Welcome to “Building Localization from Scratch”, the series where we speak to founding localization leaders about what it really takes to build localization departments from the ground up.
Interview number eight is with Mercedes Krimme, Head of International Experience team at Notion, an AI workspace that enables users to build custom agents, search across apps, and automate busywork.
Before joining Notion two years ago, Mercedes had already built a diverse career; starting out as a freelance translator, then working as a Program Manager at Meta (formerly Facebook), and later leading Product Localization at Spotify. Her trajectory has given her a front-row seat to a variety of localization programs at very different stages of maturity.
From maturity to rebuild
Interestingly, the localization programs Mercedes has worked on have become less mature as she’s progressed in her career.
Meta was about as mature as it gets: available in over 100 languages, with a large localization engineering team, an in-house language management team, and billions of monthly active users.
At Spotify, it was smaller with fewer languages, but rapidly evolving. By the time she left, it supported almost 70 languages and had expanded into new content types, such as podcasts and audio, which brought added complexity around metadata, tagging, and recommendation systems.
Now at Notion, she works across a wide range of content, like marketing, video subtitling, synthetic voice, and AI, within a program that required significant rebuilding. Despite some infrastructure being in place at the beginning, she quickly realized it wouldn’t scale.
💡“I immediately wanted to rip some stuff apart and make it faster and better.”
Unlike in her previous roles, she had the autonomy to make those changes and used it to ultimately replace much of the existing infrastructure to better support growth.
From “Localization” to “International Experience”
About a year ago, the Localization team at Notion rebranded to International Experience.
The shift better reflected the reality of their work. The team wasn’t just translating content; they were directly contributing to product growth through A/B testing, revenue metrics like Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR), and overall user experience across markets.
This mirrors a wider industry trend Mercedes has observed over her career: localization is becoming increasingly strategic.
Localization tied to business growth goals
Mercedes joined Notion at a pivotal moment, as the localization team had recently moved from marketing into product, under growth.
The goal was clear: drive user and revenue growth through international expansion, with new languages as a key lever.
Since then, the team has launched eight new languages and established a repeatable pattern of growth tied to those expansions. Success is measured through metrics like weekly and monthly active users, as well as ARR.
One standout example which Mercedes worked on is the launch of right-to-left (RTL) support, including Arabic and Hebrew.
It wasn’t easy.
💡“It was a labour of love… it took a long time to get off the ground.”
But the payoff was significant: strong user growth and access to entirely new markets.
While she doesn’t operate under rigid growth quotas, expectations are clear. The team monitors performance closely and investigates any slowdowns through user research and product collaboration.
💡“We generally know the growth we want to see, and we monitor that.”
This flexible approach and space to experiment are two of the things Mercedes enjoys about working for a startup.
Fixing for scale
Scalability was a top priority when Mercedes joined. At the time, the program relied heavily on a network of freelance linguists. This meant much of her time was spent on vendor management rather than strategic work.
Transitioning to a model supported by language service providers freed up internal bandwidth and made it easier to scale as new languages were added.
To mitigate potential quality risks caused by this shift, Mercedes brought in a dedicated Quality Manager.
💡“It’s all about balance. If you’re going to remove something that might make the quality lower, then you have to add a different solution to make sure the quality stays high.”
The result: a program that scales efficiently without compromising quality, with a team that has more time to focus on higher-impact work.
The importance of looking to peers for support
Mercedes emphasizes the value of the localization community. Networking with industry peers helps her validate decisions, understand others’ experiences with tools and setups, and compare approaches.
💡“So many people in our industry have done it before. How much do you want to reinvent the wheel vs. get good advice from other people and learn from them?”
Choosing a TMS solution
Mercedes has some practical advice for evaluating TMS solutions:
- Align solutions with your content types (e.g. CMS, UI strings, design files).
- Assess integration needs (e.g. GitHub, Figma)
- Determine whether integrations already exist or need to be built
- Understand the true cost, including hidden fees
And importantly: talk to technical stakeholders, not just sales reps.
💡“Salespeople can sell well, but they don’t always have the granular answers.”
Localization as a growth partner
At Notion, localization and growth are deeply intertwined. In some cases, like RTL language support, the impact is direct and measurable.
In other instances, the line gets blurred, but it’s still there. They have a brilliant sales team, but they couldn’t have succeeded in Japan without a high-quality localized experience.
Localization may not always be the most visible growth driver, but it is often the foundation that makes growth possible.
Lessons learned
Looking back, one key takeaway stands out: align and partner earlier with marketing and regional teams.
Closer collaboration with in-region and sales and marketing teams can significantly amplify the impact of new language launches. What started as operational milestones at Notion has evolved into coordinated go-to-market opportunities. A standout example is the exclusive Café Notion pop-up event last year in Dubai, which created strong local engagement and sales momentum in that region.
Instead of looping marketing in at the last minute, they now align earlier to discuss plans and co-create language launch strategies for maximum impact.
Advice for founding localization managers
Mercedes’ advice for founding localization managers is simple: think bigger.
Don’t limit your team to traditional localization tasks. With the right support, many can drive broader strategic initiatives.
Notion’s Localization team’s move into International Experience wasn’t about doing extra work, but repositioning their skillsets. This mindset unlocked growth opportunities and repositioned the team as a strategic partner, rather than a function pushing translation tickets through all day.
At the same time, be rigorous when evaluating tools and vendors to avoid hidden costs cropping up:
- Ask detailed, even “nitpicky” questions
- Clarify what’s included vs. extra
- Validate claims, especially around AI solutions
- Speak to technical experts whenever possible
And finally, be realistic about your internal capacity. Some systems require heavy hands-on management; others are more plug-and-play. The right choice depends on your team’s capacity and capabilities, rather than features.
Shifting localization from function to driver
Mercedes’ journey highlights a broader shift in localization. What was a reactive, output-based function is now a proactive driver of growth. Building a localization program today isn’t just about enabling languages; it’s about shaping how a product enters and succeeds in new markets.
At Notion, this evolution is clear. By rebuilding for scale, aligning closely with growth, and repositioning the team into International Experience, localization has become a strategic lever rather than a support function.
The takeaway for founding localization leaders is straightforward: build for impact, not just output. Invest early in scalable systems, align tightly with business goals, and rethink the role localization can play across the organization. Done well, localization doesn’t just support global expansion, it helps define it.
This interview is the eighth in our “Building Localization from Scratch” series, where we sit down with 10 localization industry leaders to pull back the curtain on what it actually takes to build a localization department from the ground up.
Every hard-won lesson, workflow, and strategy from the series is distilled into our White Paper: The Blueprint for Founding Localization Managers, a practical guide for localization leaders building their function from the ground up.
📢The White Paper launches in June 2026. Register your interest here, and we’ll send it straight to your inbox when it’s ready!