DMGMy Way
My climbing partner and I were working on a pinchy, balancy climb that went up the spine of a loose open book formation. It was like trying to climb up a series of charcoal briquettes. While I had to lower off after a few attempts, my partner nailed it fairly easily: he kept his form, stayed close to the rock, and moved his feet first. Textbook climbing style, if executed with an individual flair.
I tried again, duplicating his foot sequences and balance moves... and flailed hopelessly before lowering off again.
The problem wasn't my technique. My problem was that I'm quite a bit bigger than he is. He could fit easily into the open-book, but I couldn't. I kept banging my elbows, and had to lean away from the rock in order to give my knees enough space to get my feet up.
Last night, I'd learned my lesson, and skipped my failed attempt to duplicate his sequence. Both my partner and I stemmed and counter-pressured our way up a devious 10a/b in the corner, but with completely different hand and foot placements, and a completely different last move. Another open book route. He went first, and dispatched it after some struggle. As soon as I set hands on the route, he started with the beta. "Dude, your left foot needs to be up higher. Wait, no, you're..." I ignored him, and smoothly stepped through the opening moves into the second section of the climb. "Oh. Dude. You did it different from me."
Yeah. That's the beauty of this: what works for you won't always work for me, and vice versa.