, start with this question: What is the total monetary risk to your organization if quality issues are introduced during the translation process?
Make sure to consider all applicable types of cost, including damages, lost revenue, reputational damage, rework, hidden overhead and opportunity cost. (See our article on Total Cost of Translation for some pointers.)
Based on the outcome, classify the content as high, moderate, or low risk as follows:
- High risk means that errors have inacceptable consequences. Examples might include safety-related materials in high-risk applications, software UI in enterprise applications, or highly visible PR content.
- Moderate risk means that errors are undesirable, but the effort involved with high-risk content isn’t warranted. This might apply to everyday, low-risk consumer products and associated documentation, or blog posts and articles of limited importance.
- Low risk means that errors won’t have material consequences. This includes content that for some reason must be created, but that nobody will ever read (we bet you’ll find examples for this in your own organization), or content with a very short lifespan, such as online ads that are generated in dozens of variations, then automatically discarded if performance is too low.
Then use appropriate translation methods and processes for each type of content according to the following guidelines.
Guidelines for High-Risk Content
For high-risk content, we still see expert human translation as the only viable option. You’ll need to work with premium-level translation agencies (which excludes most of the biggest players) to find translators with demonstrated experience in your line of business as well as the type of content. Don’t rely exclusively on agencies to select translators, but screen and vet candidates yourself. Depending on your business needs, translators may require some sort of integration with your internal processes and teams for best results. Make sure that all required guidelines and context information is available directly in the translation environment. Finally, be prepared to pay for professionals.
Alternatively, if you have suitable long-term resources, consider creating local-language content in-house.
Guidelines for Moderate-Risk Content
Moderate-risk content calls for standard human translation, or machine translation (MT) with post-editing. Any decent translation agency can handle the entire process, including vetting resources, monitoring quality, enforcing your style guides etc.
Translation technology is rapidly making inroads into this segment, with potential for big savings. Therefore, for each target language, periodically evaluate whether fully automated MT has progressed sufficiently to take over.
Guidelines for Low-Risk Content
For low-risk content, your main risk is overspending. Therefore, we recommend to exclusively use machine translation (MT) and AI, or MT with post-editing if MT/AI alone aren’t good enough.
For each target language, evaluate whether you can use automated MT for translation, or whether multilingual AI can directly generate target-language content of sufficient quality. If yes, use those options. If no, use MT with post-editing; any decent agency will be adequate.
Done!
By selecting the right translation methods and processes for each risk level, you avoid overspending on quality you don’t need, and you can be sure that your translation process isn’t creating inacceptable risks to your organization.
If you've got questions on any of this, send us a message or request a free consultation on translation strategy & processes. Our consultations come with our unique $100 guarantee: If we're wasting your time, we'll give you a $100 gift card or make a $100 donation to a cause that matters to you. (Terms and conditions apply.) Thanks for reading, and see you again next time!
Get Your Free Consultation
