Overview

• Product / Initiative: Pharmacy Fulfillment Platform Modernization

• Role: Senior Product Manager – Platform Modernization & Fulfillment Strategy (led 8 feature PMs)

• Location: Chicago USA (Global HQ)

• Scale: 9,000+ stores, 40M annual prescriptions, nationwide fulfillment network

• Outcome: Improved fulfillment accuracy by 20% and reduced turnaround time by 15% by re-architecting the pharmacy fulfillment platform through cloud-native microservices, unlocking speed, scale, and operational intelligence.

Problem / Opportunity

The existing pharmacy fulfillment platform was built on legacy monolithic systems, which could no longer scale or adapt fast enough to meet operational, regulatory, and customer needs.

Key challenges:

• 🧱 Rigid, tightly coupled architecture slowed feature delivery and scaling.

• ⏳ Turnaround time varied widely due to non-standard workflows and manual interventions.

• 📦 Lack of real-time visibility into order and inventory status reduced accuracy and SLA adherence.

• 🧪 Error-prone handoffs created delays, affecting customer trust and compliance.

• 💰 High cost and fragility of maintaining legacy systems.

Opportunity:

• Modernize the fulfillment platform using cloud-native microservices, decoupling capabilities for speed and agility.

• Digitize and standardize fulfillment workflows to increase accuracy and reduce turnaround time.

• Build a future-ready architecture to support digital health innovation at scale.

Goals & Success Metrics

• Primary Goal: Re-architect the fulfillment platform to improve accuracy, turnaround time, and operational resilience.

• North Star Metrics: Fulfillment accuracy & turnaround time.

Supporting Metrics:

• ✅ +20% fulfillment accuracy improvement

• ⏳ -15% reduction in prescription fulfillment turnaround

• 🧭 Real-time visibility into inventory and prescription workflows

• 🧾 Reduced dependency on legacy systems and cost of operations

• ☁️ Increased delivery velocity through modular architecture

Targets:

• Migrate fulfillment workflows to microservices-based architecture.

• Automate core steps in the prescription lifecycle.

• Establish robust telemetry and governance to measure impact at scale.

Strategy & Approach

• Vision: Build a scalable, cloud-native fulfillment platform to improve operational efficiency, accuracy, and speed.

• Platform Modernization: Transition from monolithic systems to microservices architecture for modularity and agility.

• Workflow Digitization: Standardize and automate end-to-end prescription fulfillment.

• Governance Framework: Define clear OKRs, KPIs, and telemetry to track business impact.

Frameworks Used

• North Star Framework for aligning product vision and measurable outcomes

• OKRs, RICE & MoSCoW for prioritization and execution alignment

• Dual-Track Agile for continuous discovery and delivery

• Event-driven orchestration to ensure system reliability and scalability

• Experimentation Framework (MVP validation in pilot markets)

• User Research & Journey Mapping to identify workflow friction points

• Telemetry & Observability for proactive governance and real-time measurement

My Role & Contributions as Senior PM

• Defined the product vision and multi-year modernization roadmap for the pharmacy fulfillment domain.

• Led 8 feature PMs across fulfillment intake, routing, dispensing, inventory sync, and operational visibility, ensuring consistent strategy and execution.

• Established product strategy frameworks and prioritization models to align workstreams with business value and technical feasibility.

• Partnered with engineering leadership to shape the microservices architecture and phased migration plan.

• Led executive stakeholder alignment (Pharmacy Ops, Compliance, Engineering) to secure funding, roadmap sign-off, and go-live sequencing.

• Owned the success metrics and defined telemetry frameworks to measure fulfillment accuracy, SLA adherence, and turnaround time in production.

• Drove change management and adoption across 9,000+ stores, partnering with operations and training teams.

• Translated strategic outcomes into capability-level product backlogs ensuring teams delivered incrementally with measurable value.

Solution & Execution

🧭 Cloud-Native Architecture & Microservices

• Decomposed the monolithic fulfillment system into modular services (intake, routing, dispensing, delivery, inventory sync).

• Built standardized APIs for integration with pharmacy management, POS, and supply chain systems.

• Enabled horizontal scaling and high availability during peak volumes.

🧪 Workflow Digitization

• Automated intake validation, routing, picking, and dispensing.

• Reduced manual steps through business rule engines and event-driven orchestration.

• Delivered real-time tracking and alerts, reducing SLA breaches and exception handling.

📊 Telemetry & Observability

• Implemented real-time fulfillment dashboards to track accuracy, turnaround, and error rates.

• Used operational telemetry for proactive issue resolution.

• Established governance cadence around KPIs to ensure sustained improvements.

🧰 Technology & Integration Highlights

• Architecture: Containerized microservices, event streaming, REST APIs.

• Integrations: Pharmacy management system, billing, inventory, POS.

• Scale: 40M prescriptions annually, 9,000+ stores.

• Monitoring: Full operational observability, alerting, and SLA tracking.

Impact & Results

• 📦 20% increase in fulfillment accuracy, reducing manual rework and improving compliance.

• ⏳ 15% reduction in turnaround time, accelerating customer pickups and delivery SLAs.

• 🧭 Unified visibility across fulfillment, inventory, and operations at scale.

• 💰 Lowered operational costs by reducing manual effort and retiring legacy dependencies.

• 🚀 Increased release velocity and product team autonomy through modular architecture.

• 🌐 Strengthened platform resilience, supporting future digital pharmacy initiatives.

Retrospective & Learnings

What worked:

• Clear product vision and strong governance across 8 PM tracks enabled a high-velocity, low-risk modernization.

• Defining success metrics early enabled data-driven decisions during rollout.

• Microservices modularity gave engineering and product teams greater ownership and speed.

• Tight alignment with pharmacy operations ensured rapid adoption across 9,000 stores.

What could be improved:

• Earlier rollout of self-serve operational dashboards could have further reduced post-launch support load.

Key learning:

• Enterprise platform modernization succeeds when strategic product leadership, cross-functional execution, and outcome measurement are tightly integrated.