The standard "sound" advice echoing around HN would be to make something [analogous to a rough sketch] and put it in front of users. Obviously, it probably won't be the finished product produced by a giant business...or even something which can be reproduced efficiently. But it will be enough that people who 'get it' will 'get it' if there's an 'it' there to 'get'.

For a non-technical person this means understanding enough at a high level to make a reasonable judgement about feasibility...enough physics to know the difference between sending a satellite into LEO versus shooting nuclear waste into the sun. In other words, there's some level of technical due diligence that cannot be outsourced and still be considered due diligence...just ass-covering, and that's only useful in bureaucracy and useless for a startup.

Good luck.