How can other teams help production?

The most important thing you can do is:

Update your tasks/tickets with the current status!

Cool. What great advice! There isn’t anything else for me to say, right?! But seriously… Hopefully you’ve already heard that advice and you’re already doing your best on that front. The question asks for things that might get overlooked. So let’s take a deeper look.

General Advice

Let’s start with general advice for all teams and individuals. Mostly it’s about being proactive and getting on top of things before they become a problem and is particularly important for discipline leads.

1. 1. Early warning system. Call out when you’re about to finish work. Not when you’ve already finished it.
      • Even better: Look ahead a bit to check you know what you’re going to do next. Will you need more information from design or some other department before you start? If so, tell the producer so they can make sure the other team gives you that info either in a dedicated meeting, or a document or some other method.
      • And if you don’t know what you’re working on next, calling that out before you’re finished gives others time to line something up for you.
   2. Time Estimates on Tasks. Using a list of upcoming tasks or the backlog, put in time estimates. If you don’t know what to put, research past completion stats to get more information.
   3. Priorities check-in. List out what you think are your priorities for work. Post that list publicly so that everyone is on the same page. The producer will see this list and if priorities have changed they can let you know.
   4. Process audit. Explain your process for creating content. Maybe via a video, Miro, or text document. Share with others so they can understand what you’re up to and how your content is created. When a producer sees this, they might spot something that could be made more efficient and make your work easier.
      • As a side bonus it’s useful documentation for any new team members.
   5. Coordinate with other teams. Check in with other teams to see if they need anything from your team either now or in the future. If you’re likely to get many requests, setup a way for them to make requests of you and your team.

Advice for Localization People

Since this question was asked by someone who does localization. Here are some specifics for localization:

1. 1. Status Updates. I’ve already said this and it’s seems obvious. But it bears saying again since translators aren’t usually in standups, so it takes extra effort for you all to report issues and progress.
   2. Get to know the other translators. This only applies if the developer is hiring separate translators for each language.
      • Set up a group where you can all discuss questions about meaning within this game, so that you might reduce the need to ask the core team questions.
      • Nominate a spokesperson so that the producer doesn’t need to talk to all the individual translators.
   3. Read docs. Read available documentation to see if you have further questions before you even start. For example, have filenames been decided, how will updates be handled? Flag unanswered questions. Perhaps the existing documentation already answers your questions.
   4. List Risks. List out all the risks you can see right now or predict. This is most likely based on what you’ve seen on previous projects specific to your language. Share the list and check the producer is on top of them. For example, some risks might be:
      • fonts that need to cope with accents or other special characters.
      • consistent long (e.g. German) or short sentences (e.g. Simplified Chinese).
      • phrases that don’t translate well.
      • text that’s baked into the art that needs to be translated and art updated.

Conclusion

That’s all I’ve got for suggestions. It kinda boils down to being transparent and looking ahead for possible issues. Production is there to help you do your job even better. So let them know where you most need support.

Remember: This is general advice and it might not be right for you and your team, even if you’re the one who wrote in the question! For me to help better, it needs to be a dialog between me, and you, and your entire team. You can hire me to consult for you —> jennsand.com