At Rocket Companies, we believe in hard work, community investment and creating the best experience for our clients. These are the values that helped us originate $351 billion in mortgages in 2021.

We think ahead.

Rocket Mortgage could never have been built if we weren’t thinking ahead. It took three years for more than 500 developers, designers, QA experts and business analysts to create the first-class digital experience that Rocket Mortgage is today.

We invest in our team members.

Our team members are the lifeblood of our success. They make a difference in our clients’ lives, so we’re invested in making a difference in theirs. So much so that we’ve been included on FORTUNE’s list of “100 Best Companies to Work For” for 19 consecutive years.

We help the communities we call home.

We’ve contributed over 800,000 volunteer hours to our communities. Through the Rocket Community Fund, we’ve helped improve access to housing, employment and education.

Our ISMs

Our culture is based on 20 philosophies that we call “ISMs.”

Each one shares how we can succeed and what we value. Our ISMs unite us around a culture of excellence.

This is how we leave our mark. This is how we create an impact. This is how we change the industry.

Always raising our level of awareness.

As renowned baseball player Yogi Berra once said, “You can see a lot just by looking.” Keep your head up. Look. Be curious. Notice what is actually happening around you. Really notice. Listen. Listen to your clients. In fact, listen to everyone. Everything starts with awareness. Being alert. Being awake. Tuning in to the frequency. It is a perpetual choice to both stay aware and raise your level of awareness. Success starts with the thousands of eyeballs of our team members. That’s you.

Obsessed with finding a better way.

Our never-ending mission is to find a better way for everything we do. If it’s ‘meh,’ let’s make it great. If it’s good, let’s make it better. Even if it’s great, let’s take it up a notch. Don’t settle for less. In fact, don’t settle at all. Finding a better way is not something we do on the side or when we get the time. Rather, it’s a key priority for every one of our team members. It’s our passion … our way of living … our obsession. We don’t just work IN our business – we work ON our business.

Yes before no.

It’s necessary that we live in the culture that is eager to understand ideas, not diminish them. This does not mean that every single idea, question, suggestion or recommendation will ultimately be met with a big thumbs-up. It means that we start with a mindset of curiosity and possibility. Our bias is to the YES side of life. This is different than the all-too-common experience of an automatic NO to new thoughts or ideas. Saying YES or NO without KNOWING is the easy way out. Instead, we live in the land of growth, possibilities, ideas, innovation, positive impact and results. The only path to that place is through openness to the unknown.

You’ll see it when you believe it.

We lead with our hearts and minds. We take the opposite approach to “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Nothing significant in this world has ever happened without someone believing in it first. We know the truth: When we believe in our ability to impact the outcome, we dramatically increase our odds of success. If we believe it can happen, it will.

The inches we need are everywhere around us.

If a company does one big thing better than their competition, it becomes fairly easy for their competition to level the playing field: They can just imitate that one thing. If a company does thousands of little things better than anyone else, they become nearly impossible to imitate. We call those thousands of little things “inches.” We’d never be able to foresee all the things that should be noticed or improved. Instead, we drive a culture that motivates our team members to find the inches we need all around us. We are all empowered to find the opportunities to make an impact everywhere, one inch at a time. These inches all add up to greatness.

Take the roast out of the oven.

A wise woman once said, “Taking longer to make a decision doesn’t increase your chances of making a better one.” Perfectionism will destroy innovation. Over-analyzing can kill an idea and make you miss an opportunity. In our world, we don’t fear failure.

The leadership within Rocket Companies trusts you. We trust you to make decisions. If you make an honest mistake, it’s OK! We trust you will learn from your mistakes. Unfortunately, it is a foreign concept to most organizations, but for us, it’s crystal clear.

We know that the path to game-changing discovery requires the ability to try, test and fail.

Make decisions. Learn from the results. Move forward. Don’t overcook that roast; pull it out of the oven!

Ignore the noise.

We’ve found it’s not always skill and effort that lead to greatness. It’s also the ability to ignore the noise. Noise could be from naysayers, something going wrong, sun in your eyes, ball took a bad bounce, dog ate your homework, someone cut you off on the way to work, etc. A lot of things that seem serious at first glance turn out to be just noise. Will you allow it to keep you from winning?

The noise will fluctuate in volume, but your determination to press on in spite of it (ignore it!) will make all the difference to you and our Rocket Companies. This isn’t an excuse to ignore constructive criticism, it’s about ignoring needless negativity. There’s not a human on the planet who does not experience noise. The winners have developed an ability to ignore it and press on.

Do the right thing.

The high road is not optional; for us, it’s the only choice. To our clients and team members, trust is the most valuable thing in the Rocket Companies. Cultivate that trust by always doing the right thing.

Doing the wrong thing is never worth it. We stick to the highest standard of integrity, without compromise.

Every client. Every time. No exceptions. No excuses.

People do not CARE how much you KNOW until they KNOW how much you CARE. Could it be any clearer? A great company is built one relationship at a time. AMAZE every client every chance you get. We don’t settle for only 90% of our clients being satisfied. Every client means 100% of our clients all of the time, not most of the time. Amaze them EVERY TIME. No exceptions. No excuses!

