When working with teams that lack data knowledge, how do you go about “meeting them where they are at” without just getting stuck there?

In my opinion they key here is to try to understand the problem they are trying to solve, in their own words, rather than in technical terms. Once you have an understanding from their perspective you can attempt to translate it into data specific terms.

Meeting them where they are at is just one part of the conversation. We acknowledge their problem statement, and make them feel heard. The we steer the conversation towards the future state of things while explaining why it's a better option. This helps me also paint a bigger picture of the project and gets their buy in. Ensure they understand that they are a part of the process.

That's the most important part and these conversations gets difficult when the other members are from Executive Team. I usually start from the PoV they have and back track to how we reach there. In this journey we discuss what we have and we need to make this happen.