Should I Learn to Code? An In Depth Guide on How to Prepare for More Technical Roles
Demystifying the Tech Side of Product Globalization
*Don’t mind me I’m doing a lil dance because I’m so excited to be posting my second post* Whew. Ok, now let’s get serious: If you’ve ever thought, I want to grow into a more technical role, but I don’t know where to start, you are in the right place. Have you ever been in a conversation with a technical person that you need to collaborate with and found yourself thinking “what the hell are they talking about? I don’t even know where to begin” so you just nod your head and say “ok thanks” and leave the convo more confused than ever? If that’s you, welcome, welcome, I’m here to help. Many of us in technical-adjacent roles (ex: localization specialists, account managers, program managers, project managers, maybe even UX researchers or product managers) find ourselves working closely with engineers and developers, engineering managers, technical program managers etc, but feeling like there’s a b i g knowledge gap.
So, where should you start? A question I get a lot is: should I learn to code? Short answer: Not necessarily. But should you grow your technical understanding? Absolutely. Let’s dive in.
Go ahead and order that (“Hello, world!”) sweatshirt
1. Shift Your Mindset: From I’m Not Technical → I’m Building My Technical Skills
Ok so I know this sounds cheesy, AND I know I’ve talked about this before in my LinkedIn series on Change Management. But most of us are overwhelmed with life and we hate change, it’s a fact that’s well supported by research and is also very relatable. But the truth is that setting aside your fear of technical skills is the best way to start this journey. The biggest hurdle isn’t the content, it’s the fear. If you’ve ever felt intimidated by technical discussions, know this: no one is born understanding anything!
Think back to something really hard you had to learn or overcome, for me it’s moving to another country as a teen and going to public schools in a new language (and this was before smartphones or google translate). You didn’t walk into that situation knowing everything, but you were able to do it, you learned how to speak that language, how to ride the bike, how to rock climb, or even emotional learning like how to live without someone you thought you couldn’t (oof, a really hard one)…whatever the hard thing was. So seriously, stop selling yourself short, you CAN do this.
Start by dropping the phrase “I’m not technical.” Instead say: “I’m building my technical skills.” Approach it with curiosity instead of intimidation.
Picture of me as a highschool Nerd (with a capital N) in Brazil fighting for my life *before Google translate y’all* - all I had was a lil dictionary
2. You Don’t Need to Code - But You Should Understand the Basics
One of the biggest misconceptions is that learning technical skills means becoming a programmer. It doesn’t. Your goal is not to become an expert; it’s to build a baseline understanding. Think of it like this:
Imagine an engineer working with a localization team. If they understand that languages like Russian display plurals differently depending on a variety of factors, they’ll better grasp why a seemingly simple UI string (“You sent [user] [amount] [plural noun]”) is complex to localize (video about Russian plurals). They don’t have to know all the ins and outs of localization, or Russian plurals, but it helps if they have a general understanding of challenges and sticking points. If you’re in localization I can see you nodding your head in my mind. Cool. WELL have I got news for you: The same applies in reverse.
When you understand some basic coding limitations and opportunities, you can collaborate more effectively with engineers.
Language is complicated lol
So if you are learning basic coding limitations and opportunities, what should you focus on?
How applications are built and work together (frontend, backend, databases, APIs)
Basic scripting concepts (what code can/can’t do, not how to write it)
How infrastructure and architecture affect localization and product development
You don’t need to know how to build software. You just need to understand the landscape so you can ask the right questions and contribute meaningfully. I’m including some resources at the end of this post where you can get started!
3. Grow Your Expertise Where Your Work Intersects with Engineering
With that said, I’d like to help you start by narrowing the scope of learning even further. Rather than trying to learn everything I mentioned above, I suggest starting by focusing on the areas where your work naturally intersects with technical teams. Here are some (a lot of) examples:
If you’re a Localization Project Manager:
Learn how version control works (e.g., Git basics) to better understand how content is handed off and pulled into builds.
Understand continuous localization and how it integrates with CI/CD pipelines.
Explore how TMS systems connect to source control, CMS, or codebases via APIs.
If you’re a Linguist or Language Lead:
Get familiar with how placeholder logic and string formatting work in code (e.g.,
%s,{0},{{variable}}).Learn how encoding errors and character rendering issues show up across different platforms.
Explore AI/MT integrations and how they’re evaluated or fine-tuned.
If you work in LQA:
Learn how automated QA checks are built and how to file bugs that engineers can easily act on.
Get familiar with tools like Postman or Chrome DevTools for inspecting network calls and testing APIs.
Explore how test environments and production builds differ and why issues appear in one but not the other.
If you’re a Content Designer or UX Writer (localization-adjacent):
Learn how front-end frameworks (like React or Flutter) handle localization.
Understand tokenization and how to write content that works well across languages and code.
Dive into Figma-to-code handoff processes to better support internationalized UI.
