Target Canada: Empty Shelves, Full Warehouses

This episode focuses on the contradiction at the heart of Target Canada’s operations: stores could have empty shelves while distribution centers had inventory. The issue was not simply “not enough product.” It was a flow problem involving systems, warehouse processes, forecasting, data, vendor coordination, and store execution.For PMs, this episode is about handoffs, dependencies, and the danger of managing functional silos instead of end-to-end outcomes.Key PM Questions:Where are the handoffs most likely to fail? Can the system move work from request to customer outcome? Are teams optimizing their piece while the whole process breaks?