This is why it’s a good idea to have ranged estimates. If a simple known thing with zero unknowns has maybe a 200% margin (1-3 days) then a more unknown task can have 10x as wide margin like 1 to 20 days.
As a developer I never get “that’s a useless estimate we can’t prioritize based on that/tell the customer that”. It’s a perfectly good estimate. It tells everyone there is a lot of uncertainty. The low lower bound indicates there is a chance it might turn out to be cheap (so maybe worth taking a gamble and trying it and giving up). The big variance indicates it could/should be given some time to prep/investigate in order to narrow the estimate.
When there are unknowns, make a wide estimate. Convey the uncertainty. If the unknowns are ridiculous, make a ridiculous estimate. Even “5-200 days” is useful because something else with less uncertainty can be chosen instead.
As a developer I never get “that’s a useless estimate we can’t prioritize based on that/tell the customer that”. It’s a perfectly good estimate. It tells everyone there is a lot of uncertainty. The low lower bound indicates there is a chance it might turn out to be cheap (so maybe worth taking a gamble and trying it and giving up). The big variance indicates it could/should be given some time to prep/investigate in order to narrow the estimate.
When there are unknowns, make a wide estimate. Convey the uncertainty. If the unknowns are ridiculous, make a ridiculous estimate. Even “5-200 days” is useful because something else with less uncertainty can be chosen instead.