20 years before Eric Reis, there was Jeffry Timmons

Everyone seems to think that Eric Reis was the first person to suggest the process of rapid iteration to find product fit. Jeffry Timmons was lecturing business students about a dynamic process of trial and error to find product fit 20 years ago.

http://www.slideshare.net/akashpai/the-timmons-model-of-the-entrepreneurial-process

http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/apr2008/sb20080423_402595.htm