[nullflux]

"Nobody embodies your userbase better than your mom"

That is not a universal truth.

Is your mother computer literate? How does she use web applications and her computer? How does she connect to the product? What niche does the application fill in her life, and is it truly a superior alternative to another product in her life?

What the article is getting at is that friends and family often show extreme positive bias. If you really have to use your friends or family as a feedback group, you'd be best off not telling them you built the application at all. If you're like "hey, check out this thing I found, it might be useful for you," you can get rid of some of the "My child/sibling/cousin/friend built this!" bias and instead only have to deal with the lesser bias of "My child/sibling/cousin/friend referred me to this product."