The Importance of Project Managers in the Translation Process
The demand for professional project managers is rising every year. Statistics show companies worldwide plan to hire nearly 88 million people in project management by 2027.
That’s because project managers are professionally equipped to handle significant tasks. From planning to execution, their management skills can help streamline processes easily. Additionally, they ensure the success of your translation content through their expertise.
The importance of expert project managers within the translation services industry cannot be overstated. An experienced project translation manager is key in the translation process, from understanding the initial content to ensuring that the translation is accurate and carefully localised for the target audience and market.
Why Do You Need Content Translation Anyway?
Imagine you want to target a specific audience for your product. But unfortunately, your possible customers speak and understand a unique language. To overcome this barrier, you must translate your content into their language to help them understand your product.
Content translation not only helps your target market comprehend your services and products but also makes them feel cared for and seen.
In addition, expert translation services can help your business increase its reach, enhance user experiences, and build credibility. Content translation is also an effective way to retain current customers and welcome new ones, helping you with growth. You will need the assistance of a project manager to look after your translation at every step of the process. After all, they are the best professionals to cater to such tasks.
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What is the Role of a Translation Project Manager in the process?
A project manager hired for a translation project does much more than you expect. Here are some of the roles this individual plays.
Project Managers Plan and Build a Team
This is one of the most critical roles. When the project manager receives a translation project, they initiate the process by understanding its requirements, including content format, type, intended audience, word count and deadline.
Once that job is done, these managers move on to building an internal translation team. Their job at this stage is to choose the right experts for your translation project.
They Connect Clients with the Translation Experts
A project manager is responsible for connecting you with the right translation team to ensure smooth sailing. Translation service providers usually have translators, proofreaders, transcreation experts and graphic designers on their teams.
A client may find it difficult to pick the right person to communicate any changes in the project. However, with a project manager in the picture, it becomes easy to address any concerns or amend the original plan.
Project Managers Are Your Best Representatives
A project manager must carefully understand your project scope before communicating it to other professional translation service team members. When you share your requirements with them, project managers become your representatives, ensuring all your terms and conditions are met throughout the project’s journey.
How Project Managers Bring Out the Best in Translators and Proofreaders
A great project manager is key to ensuring the success of your translation project. One of their important roles is to coordinate the work between translators and proofreaders to maximise efficiency and quality.
Translators bring the text to life in the target language, carefully conveying the original message while adapting it to fit cultural and linguistic norms. On the other hand, proofreaders provide a fresh set of eyes to review the work, checking for any missed details, errors, or inconsistencies. By working as a team, they ensure the final product is not just accurate but also polished and professional.
A project manager ensures that both roles are clearly defined, and that translators and proofreaders can focus on what they do best. This approach allows proofreaders to review the translation with a fresh perspective, catching any potential issues without being influenced by the translation process.
This structured collaboration fosters a high standard of work while ensuring nothing gets overlooked. With a project manager overseeing the workflow, you can feel confident that every step is handled with care, delivering an accurate, seamless, and tailored translation to your audience.
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Project Managers Keep Translations on Track
Meeting deadlines is crucial for the success of any translation project, and project managers play a vital role in this process. They ensure that every task is completed on time and that the final project is delivered as scheduled.
To manage this, project managers often use time-tracking and project management tools to create clear schedules and monitor each team member’s progress. This helps them keep everything running smoothly and ensures everyone stays on track.
If a task, such as a translator’s work, is taking longer than expected, the project manager steps in to address the issue. They identify the cause of the delay and take the necessary actions to speed up the process without compromising quality.
By effectively managing timelines and workflows, project managers help ensure that translation projects are completed efficiently and delivered on time, which keeps clients happy.
These Experts Are Responsible for Documenting the Translated Results
Achieving successful translations goes beyond just translating words—it requires thorough and accurate documentation. While translators and proofreaders excel in their respective roles, documenting the translated content correctly often falls outside their expertise.
This is where project managers step in.
They create detailed guidelines, glossaries, and translation memories to standardise the process and maintain the quality of work. These tools ensure consistency across the project, keeping terminology and style uniform, especially in larger projects or when multiple team members are involved.
Project Managers Perform Work Evaluations
Once a translation service provider has completed a project, it may review it. However, there is always a possibility of error or room for improvement.
This is why many companies have internal project managers who analyse the work at the end and adjust as required. They often use their expertise and tools to improve the quality of work and make communication as transparent as possible.
When looking for a project manager for your translation requirements, look for the following attributes:
• Experience: Hiring an agency with some or extensive experience in managing translation projects is great. They won’t need extra training or guidance to start their job.
• Tech-savvy: A project manager can make a translation task efficient and effective with the help of multiple tools. Some management software is designed specifically for management tasks and helps automate the entire process, saving time.
• Communication: Choose a project manager with excellent communication skills so they can easily share your ideas or concerns with the professional translation service.
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Translation Project Managers in Their Own Words
Talking about what translation project management is and what it involves is one thing, but what better way to fully understand it than hearing it directly from someone who does this every day? Here at TS24, we have an excellent team of experienced project managers, and so we asked Matthew, who’s one of our own Translation Project Managers, to share in their own words what they think their role means, why it matters and what it really takes to ensure that translation projects run smoothly.
Matthew, our senior Translation Project Manager, said: “As a professional Translation Project Manager, my role is vital in ensuring seamless communication across languages and cultures. Here, at TS24, I act as the bridge between clients, linguists, and technical teams, ensuring projects are delivered on time, within the set budgets, and to the highest quality standards.”
“My responsibilities include analysing and understanding in-depth the project requirements, selecting the right translators and editors for the client’s specific needs, managing timelines, maintaining glossaries and style guides, and ensuring consistent terminology. I also oversee quality assurance processes and, together with the Account Management Team, handle client feedback.”
And added: “In short, I ensure that every translated message is accurate, culturally appropriate, and aligned with the client’s goals. My work impacts global brand consistency, legal compliance, and user experience. Without this coordination, multilingual projects risk delays, errors, and reputational damage. What I love most about my job is the constant collaboration across cultures, the satisfaction of solving complex challenges, and knowing my work helps global ideas reach people in a meaningful way. As TS24 works with some of the world’s leading brands, it’s a truly rewarding feeling seeing the translation you managed ‘come alive’ in the real world on billboards, product packaging or videos!”
Conclusion
Project managers are key to the success of translation projects. They handle important tasks like setting schedules, keeping the team on track, and documenting everything correctly.
By staying organised and focused, they help create accurate, consistent, and on-time translations.
With a project manager in charge, you can be confident that the final result will meet the highest standards.
About TS24 Translation Agency
Translation Services 24 (TS24) is the UK’s leading translation agency based in London with professional translators working in over 200 languages. We provide services to clients in all corporate and public industries and specialise in sector-specific linguistic solutions. With over a decade of experience in the industry, 15+ million words converted every year and 100,000+ projects completed, TS24 is a leading provider of expert translations and interpretation services and an officially certified member of the ATC. Contact TS24 here. You can also read all of our recent articles here.
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