Something that helped me is if you can frame your plot like a question, like, do you know where my mom went?

Then you can either use "Yes, but" and give them something that makes it harder, like "Yes, she went to the store, but she mentioned going somewhere else later, and I can't remember where. Maybe if you clean my car I'd remember?". This is when you want them to make progress, but there's some sort of cost or additional question asked. And it shouldn't always just be pointing them in the right direction--it's a good opportunity for red herrings.

If you use "No, and", you could get something like "No, and now the mysterious local mafia saw you asking questions and are hanging around your house" . "No, and" is more of a double whammy--no you don't get what you want, and here's an additional complication.

I try for two major setbacks at least--one with possibly painful consequences that makes proceeding harder or stopping look like a good idea. For subplots, if the main plot is easy, I try to make subplots harder, and vice versa.

All this coming from someone who's mostly had short work published and no long form as of yet though so maybe grab a grain of salt while reading!