You're drowning in feedback from translation reviewers. How can you navigate the overload?

Here is my idea as a senior translator: 1. Be choosy about choosing. 2. Identify three to five priorities. 3. Understand the importance. 4. Put a time limit on information gathering. 5. Schedule related tasks together. Good luck ;)

Navigating an overwhelming influx of translation reviewer feedback requires a strategic approach. Here are a few effective strategies: Prioritize Feedback: Categorize feedback based on its urgency and impact. Address critical issues promptly, while less pressing concerns can be handled in a more systematic manner.

Of course after AI revolution ,all people use AI as assistance for translation, edition,.. AI help doing work more easily and fast .e.g. You can ask AI to have more than 10 different answer for above question in different styles and views

Prioritize Feedback by Importance and Frequency Identify Critical Issues: Start by identifying feedback that addresses critical errors affecting meaning, accuracy, or cultural appropriateness. These should be prioritized over minor stylistic suggestions. Look for Patterns: If certain feedback points are recurring across multiple reviews, these indicate common issues that need immediate attention. Focus on these areas to make broad improvements.

By remaining focused on task & final goal. It certainly does affect performance when you have your attention focused on something different than the paper at hand

Use AI to summarise the feedback. Although it can’t do all the work for you, it can quickly point you to a pattern that you can address quickly as we know that sometimes turnaround can be very quick, with deadlines being tight.

One would need to address the most important concerns, those that truly carry the most impact and may affect the quality of the translation itself and the overall result.

Working with professional translators, you should not receive overwhelming feedback basically, so drowning feedback is suspicious. I’d categorise the issues received. Apart from obvious typos, not translations, grammatical or consistency errors, I’d drill down every other issue. Stylistic suggestions easily could be categorised as mistranslations, there could be stylistic, consistency or length constraints that a reviewer had not considered. I’d also double check wether there is conflict of interest between the translator and the reviewer. Maybe, they are competitors …:-)

Communicate Proactively: Keep reviewers informed about the status of their feedback. This demonstrates respect for their time and expertise and can help prevent misunderstandings.

Let's assume that all the feedback has been prioritized and actioned. Huzzah! Now is the time for those Closed Loop Corrective Actions (CLCA): 1) What was the root cause? 2) What did we learn from this experience? 3) What corrective actions are required in order to prevent this from happening again in the future? 4) Log the actions, the owners, and the target resolution dates. If someone isn't responsible and held accountable, nothing is going to change. In my experience, one new factor usually breaks the stable state. It could be a new linguist or new reviewer that isn't familiar with the existing processes. A little coaching or training usually get things back to harmony.

Probably the most important step. Hold retrospective or postmortem meetings after concluding a project, especially where things went wrong. Learn the available lessons. Update or refine your operational procedures and train your resources on the new process. Work very hard not to repeat strenuous situations.

Learn from Feedback: Analyze patterns in reviewer feedback to identify areas where you can improve your translation skills. This ongoing learning process will help you become a more efficient and effective translator. By adopting these strategies, you can effectively manage the volume of feedback and ensure that your translations meet the highest quality standards.