A sport that challenges you to solve problems with physical grit and your mental game. Rock climbing comes into mind when I think of those qualities.
You may have seen the Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo from 2018 with Alex Honnold being the first person to scale up El Capitan, a 3,000 feet vertical rock formation in Yosemite, with no safety gear. I can promise you that it’s not what rock climbing is all about but the basic principles and problem-solving that goes into it.
In my career change to product design, I noticed that there were a lot of commonalities between the industry and the sport. The amount of effort and expertise that goes into problem-solving and decision-making are the qualities that helped me appreciate the process of product design. I knew my knowledge from rock climbing would help transition some soft skills into my design thinking process when it comes to solving problems.
A quick run-down of what rock climbing is, you begin on an established starting point and work your way to the finish/end piece that is indicated on the route (which is also called a problem!). There’s a system of difficulty levels, referred to as grade-levels, that increasingly challenge climbers in solving the rock puzzle. Not all problems require just physical strength, which challenges people to critically think of other ways to solve them.
Here are some soft skills that I took from rock climbing that helped me become a better problem-solver:
Observing the problem
Before you start climbing the problem, you want to look at it first and figure out how you will approach it:
Which direction are you going?
What skills do you need to apply?
Are there any challenges that might come along?
These are some questions that come to mind when I look at a route. You want to familiarize yourself with the problem to better understand what you’re coming to face with. Just like climbers, product designers also think about the problem before they come up with a solution.
“It takes a person 10 minutes to fix a lightbulb, but a team of designers 9 minutes to think about the problem and 1 minute to solve it.”
It’s essential to observe what you will be attempting to solve so you’re aware of what’s the best way to approach it. Oftentimes I spend a long time on the floor in silence just observing the problem. I’ll formulate and memorize the sequence in my head so that when I get on the wall, it’ll take a few seconds to execute it.
Testing and iterating
Like the design thinking process, testing is crucial to finding if your solution works. Sometimes your first attempt may not exactly be what you expected it to go. It may take additional tries, but the key is to continue making progress by noting areas that you’re having issues with and applying iterations where needed.
“I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work .” — Thomas Edison
There were many route problems I’ve come across that would take me multiple sessions to finish. I would adjust minor parts of my sequence — where my toe hits on a foothold, adding my thumb on, even switching in a different pair of shoes, just to get a millimeter closer to my goal. My resilience pushed me to continue challenging myself with any problem that comes my way.
Collaborating with others
Sometimes the difficulty of the route proves to be more challenging than I can handle, so I’ve learned to cooperate with other people in the area that are either working on the same problem or have experience in solving it.
We share our processes — what has and hasn’t worked for us, and take account of our own individual strengths and weaknesses. In this collaboration, we apply what we learn in this exchange to achieving our goals.
“Your primary role should be to share what you know, not to tell people how things should be done .” — Steve Krug
This comes especially handy when climbing outdoors on real rock. The route problems are vague with no indication of where to place your hand or foot. The only information given would be where to start and where to finish. My friends and I would work together and look for crucial holds, point out where the best placements are, figure out where to place our mats in case we fall, and so on. We all work together to make sure we could succeed in solving the problem because we all want to share the joyous feeling of finishing it.
Learning empathy
The climbing community I’m in is full of various people of different shapes, sizes, and backgrounds. We all are at different experience levels in climbing so everyone faces different challenges with their route problem. Aiding one another by learning each other’s situation has helped me understand the struggles they are confronted with and where they thrive as well.
“Empathy is about finding echoes of another person in yourself.” — Mohsin Hamid
I find myself becoming a better member of the community when I learn how to speak in helpful ways a person in need can understand. Being mindful of what they are capable of shows them I recognize who they are and will work with what they have. This builds trust in the community and opens up opportunities to engage with others who are eager to become better climbers.
Confidence building
The key to executing a solution is the confidence you have to try. There are many angles to approach on how to come up with the solution, but if you are not confident in your approach, you won’t see the outcome.
“Don’t stare at a blank page for too long, be bold, and make the first incisive stroke. The rest will come naturally.” — James Kingman
When I started out climbing, I was always hesitant about where I should go and what I should do.
Do I put my right hand or left hand here?
Should I jump to the next hold?
Where do I place my feet?
A lot of uncertainty runs through my head and it often leads to tiring myself out and giving up. There will be days where I didn’t feel confident I would be able to finish a problem because I doubted my own capabilities.
I’m scared.
I’m not good enough.
I can never do that.
Looking back now, I was planting seeds of doubt in my head that needed time and energy to grow into confidence. The more problems I challenged myself, the less I felt about my shortcomings. I confronted my weaknesses, worked on them, and turned them into my strengths.
Growing my confidence took the longest for me to build up — even to this day, I still find myself in situations where I lose some certainty. It’s easier said than done, but I want to challenge myself, knowing I’ll become a better person on the other side.
Rock climbing was a hobby that turned into a passion. It all started back in the summer of 2015 at a small rock gym near my home in New York. I can say after all these years of climbing, I’m still learning what goes into solving rock problems and that’s what makes the sport challenging physically and mentally. I love rock climbing and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to be challenged differently and have fun while doing it.
Although my career path has made some steep turns, the sport has been the solid rock that kept me grounded. I’ve made incredible friends at the gyms and met some of the friendliest people around the country. The community itself still has a long way to go with accessibility and inclusivity, but we are all pushing to make the necessary changes for the future we want to see.
Serena Wu is a product designer based in New York, growing her skill set, and learning how others overcome real-world obstacles. She is currently open to career opportunities and collaborations. Check out her portfolio.
