The IC Eight Workflow
Not a translation pipeline — a workflow for making your product usable, trusted, and adopted in Japan.
We rebuild the Japanese layer so your product becomes discoverable, understandable, and trusted by Japanese users. Translation may be part of the work — but the real goal is adoption, not word replacement.
1. Understand how your product is used
We look at your current Japanese layer (if any): UI, onboarding, help, templates, tutorials, release notes. If no Japanese exists yet, we review the English product from the perspective of where Japanese users will feel uncertainty, risk, or friction.
The goal at this stage: identify where meaning breaks before any translation begins.
2. Identify what actually improves adoption
Most teams assume “UI first.” But in Japan, UI strings rarely drive adoption — tutorials, help, guidance, and onboarding do.
We map the friction points that stop Japanese users from starting:
- Missing or English-only onboarding
- Help and tutorials that don’t explain core value
- Feature announcements users never see
- Inconsistency that erodes trust
- Tone mismatches that make the product feel foreign
3. Rebuild the Japanese layer
This is where the work becomes translation, rewriting, or restructuring — whichever removes friction fastest.
Typical components include:
- Japanese onboarding and feature discovery
- Help-center and tutorial frameworks
- UX copy rework and clarity fixes
- Product terminology alignment
- Templates and in-product guidance
Our output is not “Japanese text,” but a Japanese experience.
4. Ensure coherence across the product
We align tone, hierarchy, terminology, and trust signals across every touchpoint — not just the UI.
Even simple products feel fragmented in Japanese if:
- UI is translated but help is not
- Templates remain English-only
- Feature names match but explanations differ
- Announcements or changelogs stay untranslated
Coherence is what makes the product feel intentional in Japanese — and what separates “localized” from “usable.”
5. Deliver fast, clean output designed for adoption
We deliver Japanese that feels native, consistent, and trustworthy — whether built from scratch or refined from AI-assisted drafts.
Everything is optimized for one outcome: Japanese users understand your product without friction.
If you’d like to see how this workflow looks in real collaboration:
Have practical questions about process, timing, or scope?
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Ready to make your product usable and trusted in Japan?
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