CASE STUDIES
Creating Order from Chaos: Rubric Streamlines SharkNinja’s App Localization
August 22, 2024
Having started out as a pioneer in small household appliances, SharkNinja has established itself as a leading design and technology company with a portfolio of global brands. From Shark vacuum cleaners and hair stylers to Ninja kitchen appliances, the company’s engineers are constantly innovating with high-performing products that customers love and trust.
With its global headquarters in Needham, Massachusetts, SharkNinja has offices across Europe and Asia and its products are distributed worldwide.
Bringing the SharkClean app to new markets
One area of focus for SharkNinja is robotics, and the Internet of Things (IoT)—physical devices that connect to the internet. IoT brings specific challenges for localization, requiring rapid and consistent translations to keep up with evolving technology and to ensure connectivity across devices.
Shark’s robot vacuum connects to the SharkClean app. The app was initially only available in the US, Canada, and a handful of EU countries. However, the company had ambitious plans for international expansion, and partnered with Rubric to localize its app for new markets in Europe, the Middle East, South America, and Asia Pacific.
Phoebe Zhang, Program Manager for Robotics, tells us:
“At SharkNinja we really value customer experience. International expansion is a huge effort for us, and Rubric is a solid partner in trying to localize all of our apps for different markets.”
Enabling customers worldwide to benefit from the SharkClean app was key to SharkNinja’s expansion strategy.
The challenge: A tangled pipeline leads to confusion and delays
Phoebe explains that when her team started working with Rubric, they had little experience of localization. International expansion hadn’t been a priority for them, and they didn’t yet appreciate its full complexity:
“Rubric wanted to put more process and structure around it, and in the beginning I pushed back because it felt like overkill. It wasn’t really that much work, and we were just managing things by email.”
Phoebe Zhang
Program Manager for Robotics at SharkNinja
However, as the project gathered pace, this approach became unsustainable.
SharkNinja prides itself on constantly iterating and evolving, but the lack of structure around localization was causing significant challenges. Inconsistent naming conventions meant we sometimes received the wrong files, and we also faced issues with files being updated during the translation process, leading to inaccuracies, confusion, and delays.
Julia Hill, Program Manager at Rubric, recalls there were always emails flying back and forth in an effort to resolve issues:
“There was a lot of noise and a feeling of chaos.”
As well as being inefficient, the lack of a consistent pipeline prevented us from making best use of our own tools. More processes had to be done manually, adding further delays and increasing the risk of errors and inconsistencies.
The solution: Hand the keys to Rubric for a smoother ride
Fortunately, we built a strong working relationship with Phoebe and her team, cemented when we visited them in person in the US. Building genuine connections with our clients is so important to us at Rubric, and we make every effort to meet clients face to face for open conversations. Having built up that trust—and drawing on our decades of experience managing complex software localization projects—we were able to convince the SharkClean team that a more structured approach would benefit everyone.
The gamechanger for Rubric was being granted access to SharkClean’s content repository. This allows us to build an asset-based picture of how resources are evolving in real time, as well as allowing us to automate both the pull/push process and regression and validation checks.
It also enables us to make use of our machine translation (MT) top-up tools (where we use a temporary MT for new content added during the translation window) which means we can eliminate merge conflicts and minimize code freezes and developer downtime.
We also made localization-readiness and administrative recommendations which the SharkClean team readily took on board. These included using a clear directory structure and consistent file-naming conventions, and taking steps to improve their source code for easier localization. Additionally, we found ways to ensure that financial admin does not affect our on-time project delivery. These adjustments have enabled us to reduce manual interventions and use our own tools more efficiently, leading to shorter turnaround times (TAT).
Ensuring the delivery of high quality localized code on-time, every time
To ensure the localized content is of the highest possible quality we automated quality assurance checks using our highly customizable RubricCatcher tool. This analyzes content, highlights anomalies and changes, checks for content validation and improves consistency, resulting in more accurate translations.
Of course, we also have our linguists to thank for our high levels of translation accuracy. Rubric’s policy of allocating a consistent team of translators to each client means they can develop product knowledge, build trust with the client, and feel empowered to ask questions or make suggestions to improve the customer experience.
A partnership built on trust
Phoebe works closely with her dedicated Project Manager at Rubric, Rebecca Clinton: the two are in near-daily contact and have regular check-ins to discuss progress and upcoming work. This supports effective planning and means everyone knows what to expect.
“The new process has reduced a lot of the noise and cut delays and turnaround times. Things are very structured with no surprises.”
Phoebe sums it up:
“Moving to Rubric’s process changed everything. It eliminated the confusion and chaos, and since then it’s been really smooth and efficient.”
Phoebe Zhang
Program Manager for Robotics at SharkNinja
Managing a program as complex and fast-moving as robotics means Phoebe really appreciates the certainty Rubric provide around localization:
“It’s often challenging trying to get all the pieces together to produce a schedule. But thanks to this process and our solid relationship, we can confidently put in Rubric’s expectations as a solid data point. There are so many unknowns, but localization is no longer one of them!”
We’re proud of the positive impact we’ve been able to make at SharkNinja, orchestrating a streamlined workflow that delivers high-quality translations while eliminating waste. And it’s our solid partnership that has made it all possible. Phoebe and her team trust Rubric’s expertise and know that we’re all working towards the same goal: delivering an outstanding customer experience.
“We see Rubric as an extension of our team—not a vendor or contractor relationship but a true partnership. And Rebecca personally has been great. We’re so happy with them, it’s a no-brainer to keep working with Rubric as we expand internationally.”
If you’d like a localization partner to act as a critical friend—not just another vendor—get in touch. No matter how complex your software, Rubric can help your continuous release cycle run smoothly.