If you’re a Vendor Manager or Operations Role:
Explore how billing or word count data can be pulled using TMS APIs.
Learn the basics of data cleaning and analysis (e.g., in Google Sheets or Python) to support forecasting and vendor evaluation.
Understand how integrations between tools (TMS, CMS, Jira) are configured and maintained.
If you work on apps, learn the basics of Unicode and encoding.
If you work with systems engineers, get curious about deployment pipelines, monitoring tools, or how logging works across environments.
If you work with product teams, learn how they write product requirements, prioritize work, track experiments, or define success metrics.
If you work with backend engineers, explore APIs, service architecture, or how data is passed between services.
If you work with frontend engineers, look into how localization is handled in different frameworks or how UI strings get pulled into builds.
By growing your knowledge in these intersection points, you’ll bring real value to your team while growing your technical skills in a way that aligns with your role. If all of this feels like gibberish that’s ok, we will dive into all these concepts together in a more granular way - make sure to subscribe!
4. Position Yourself as Someone Growing Their Technical Skills
Once you start learning, make it known. I will have several future posts on how to better position yourself and your role, but to start I suggest doing three things: 1) Talk to your manager 2) Change the way you talk about yourself. 3) Ask the right people the right questions.
First, talk to your manager about your goals. Here’s an example of how to frame the conversation:
“I want to grow my technical expertise so I can work more effectively with our engineering partners. I’ve been learning about [infrastructure, APIs, Unicode, AI localization] and want to find more opportunities to apply this knowledge. Do you have any suggestions on how I can deepen my learning in our current projects?”
Second, change the way you talk about yourself. You don’t have to pretend you are a sudden expert (please don’t!), but bring it up in conversations, let people know you are learning and curious. For example “I am working on growing my technical skills and I’ve been learning about how APIs connect systems and support automation, I’m wondering what APIs we use in our current translation set up”
As your knowledge grows, your comfort in asking questions will grow too. And your questions will become more specific. So the above question might transform into:
“I’ve been diving into APIs lately, how they help systems talk to each other, and it got me wondering what APIs we’re hitting between our repos and the TMS. I’m curious what kind of data’s moving around and how we might use it better.”
Eventually the knowledge you are building will lead to creative ways to bring your expertise to the more technical areas you partner with, for example:
“I’m working on growing my technical skills and I’ve been learning about APIs, how they connect systems and support automation. I was even wondering if there’s an API with our TMS that exposes translation status or content metadata. It’d be cool to explore what we could build on top of that.”
By being curious and sharing that you’re learning, you’re signaling that you’re proactive, eager to contribute, and looking for ways to integrate your learning into real work.
3) Third, think about who you need to collaborate with to become a technical partner. Maybe it’s the lead engineer on a team you partner with, or a key product manager, ask yourself: who can help me grow as I grow these new skills? Now take time once a month to ask these people strategic questions and take time to frame them properly. For example:
Hey, I’ve been thinking about how long it takes for us to QA strings and I’m looking into some automations. I had an idea about [short description of idea]. I really value your knowledge and expertise here, what concerns would you have about this change?
Then follow up. Look into their suggestions, and go back to them a week or two later. This is important because it helps you build partnerships with the right people, and it shows the right people that you can be a valuable partner. This will be especially successful if you are engaging with them about where your work intersects with their work.
You are folding your expertise into their expertise and talking about opportunities in the middle.
Let me be clear about what I’m not suggesting: Do not throw vague questions at them. Do not be like “tell me about APIs” or “What are QA automations?” Take the time to put together focused questions that show that you value their time and expertise and you are trying to add value. While it may be a controversial opinion, I also do not suggest asking people to mentor you, unless they are already part of a mentorship program. I love being a mentor and it’s something I always invest time in. However, mentorship is a huge time commitment and it’s a big ask, if you ask someone to be your mentor who is not prepared to invest that level of time you are increasing chances of them saying no. Instead, start small. Bring them focused questions so they can give you a short response. This will: show them that you value their time and expertise, and make you stand out as someone who wants to work with them. It’s like you asking someone asking to teach you everything they know about vegan baking vs. asking them what they use as an egg substitute (random: check out how people made cakes without butter or eggs during the American great depression).
Cool article on 1930s Food Substitutions during the American Great Depression
5. How to get started: My Recommended Resources
Now that we’ve set the parameters:
Approach it with curiosity instead of intimidation.
Focus on the basics
Grow Your Expertise Where Your Work Intersects with Engineering
Position Yourself as Someone Growing Their Technical Skills
We can lay the foundation! Hopefully I’ve convinced you that you can do this and you are feeling motivated to learn something new. I’ve put together a list of resources that align the basics and I’ve organized them by role. Of course, feel free to check out any of these regardless of your role. These are all vetted by me, I have personal experience with all of them (no ads here!):
Remember as you are clicking into these and making time to learn: You do not need to become a programmer, this is for you to build your understanding. Read or watch one of these videos, you might absorb a portion of what is being taught, thats ok. That’s the start of any learning journey, don’t think you need to understand everything all at once!
