Leading Voices: former JustFab CoS Aliyah Shah talks CX, tech, and operations.

Despite her present expertise, Aliyah did not begin her career in customer experience. Starting in retail at age 16, she later transitioned into litigation accounting and finance. Diverse as these experiences were, they were connected by structured environments, clear frameworks, and well-defined outcomes.

But when she found herself leading lifestyle subscription retailer FabFitFun’s dropshipping program, something changed. As the already dynamic brand’s growth accelerated, operational complexity increased. A team of customer support agents in the Philippines began reporting to her organization. Just like that, Aliyah entered the world of CX. 

‘I just kind of fell into it. It just kind of happened,’ she says of the transition. 

What began as an operational expansion soon became something more strategic. As dropshipping scaled, the link between its success and customer satisfaction was clearer and more impactful than ever. Inventory accuracy, for instance, could slash support volume. And internal misalignment could tank customer sentiment beyond what the frontline could fix. Shah understood that customer experience was not separate from operations. It’s where their outcome is revealed.

But that relationship doesn’t only run one way. Just as CX teams’ experiences reflect on underlying operational effectiveness, operational challenges put customer experience to the test. So how do top leaders like Aliyah handle it all?

At JustFab, Aliyah stepped into a role spanning customer service, logistics, supply chain, and executive strategy - all during a period of significant change. Some of this came from within, with warehouse switchups and site cutovers tailored to emerging needs. The toughest was external, volatile, and unpredictable: regulatory changes, tariffs, and other external shocks from global and regional economic turbulence. All of it came with marked customer implications.

‘You have to make fast decisions, maybe without complete information,’ she explains.

When these forces make operations flux, customer experience is no longer routine. That’s where its true strength is revealed. The margin for misalignment narrows. Delays ripple outward. Small internal gaps surface quickly.

Another facet facing peak pressure and exposure is leadership. For those guiding their colleagues through turbulent times, intuitive decision-making is just one challenge. Another? 

‘Trying to keep all of my cross-functional teams really tightly aligned.’

With everything shifting by the second, that’s easier said than done. But Aliyah’s got the track record to prove it. She describes her leadership style as adaptive - not in terms of endless flexibility, but of decisive adjustment to each situation and the people involved. The kind that maintains direction and strikes just the right balance between urgency and empathy. 

How does she manage this?

‘Through clear communication, trying to keep the trust of my leadership team very tightly looped in.’ 

When details are still emerging and directives are subject to refinement moment by moment, trust becomes a stabilizing force. Without it, execution is delayed, doubtful, and fragmented. With it, teams move forward despite uncertainty.  It’s this same blend of adaptability and alignment so crucial in governing people that determines leadership’s success in steering another decisive part of every process: tech.

If it was ever obvious that tech should be shaped by and for people, process, and outcomes, AI has changed that. Many now treat ML, automation, and other solutions as separable from core strategies, layering them on at the end and expecting miracles. Or worse: bending systems around trending tools. 

Aliyah’s clear-eyed approach to tech is refreshing.

‘A customer-first lens is critical to building AI and CX tools,’ she explains, highlighting a critical distinction between means and ends.

It’s a welcome reminder of tech’s embeddedness that reflects her holistic operational understanding. Just as logistics and order fulfillment are inextricable from customer experience, so too are all aspects of technology, from product design to data governance. The takeaway? Rather than letting tech fads distort operations, leaders must insist on adaptable and aligned solutions.

‘By being at the table in product design, implementation, and data governance, you can make sure tech solves real problems,’ Aliyah explains.

Her focused-yet-comprehensive mindset is an invaluable asset for any leader to adopt. But one leader’s clarity - no matter how potent - must contend with friction, debate, and joint decision-making. For that, she leaves us with her final piece of wisdom.

This is where Aliyah’s leadership becomes truly sustainable: in the transparent, undeniable results that win hearts. Operational clarity, adaptable execution, and intentional technology design drive impact. But motivating interlocking teams means making that visible. 

‘Get really comfortable quantifying your impact,’ Aliyah advises. 

For her, this means ensuring that work is always tied to measurable, prized outcomes. Revenue earned. Costs reduced. Efficiencies created. 

Then, she makes sure stakeholders know it.
‘Don’t wait for permission all the time. Speak up.’

This self-advocacy doesn’t come naturally for most. It requires practice, but for leaders who lean on trust rather than organizational authority, it’s vital. 

‘Not everyone will vouch for you. You have to be able to vouch for yourself.’

Just as customer experience must be intentionally designed into systems, leadership impact must be intentionally articulated. What is not measured is often misunderstood. But what is proven and presented can’t be denied.

Born in the precision of operations, stress-tested in the heat of transformation, and enhanced with intentional technology, Aliyah’s leadership has delivered the concrete results that keep teams aligned and adaptable. And it all stems from the crucial understanding of how key functions interconnect. Across every industry, superior CX has evolved from a downstream service into the direct result of how supply chains are managed, how AI strategies are deployed, and how leadership communicates during uncertainty.

The leaders defining the next era of brand loyalty realize this. True leadership builds the system, not just the surface, ensuring that every upstream decision translates into downstream value, and that every downstream insight feeds back into an iterative engine. To hear Aliyah Shah share these insights in her own words and dive deeper into the strategies shaping the future of global operations, watch our full conversation on Leading Voices.