empirical: originating in or based on observation or experience
For our purposes, a decision is a conscious selection of an action to take. This can include electing to do nothing. You've been making decisions all your life, so the concept isn't new to you. What is a more recent phenomenon is all the noise about data-driven decision making. We are awash in articles, books, podcasts and webinars on the topic that make the noise appear to be news. Why is this the case? Simple. The data scientists and data analytics software giants need the money.
But we can be smarter than they want us to perceive ourselves to be. I've honestly never seen a decision made that was not data-driven. There are all sorts of sources of data. One primary source of data is empirical - data that you already possess based on experience and observation. Can empirical data lead to sub-optimal decisions? Sure. We always have to be wary of how we introduce bias into our decision making. But to assume that all empirical evidence is inherently inferior to a data scientist's algorithm is a mistake. Just ask any of the organizations who have invested heavily in machine learning and artificial intelligence with little or nothing to show.
And you're smart enough to know that the world of decision making processes is not binary. There is clearly a space for analytics. Just don't ignore your own experience and observation. Leverage them and you can be confident in saying that you rely on data-driven decision making, too.