1. Celina Cao from Alibaba Group
Building Up the Worldwide Hybrid Resource Pool to Provide One-Stop Content Solution
Celina Cao from Alibaba Group

2. Agenda Alibaba International User Experience overview
China companies’ globalization pain points and solutions
Hybrid in-house and outsourcing resource model
Outsourcing best practices
- Outsourcing management challenges
- Resource channels
- Outsourcing workflow
- Partnership building:Trust and Respect
- Content outsourcing best practices

3. I. Alibaba International User Experience Overview
Vision
Design experiences for a connected world
Mission
We design e-Commerce platforms for consumers and small medium-size business around the world. As bridge between consumers and business, we integrate end users’ needs with business requirements. Through creative solutions, we provide end users useful, usable, desirable and global e-Commerce platforms with good brand experience.
User Experience
User research
Product & experience
Market and business
Design
Experience design
Creative design
Content
Content strategy
Team Structure
Deliverables
E-Commerce platforms with design and content localized in 5 Languages (English, Russian, Spanish, French, Portuguese Brazil)
Features
International hybrid team (in-house and outsourcing) coming from 11 countries and regions (China, US, Australia, UK, Russia, Brazil, Spain, Tai-Wan, HongKong, France, Canada)

4. II. China companies’ globalization pain points and solutions
Key of success: Hybrid in-house and outsourcing resource model
Pain-points
Solutions
Misunderstandings (content globalization=translation)
Education, validation
Scalability
In-house and. outsourcing
In-house foreign resources’ onboarding and retention
Career development plan
Repetitive manual work
Tools
Misunderstandings:
-Content globalization is translation. Too much rework afterwards.
-Foreign native speakers in China are considered language experts only.
Global resource channels
In-house foreign resources’ onboarding and retention
Onboarding: Very long-time to source the resource overseas and even more difficult to retain him/her
Outsourcing: resource channels (where to find the resources), procurement pitfalls, legal risks
Culture conflict, different working methodologies, career development plan
User experience example: eCommerce platform sales campaign one stop content workflow
Campaign theme
Selling points
Role and responsibility
Execution roadmap
User experience design and content
Interactive design
Visual design
UX content
Creative design and content
Promotions (design and content)
Globalization
Globalization

5. III. Hybrid in-house & outsourcing resource model
Purpose: To ensure scalability and flexibility (overseas mainly)
Pros
Cons
In-house
- Stable resource pool
- Accountability
- Easy communication
- More people management cost (attrition rate, company value)
Outsourcing
- Flexible
- Less people management cost
- Inconsistent quality (workpiece outsourcing mainly)
- Instable resource pool
Misunderstandings:
-Content globalization is translation. Too much rework afterwards.
-Foreign native speakers in China are considered language experts only.
Global resource channels
In-house foreign resources’ onboarding and retention
Onboarding: Very long-time to source the resource overseas and even more difficult to retain him/her
Outsourcing: resource channels (where to find the resources), procurement pitfalls, legal risks
Culture conflict, different working methodologies, career development plan
Outsourcing
- Production
- Consultancy
In-house
- Strategy setting
- Moderator and/or project manager
One-stop content solution
Designers
Design workpiece outsourcing
Onsite designers
Content strategists
Remote copywriters
SNS agencies
Localization agencies
Collaboration model

6. IV. Outsourcing best practices
Outsourcing management challenges
Resource
Scalability constraint
Sourcing
Management
TAT
Short turnaround time (urgent and unexpected requests)
Tools
In-compliance tools
No tool
Pricing
Quotation
Payment
Quality
Expectation vs. Deliverables (escalations, penalty)

7. IV. Outsourcing best practices
Resource channels
Channels
Features
Attention
Preference
Industry conference/committee (workpiece mainly)
Focused but selling point exaggerated
Audit the supplier’s capabilities
Referrals
(workpiece and staffing)
Reliable quality
Compliance, pricing negotiation
Aggregators (staffing mainly)
Not focused
Local law and aggregator fee
Outsourcing manager hiring
Reliable quality and cost competitive, professional, strong execution
Compliance

8. IV. Outsourcing best practices - Workflow
KPIs
- Cost
- Quality
Internal Stakeholders
-Procurement
-Finance
-Legal and compliance
Outsourcing request analysis
Outsourcing application
Purchase request
Supplier sourcing (quotation and evaluation)
Fit selected
Contract
Purchase order
Operation
Payment
Stage
Pitfalls
Solutions
Outsourcing request analysis
Overlapping
Request audit
Outsourcing application
Budget violation
Budget plan
Purchase request
Payment entity
Finance consulting
Sourcing
High quotation
Volume accumulation
Quotation comparison
Low quality
Standard and strict evaluation record
Contract PO
Tax
Quotation clarification
Operation
Isolation
Partnership
Payment
Extra fees charge
Agreement included in the sourcing process
Penalty
SLA agreement

9. IV. Outsourcing best practices
Project management
Volume forecast
SLA
Guidelines
Risk mitigation
People management
KPI
Career development
Team building
Training program
Pricing
On-time payment
Award and penalty mechanics
Expertise exchange
Workshops
Regular reviews
Onsite visits
IV. Outsourcing best practices
Partnership building: Trust and Respect

10. IV. Outsourcing best practices-Content
Content outsourcing models
Workpiece outsourcing
Staffing outsourcing
Product description
User manual
EDM
PR content (speech, interview, event reporting)
UX content
Creative writing (brand naming, slogans, selling points)
SNS
Solid partner pool features
Scalability to mitigate the management efforts (multiple language service providers)
Hybrid resource pool (full-time vs. freelancer)
Expertise complementary among partners
Key to success
Standard but strict procurement process
Seamless onboarding (guideline, voice and tone, terminology, content management tool)
Backup resource plan (freelancers)

11. Thank You!