Localization Leaders: Meet Payoneer’s Galyna Margolin

Corinne Sharabi

December 20 , 2023 · 5 min

For our last Localization Leaders interview of the year, we were joined by Galyna Margolin, Senior Localization Project Manager at Payoneer. Payoneer is a cross-border business payment platform, enabling entrepreneurs, freelancers, and business owners to pay and get paid around the world. Payoneer supports over 190 countries and 70 currencies.

Join us as Galyna shares how she entered the localization industry, the importance of localization for global finance companies, why localization managers need to be their own advocates, and more. Read the full interview, or watch the videocast below:

Can you start by telling us a little bit about your career path and how you became Payoneer’s Senior Localization Project Manager?

I came to Israel 12 years ago, and working at Payoneer was my first temporary job, which is important to mention. I was a customer support representative and my biggest superpower was being a German speaker – I was the only one at that time. And this is why I stayed on because I was irreplaceable, let’s say.

After a year and a half in customer support, I moved to the operations team and was doing something completely, completely different. Localization fell under the operations department, so I was watching the localization guy and thinking, “Oh, I think I like it.” Then the localization team grew to consist of three people and the main guy left. I was like, “Okay, that’s my chance.”

I asked my manager if I can try because I have a linguistical background – I studied German and English as a linguist. And again, I used to watch how the previous guy was localizing because I was interested. My manager gave me the chance to try, and now I’ve been leading the localization team for over five years already.

That’s amazing! What role would you say localization plays at Payoneer today? What do your team and department look like?

I think for any global business nowadays, localization is essential and crucial, especially for the ones that deal with money, which is extremely important. Sometimes you can see just how bad apps and websites can look in other languages without careful localization. It doesn’t happen a lot, but localization is extremely important.

One of our marketing managers, I think in Poland, he told me, “People are very suspicious and if the translation quality is not good enough, people will just not trust you with the money.”

I think it’s not just in Poland – I think it’s the case all over the world, which only proves that localization is essential and very important for our business.

Our team is still three people. One of us focuses more on operational content, while the other focuses more on marketing content. And I do a bit of everything while supervising and keeping track of everything that is going on.

As a localization team and department, it can be difficult to gain resources and recognition of value depending on the management that you work with. Do you have any tips for other localization managers that want to demonstrate the value of localization?

Yeah, it’s very important not to underestimate the value of localization. I can go to management and say that I’m very good and portray myself as important, but what I’m learning slowly is that the localization process is indeed very complex, and higher management is not even supposed to understand all those complexities. So it’s very important to explain: Why is localization so slow? Why is it so expensive?

Don’t take for granted that a higher-level manager is supposed to understand what is going on and the logic behind which languages should be prioritized or not. People are not so deep in their understanding of localization, and you need to understand that you are an expert.

Although you’re not a VP and maybe not even the manager, but you’re an expert in this field, and you need to speak up because otherwise, indeed, no one will likely know what is going on.

Absolutely, you serve as the representative expert and advocate for localization. What would you say is Payoneer’s greatest localization strength?

I would say it’s cooperation of internal teams. I know a lot of other companies do have a big department with all kinds of language speakers which make sure that “this, this, and this” language look good. This is not our case – we do not have a huge team and a representative for every key language.

So, we work in cooperation with internal teams around the globe because we have a number of international offices. We have teams in Japan, China, Latin America, and in Gibraltar.

The localization quality is in part a big success of all of us because those teams are cooperating, helping, and guiding us.

From your experiences, do you have any piece of advice that you’d like to share with other localization professionals, or perhaps someone that’s interested in entering the field just as you were?

Entering the field is not so easy because usually when you want to enter, you are already supposed to be experienced. If you’re interested in localization, maybe start with something nearby and then eventually, make your path to localization. It’s indeed a wonderful place to be.

Regarding those that are already in the localization field, I think my best advice would be to keep your eyes open in terms of technologies, because now it’s growing and becoming amazing.

And I’m not saying transfer everything to AI – no. But this is definitely something that shouldn’t be disregarded, current technologies and development of automation.

Thank you so much, Galyna. Let’s head into our rapid-fire questions.

What is your favorite language?

Français. This is the next language I’d like to learn.

What’s your favorite localization tool?

Collective minds.

What’s your favorite place that you’ve traveled to?

France.

And what’s the best localization advice you’ve ever received?

No one will tell you that you’re good because no one is paying attention to localization. People only notice it when it doesn’t go well. So, if you want everyone to see your talent, that is your own responsibility.

What would you say is your localization nightmare?

My localization nightmare would be translating something very specific. For example, we had a slogan saying, “And now lay back and relax, Payoneer will handle the rest.” In a couple of languages like Russian, it was translated in a very weird way. It really looked bad and didn’t make sense. I think translating these types of complicated slogans in a very short time period is a nightmare because we don’t have a way to review each and every language when the task is so urgent.

Who is your localization role model?

Whoever localized Apple.

Which brand is your localization crush?

Netflix.

Thank you so much, Galyna, for joining us and sharing your wisdom. It was really a pleasure speaking with you.

Corinne Sharabi

Corinne is the Social Media and Content Lead at BLEND. She is dedicated to keeping global business professionals up to date on all things localization, translation, language and culture.