How can I check the viability without building the software or hardware?

1. see if the thing already exists

• if it does and is successful, great, viable idea. now figure out how the existing thing sucks (see 2)
• if not, great, maybe an untapped niche

2. figure out who the intended users are and talk to them
3. build a basic version, get feedback, iterate

it helps when you are an intended user since that’s a tighter feedback loop