I've always favored exploration before implementation [1]. For me TDD has immense benefit when adding something well defined, or when fixing bugs. When it comes to building something from scratch i found it to get in the way of the iterative design process.
I would however be more amenable to e.g. Prototyping first, and then using that as a guide for TDD. Not sure if there is a name for that approach though. "spike" maybe?
[1] https://www.machow.ski/posts/galls-law-and-prototype-driven-...