The explore phase focuses on reframing the design challenge into a design opportunity through various perspectives. Key activities include conducting a STEEP analysis to understand environmental trends and their implications, mapping the organization's activity system, identifying stakeholders, and framing the project into an opportunity statement using a "How might we" format. The goals are to gain insights, explore the challenge from multiple views, and set the foundation for subsequent phases. Methods include STEEP analysis, strategic priorities mapping, activity system modeling, stakeholder mapping, and opportunity framing.