Responding with a sense of urgency is the ante to play.

Urgency is your inner compulsion and drive to get things done in a timely, yet thoughtful, manner. On this team, we return all calls, texts, chats, emails, etc. the same day. We are on the lunatic fringe. We are obsessed with responding ASAP. Not just to clients and partners, but to each other! There’s no other way, and no other option. You don’t have to wait until you have all the answers. It’s about acknowledging and setting expectations that you’re on it! Urgency motivates us to ensure we communicate all news fast, both good and bad. We take care of things, especially our clients and each other… NOW!

It’s not about who is right. It’s about what is right.

There is no place at our company for typical corporate arrogance. WHO is right (or WHO is wrong) is irrelevant and inconsequential to WHAT is the right decision or best outcome for the issue at hand. All decisions should be made with a single motivation: the right or best decision for our clients, team members and mission. Think about how much a company compromises itself by basing decisions on WHO is in favor or against something instead of WHAT is the best and right decision. The WHAT trumps the WHO in our shop.

We are the they.

There is no “they.” We are the “they.” United. All in the mission together. No corporate barriers. No boundaries. Just open doors, open minds, and an open culture rooted in trust.

We embrace the unique and amazing parts of our culture that come from encouraging each team member to be the best version of themselves in the Rocket Companies. We know that diverse ideas come from diverse voices.

Using the word “they” simply leads to a lack of empathy and blame-shifting. WE are all empowered to fix things, to be proactive, to find a solution. The most important thing is to remember we are all ONE TEAM, in this together.

We’ll figure it out.

We don’t need to have all the answers before we take on a project or launch a new and innovative idea. We have faith that when it comes to some of the details, we’ll figure it out along the way.

Building something new or creating something special is always messy, and greatness doesn’t always come in nice, tidy packages. This is an advantage, not a hindrance. We know that when it comes to tackling anything, we will band together with confidence and take on all necessary challenges. All our team members working together creates a team far greater than the sum of its parts.

We know that in the end, as a team, we’ll figure it out.

Innovation is rewarded. Execution is worshipped.

Ideas are fundamental to who we are. We encourage them. We love them. But ideas alone aren’t enough. It takes both ideas AND execution to make great things happen. It takes stamina and commitment to bring innovation to life.

Numbers and money follow; they don’t lead.

Money and numbers should be neither the ends nor the means. Ironically, the vast majority of those who chase money will never end up with much of it. Don’t spend all your focus on accolades, titles, and salaries. Instead, chase the great ideas. Stay true to the mission. Focus on the design, engineering and development of the vision. Invest in developing your skills, knowledge, and creativity. Approach the world, your career, and your life with a growth mindset. Pursue your vision with uncompromising passion and become the best. Numbers and money will follow.

A penny saved is a penny.

Your uncle’s advice, “A penny saved is a penny earned,” is the wrong focus. If you invest in chasing pennies, you will find pennies, but not much else. Not all value can be measured on a spreadsheet. Spend your energy on creating and growing your business, not squeezing every last cent. Sure, you might save a few pennies buying the cheapest coffee cups. But you’ll certainly ruin the experience if your clients and team members burn their hands! Chasing pennies suffocates your growth and vision, so stop limiting yourself with the silly pursuit of pennies. Prioritize creating value. The possibilities are limitless. The choice is yours.

Every second counts.

You will always invest your time somewhere doing something. As long as you are alive, it’s not a choice whether you invest your time or not; the only choice is what you will do with it. Time, not money, is the most valuable commodity of all. Time can never be replaced. Never trade significant amounts of time for small sums of money. How will you invest the 31,536,000 seconds you are gifted each year? Choose wisely.

Simplicity is genius.

Simplifying things in this fast-moving, complicated world is true genius. Simple design. Simple process. Simple communication. When we communicate with others, we cannot assume they know exactly what we know. Because of this, we boil things down to what really matters. Simplicity doesn’t just clarify; it makes things better for everybody. It’s that simple.

We eat our own dog food.

Tying the threads and making connections within our Rocket Companies is what it’s all about – that’s what we mean when we say, “We eat our own dog food.” The basis of all real impact is found in the strength of relationships. Create them. Seek them out. Build upon them. Be loyal to them. Here, we go to our internal people and products first. If your level of awareness is high, you will find an endless amount of opportunity – “dog food” – to leverage the family around you to create something amazing.

The packaging is just as important as the contents.

This is definitely the information age. An unimaginable amount of information is moving at all times: One to one, many to many, and many to one. Before we can even get an audience in today’s world, we need to interest them enough to take the time and effort to open the packaging to see the full content we’re communicating.

Once you have successfully engaged your audience, the true message can be delivered. We don’t want our audiences just KNOWING something in their heads, we want them UNDERSTANDING something in their hearts. When we talk about packaging, a physical box is only one example. This ISM applies to everything from font size to the look and feel of a presentation. It even applies to thoughtfully creating the application and closing documents for our clients because we know that’s where they spend their valuable time! SENT does not always mean RECEIVED. Excellent packaging of the message makes all the difference.