Final answer:
The effective estimation characteristic that is referred to by keeping initial estimates private is to avoid anchoring bias, ensuring independent and unbiased estimations in story estimation.
Step-by-step explanation:
As a Product Owner doing story estimation, by instructing team members to keep their initial estimate private, you are aiming to avoid anchoring bias. This effective estimation characteristic helps each team member to form an independent opinion without being influenced by the initial estimates provided by their colleagues.
Anchoring bias is a cognitive bias where people rely too heavily on the first piece of information they receive. Thus, ensuring private initial estimates helps to reduce the impact of anchoring bias and leads to more accurate and independent story estimation within a team.
The effective estimation characteristic that refers to telling your team to keep their initial estimate private before sharing is avoid anchoring bias. Anchoring bias is the tendency to rely on initial values when making estimates. By keeping their initial estimates private, team members can form an independent opinion without being influenced by others, which helps to avoid the anchoring bias.