What works in San Francisco doesn't translate
Most localization stops at swapping copy and adjusting units for each market. On Adobe Express's International PLG team, I worked to grow international user engagement through culturalization beyond translation. After returning to Japan, I began working on the Japanese market for the first time. Through repeated user research and testing, I surfaced the segment-level realities of Japanese users.
Across Germany, France, India, and Brazil, I worked with local designers and PMs on culturally adapted content and drove projects across markets. The three case studies below capture that work in Japan, alongside how I operated strategically in markets where I don't speak the language.
CJK Typography Taskforce
A typography problem nobody owned — until an audit got two teams to fix it.
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Culturalization is not localization
Anyone can swap the copy. The job is making it feel like a local product.
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Logged Out Editor A/B test
An A/B test showing logged-out users what they could unlock by signing in. The topline metric stayed flat, but segment data told a different story.
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