What Is / What Could Be (The Presentation Sparkline)
Alternate between current reality and a better future to create longing that moves an audience to act.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 97%
Every persuasive talk should oscillate between 'what is' (the status quo) and 'what could be' (a better future), repeatedly, before ending on a 'new bliss.' The gap between reality and possibility creates contrast, and contrast creates the longing that makes people willing to leave their current state. Duarte derived this by hand-mapping the greatest speeches of all time onto graph paper and finding the same cadence in Dr. King and Steve Jobs.
Origin
Developed by Nancy Duarte over a three-year study analyzing the structure of history's greatest speeches (MLK's 'I Have a Dream,' Steve Jobs's iPhone launch, presidential addresses), first presented in her 2011 TEDx talk. Builds on the three-act dramatic structure that predates it by tens of thousands of years.
Core principles
- 01The audience holds the power — they choose to accept or reject your idea — so the talk must pull them, not push them.
- 02Contrast between reality and possibility is the engine; without the gap there is no longing.
- 03Story is fused into the brain: fMRI shows a listener's brain fires in the same order and place as the teller's.
- 04The structure scales down — the same 'what is / what could be / new bliss' works in a meeting, a phone call, or a marriage, not just on a big stage.
How to run it
- 1
Establish 'what is'
Open by stating the current reality or status quo — the problem, the state of the union, where things stand today. For detail-oriented audiences this setup needs to be longer than you have patience for.
Pro tip Match the length of your 'what is' to your listener — a detail-oriented person needs more context before they'll accept the leap.
- 2
Leap to 'what could be'
Move up to a vision of a better future — the solution, the imagined outcome, what things could look like if your idea is adopted.
- 3
Oscillate: what is, what could be, repeatedly
Traverse back and forth between reality and possibility multiple times, building and releasing tension in a rise-and-fall cadence. Jobs did this rapidly when contrasting the iPhone against the BlackBerry.
Pro tip Map a real talk on paper as a line — 'what is' along the bottom, spikes up to 'what could be' — to see whether your cadence actually pulses or flatlines.
Watch out Don't map it as a jagged zigzag over time; that loses too much data. Think of it as a baseline with deliberate upward moves.
- 4
Land on the 'new bliss'
End on a final horizontal line — the new normal after your idea is adopted. In Western cultures this is the happy ending: paint a picture of the world with your idea in place, poetically or pragmatically.
In the wild
Jobs set up 'what is' by describing the state of the company, then did a rapid 'what is / what could be' by comparing the iPhone to the BlackBerry — 'look how much it sucks now that you've seen what we're doing.'
→ Duarte found the same cadence and pulsing in this speech as in Dr. King's, confirming the pattern was universal across the greatest speeches.
Duarte uses a quick 'what is / what could be / new bliss' in her marriage: she unpacks the current state (a stressful back-to-back day) at length for her detail-oriented husband, then states what could be (he takes the dog to daycare), then the new bliss.
→ It reliably works to influence everyday behavior, demonstrating the framework functions in any format, not just big-stage talks.
Common mistakes
Only investing in structure for big-stage talks
People assume the contrast story only matters for a keynote with a big script investment. In reality the same what-is/what-could-be lives in your head as a mental model for any moment of influence — a meeting, a call, a negotiation.
Skipping the 'what is' and jumping to the solution
Without establishing current reality first, there is no gap and therefore no contrast to create longing; the audience has nothing to be moved away from.
Is it for you?
Best for
Founders, product managers, and leaders who need to persuade an audience to adopt an idea, change priorities, or take action.
Not ideal for
Pure status/data dumps to peers who share your shorthand and just need dense information aligned around a process.
From the transcript
“you could picture a line at the bottom of your screen and that line uh going left to right is what is and you need…”
“that sense of longing for the future it makes people leave their current state or the status quo”
“I can get my husband to do chores for me on the weekends with a quick with a real quick what is what could be…”
“when I analyzed Steve Jobs's iPhone launch speech I did it all by hand I wrote every word”
“the new Bliss is just imagine a world with your idea adopted just and then you paint a picture of that world poetically or pragmatically…”
From the episode
Storytelling with Nancy Duarte: How to craft compelling presentations and tell a story that sticks