For Localization Program and Project Managers
Git & Version Control Basics: Video + tutorial Git and GitHub for Beginners by freeCodeCamp
Intro to CI/CD & Continuous Localization: Continuous Integration + Continuous Delivery and Deployment by Codecademy, if you prefer a higher level video overview I suggest this DevOps video
How APIs Connect TMS to CMS or Codebases: APIs for Beginners by FreeCodeCamp
For Linguists and Language Leads
Very intro level Overview of script encoding and Unicode: What is Unicode? By theUnicode Consortium
String Formatting and Placeholders: Beginner's Guide to String Formatting by Real Python (This is for Python, however I don’t think the coding language matters here, it’s just for you to get a grasp of how placeholders work)
Character Encoding & Display Issues: What is Character Encoding? by W3Schools (This is more in depth than the first Unicode video I shared)
What is an API? video by Aaron Jack (who used to be an English teacher!)
Intro to AI/MT in Localization: Machine Translation in AI by Geeks for Geeks (note this is from 2024 so it doesn’t include the most up to date MT info, but it is a great intro overview)
Stanford's online Artificial Intelligence program lectures on NLP with Deep Learning: Lecture 1, Lecture 2 (These series are incredible, I highly recommend browsing Standford’s youtube channel and following some of the courses)
For LQA Professionals
5 Types of Testing Software video by Alex Hyett
What does a QA engineer & Software tester actually do? video by Elsa
QA Automation for Beginners:What is Test Automation? by BrowserStack
Postman & Chrome DevTools: Intro Postman Beginner Tutorial Series - Automation Step by Step
Chrome DevTools Crash Course by FreeCodeCamp
Before You Deploy: Dev vs. Prod Environments Explained! video by Michelle from SEAT CODE
For Content Designers or UX Writers
How Front-End Developers, Web and UX/UI Designers could better collaborate together? by David Dias
Character Encoding & Display Issues: What is Character Encoding? by W3Schools
React JS Tutorial For Beginners 2025 by LearnWebCode (all of his videos are great!)
Over 40, with no technical background, this is how I learned HTML and CSS Medium article by codingJourneyFromUnemployment
I would also stay up to date on all the AI advances in design/mocks directly to code that are emerging right now (like Builder, v0, Galileo and more coming out every day)
For Product Managers, Vendor Managers or Ops Roles
What is an API? 5 min video by Aaron Jack (who used to be an English teacher!)
Amazon overview of APIs and why they’re important: What is an API
Principles of Application Integration series by IBM (a couple years old but still up to date enough for beginners) *Especially helpful if you work with or adjacent to systems integrations*
What is System Architecture? very high level video by Eric Kimberling
I highly suggest asking for a systems architecture diagram for the systems your work/role intersects with, or create your own. This is a fantastic learning exercise! This video shows you how: Solutions Architect Tips: How to Build Your First Architecture Diagram by Win the Cloud
These are some great resources to get you started, and then of course I will share more along the way. I spent a couple of hours combing through my bookmarks to put this list of resources together and organize them by role. If you find them useful please consider subscribing!
What’s Next? And subscribe for Deep Dives + *even more* focused resources
In the next two posts, I’ll go more in depth in two areas where I have grown my technical skills and been able to apply them in a meaningful ways in my most recent/current roles at Meta and Spotify:
What is Infrastructure/Architecture and Why Do I Need to Know About It? (this is a overview post, but I will do a deep dive at the end of the month that goes into more depth where you can learn)
What is i18n? How Can I Be a Resource for Engineers I Work With?
At the end of the month, I’ll release the deep dive I mentioned above for paid subscribers: “Let’s Talk Localization Infrastructure: What Do I Need to Know?” Subscribing is the cost of grabbing me a coffee, and it helps justify me spending a few Saturday afternoons creating these structured lessons.This Deep Dive will be a full on nerdy lesson summarizing what I’ve learned from 2 paid courses I took on infrastructure and sharing it in a practical way related to Localization specifically (i.e. how I’ve applied it and how you can too).
Last - I need your input
While putting this post together I HAD AN IDEA. But I don’t want to invest the time in it if it isn’t something you are interested in: What if I created a 90 day agenda you can follow that helps you ramp up your basic technical skills? Like: Day 1, watch this video, Day 2, sign up for this and start this course, etc. Is this something you would be interested in? If so I can take a couple Saturdays and put it together for paid subscribers, let me know below in the poll.
I’m enjoying mapping out all the things I want to share with you, but I want to check in frequently and make sure that what I’m creating is worth your (and by default, my) time. Let me know if this is useful, and what you would like to see more of. Cheers to a brand new week!